Charade

one.

"The sound of a million hearts breaking in despair was heard across the world today when Jesse Dunlap announced his engagement to rising American pop sensation Rebecca Eaton. Dunlap, 22, is the lead vocalist in British pop-punk band, Automatic December. Although Dunlap and the 21-year-old singer, who is considered to be America's sweetheart, have never been linked before, representatives for both parties confirm the couple is extremely excited about the engagement and hope their fans will be supportive as well. The British heartthrob, known as the playboy of the band as well as one of England's most eligible bachelors, was last linked to British television actress Sofia Jennings. In other news-"

Rebecca switched off the television and tossed the remote to the side, where it landed on the couch with a soft thud, still unable to believe this was actually happening. When her manager had first suggested that she enter a relationship for the sake of publicity, she had scoffed at the idea, but it had taken her a night of finishing a bottle of wine by herself while she looked herself up on the internet to find an appalling lack of content to realize that it needed to be done.

She had hit it big in the music industry about a year ago, and although she was just beginning to be the talk of all the elite music circles, her manager, Helen, believed that if Rebecca was linked to someone as famous as Jesse Dunlap, it would kick start her career even more. Thus, Helen had come up with the contract. Jesse and Rebecca would be engaged for a year before calling it off due to conflicting work schedules and the inability to spend enough time together. By the time the engagement was over, the publicity stunt would have worked its magic and both their album and tour sales would be through the roof.

Rebecca was shocked when the idea was proposed to her and even more surprised when she learned that Jesse had already agreed to it. Though, truthfully, he needed the image shift just as much as she did, if not more. Automatic December's management was concerned that Jesse's reputation of loving and leaving was starting to taint the band's image and tarnishing the public perception of the group. They needed to prove that Jesse could maintain a solid, stable relationship – at least for a little while. Despite having piercings and tattoos since he was a teenager, it wasn't until Jesse began a campaign of nightly club visits and random hookups two years ago that he was officially given the label of a bad boy.

Rebecca was the perfect solution. She was mild in terms of tabloid presence: she had never had bad press, never been the center of any kind of scandal. She was exactly the kind of girl Jesse needed to calm his wild ways; sweet and innocent and seemingly wholesome. At least that's what the headlines had read the morning the news of their engagement was announced to the press: "British bad boy Jesse Dunlap is finally tamed by Rebecca Eaton."

Tamed. She snorted at the thought as she stared out the window to her left, soaking in the sight of the sun setting against the London skyline. As if she could ever tame anybody. She had no powers over any kind of men. Especially not men like Jesse Dunlap.

A knock on her hotel room door brought her out of her reverie. Blinking a couple times, she pushed herself from the couch to answer it, pulling open the door to reveal her manager, Helen, who bustled in without saying hello.

"Come on in," Rebecca whispered sarcastically as her manager took a seat on one of the plump leather chairs in front of the television, apparently buzzing about something. As much as Rebecca was annoyed with Helen for getting her into this situation in the first place, she wouldn't trade her manager for anything. After all, she was practically the mother Rebecca never had.

Helen was bouncing in her chair, patting down her silver hair, worn in a pixie cut, when Rebecca turned from closing the door and the singer couldn't help but smile at her manager's excitement.