Secrets

Chapter Seven

One week later, Taylor found herself in yet another conference room in New York City. She sighed. The meeting had already lasted more than two hours with only a small coffee break, and she had eaten all the snacks she had brought. She was ready for lunch, however the meeting wasn't done yet.

At least this time she was not the most ill-informed person in the room. They were having a business meeting with people from her team and management about her upcoming schedule and the Australia leg of the tour that she wanted to do sometime next year and that she had to agree to dates and venues that were available.

Tree, who sat on her right, tapped her shoulder.

"What?" Taylor startled.

The red-haired woman next to her sighed.

"What are you day-dreaming about, Taylor? Pay attention. You've seemed out of it ever since the incident at your St Louis show, and I still don't understand what was going on" her publicist said with an accusatory tone in her voice.

"Don't worry. It's all good now. Trust me, there won't be more to it. The debate over it is now contained to the fans and not in the general public anymore. It's all rumors anyways and we're not giving them any more information, so they should stop talking about it sooner or later" Taylor assured her.

One of the men responsible for tour organization coughed and the two women looked up.

"Miss Swift, Miss Paine, is there anything more that needs to be discussed about the tour? We would like to stay on topic" he said.

"No, this was about something else. It had just come to our minds" Taylor said sharply.

She didn't like being interrupted and especially not by someone who worked for her, and not the other way round. She was always kind and understanding towards anyone who worked with her, but she knew that she was the boss and had the last word.

"Yes, Miss Swift. Excuse my interruption" the man replied.

"Anyways" Taylor continued.

"You can make reservations for those venues we talked about, but not book anything yet and I will not announce any more tour dates until the beginning of next year. I know I am expected to keep up with the two-year schedule of putting out a new album, but I haven't written any new songs yet. I'm going to be doing some appearances for the rest of the year, but not book any new ones."

Everyone looked at her surprised, but the men and women in the room duly took notes of whichever of Taylor's plan affected their work.

"Oh, and-" Taylor said and looked at Tree.

"I want the contract with that Chris dude to expire within the next two months. Make sure to tell him that. You can already think of articles to give to the media if they decide to slut-shame me again. Whatever. I'm gonna be single after this."

Tree just nodded and took notes. Her client did not have the best reputation in the public eye when it came to dating, which was why she had been hired. Taylor needed a better image than the 'serial-dater' she was accused of being. Her current contract with the young British actor had already been in effect when Tree had arrived, so now they would let it come to an end and push the 'happy and single' narrative. To be honest, Tree didn't like this part of her job, she wished that Taylor didn't have to have two types of relationships – a public and a private one. She didn't know a lot about her client's personal life since it was none of her business, literally, but she knew that the singer had gone through a break-up earlier this year. She was indeed single, but not happy as far as the publicist could tell.