I found myself back in Walt's conference room, this time my agent didn't have much admiration or enthusiasm for me. I slouched down in my chair, feeling emotionally and physically exhausted. I wore large-framed, black sunglasses to hide my bloodshot, puffy eyes, a result from crying all night after Nate stormed out.
Reed sat across from me, his long hair slightly unruly. It appeared like he might've woken up from a deep sleep and dragged himself out of bed to make the early, emergency meeting without any time to prepare or retrieve any caffeine. He basically stared down at his lap, in a fog, not making eye contact with anyone.
Lily sat next to me, giving Walt her undivided attention.
Walt paced back and forth at the head of the table, making me slightly dizzy from his constant movement. I would've characterized my state as catatonic, barely able to listen to anyone and unable to contribute anything to the conversation.
"You just had to go behind my back and do it, didn't you?" Walt declared, furious at the situation Reed and I had put ourselves in. "You own this, now! Who knows when I will be able to fix this mess?"
"It was my fault, don't blame Nicky," Reed piped in, throwing himself on the sword for me.
"I'm sure we can figure something out," Lily said with optimism in her voice.
"Do you have anything to say, Nicky?" Walt asked, glaring at me like he was trying to penetrate through my dark lenses.
I simply shook my head. I was in no shape to make any life decisions.
"Ok, then here's what's going to happen," he paused then continued, "I don't know why, but it seems the fans actually like you two lovebirds together. So, we will give them what they want."
"What do you mean?" Lily asked.
"These two wanted to be together so badly, they got their wish," he said pointing at Reed and I.
"But they're not together anymore," Lily clarified.
"I understand that, but they are now," he emphatically declared.
"What do you mean?" Reed asked.
"You will go out, be seen together. You will smile and be the perfect couple," he paused to take a breath, " Then, after a couple months, you'll make a joint statement. You've decided that you're better off as friends. You both are more focused on your careers than on your personal life, but you will always respect and admire one another."
Walt actually smiled, proud of his ingenuity on the fly.
"I can't do that," I whispered, thinking only about Nate's feelings.
I called and texted his cell in between my sob fests the night before. I even called his hotel and found out he had already checked out.
Reed glanced over at me, obviously aware of my fragile state.
"Can't we just tell the truth now and say it just didn't work out?" he said, trying to be overly accommodating to my needs.
"Have you seen the pictures, Reed?" Walt asked. "You can't scrub your relationship from the internet. It's there forever. The tabloids won't buy that you just broke up. You're the talk of the town right now. A happy couple is boring. A breakup ignites gossip, and the tabloids will dig deeper," he assertively said.
"Nicky will do whatever you need her to do," Lily said, speaking for me even if I didn't like what she said.
"Reed, I think you should consider having Lily help you out on this," he suggested.
Reed agreed he was probably overdue for some assistance with publicity and with his personal schedule. Lily was all too eager to help him and add another client to her roster.
Walt immediately had Lily draft a statement for us. Reed and I admitted we were in a relationship, but also stated we felt very violated by tabloid reporters who trespassed on private property and snapped personal photos of the two of us without our permission.
Lily's letter took care of one problem, the other lingering issue was how the reporters obtained the pictures in the first place. On multiple occasions, someone had followed Reed to my house. The photos Nate initially saw online were of Reed delivering the barn beam to me and him leaving my studio on multiple occasions as I stood in the doorway, kissing him goodbye wearing practically nothing.
Every angle of those events were captured and seen by everyone, including Nate.
When I arrived home from Walt's, Lily drove me right to my studio, instead of stopping in at the farmhouse to see my father. I tried avoiding him, because I was embarrassed by the entire situation, but that didn't last long. My dad was standing in the driveway with a couple workers from the security company as we parked in front of the barn.
When I stepped out of the car, all I wanted to do was go inside and curl up in a ball on my bed and sleep for days. With the commotion outside, that was not going to happen as fast I would've liked.
Lily walked towards my dad and spoke to him about all the details going into securing the entire premises. From afar, he glanced over at me, flashing me a reassuring smile, like he had the situation under control and that he wasn't mad at the public scandal that was brewing.
Lily walked back towards me and informed me that everything would be on lockdown. My father had cameras placed everywhere and a new gate would be installed at the main entrance to the farm. No one would be able to drive or walk on the property without security knowing right away.
I should've felt relieved, but I couldn't muster any strength to even care, the damage had already been done.
"Do you want some coffee?" Lily said, switching gears to being just my best friend at that moment and not an employee.
She tried navigating around my kitchen as I laid on the couch.
"No, I just want to talk to Nate," I said crying into a pillow.
Lily walked over and put her arm around me.
"I know, Nicky. If I could fix this, I would. It's just going to take a little more time," she admitted. "Even if Nate forgave you, do you think he could just look the other way and be fine with you pretending to be in a serious relationship with one of the hottest musicians on the planet?" she asked.
As she tried to reason with me, my phone rang. I immediately jumped up and grabbed it to see if it was Nate. It was just Walt. Disappointed, I handed the phone to Lily and laid back down on the couch.
The first week of being in my new, public relationship, I was still in a major funk. Nate hadn't reached out at all, even though I texted him every day, divulging everything that was said and done to perpetuate the fake relationship.
He made me feel guilty I didn't tell him the entire truth before this whole disaster blew up in my face so I decided to be honest and open even if he never responded back. My secret hope was to eventually make him see, he was the person I cared about most in my life and no one else.
Reed and I, as a couple, had many public appearances after the news broke we were official. Fans renamed us, "Ricky," a combo of our first names. Both of us were not a big fan of the new nickname, and Walt cringed every time he heard it.
We shopped and made coffee runs together. We smiled for the cameras and held hands, like a normal couple would do. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't a hard assignment to pull off. Reed was an amazing person and spending time with him was not a chore. We probably wouldn't have been, "acting," if Nate hadn't re-entered the picture, but I couldn't just disregard my feelings, even if that would've been the easiest thing to do.
I opened up to Reed even more, telling him everything about Nate. After he knew how much I cared about my ex-best friend, he completely understood, especially with the amount of history Nate and I had with one another.
As Walt tried keeping our reputations intact, he wanted us to participate in an interview together to set the record straight. We made an appearance on one of the top radio stations in Nashville and allowed fans to ask questions. Of course, we received the typical invasive questions over and over, including were Reed and I in love? Reed glanced over during the interview and noticed the panic on my face, like I was literally drowning and couldn't be saved.
He sweetly placed his hand on mine to give me a boost and show me his support.
He leaned in my ear and whispered, "We just have to play the game, and then we can get back to our music."
With those words of wisdom, Reed took over the conversation and answered almost every question after that.
"We totally understand why fans are interested in asking those types of questions," he replied, "Every day, we live in the public eye. We hoped some things would stay private, you know, between Nicky and I. All I can say is she makes me very happy," he said with a smile.
"Yes, we are very happy," I finally chimed in.
From that day forward, I realized I wasn't alone. Reed and I were in this together, and we would get out of it together.