"As long as you’re cool with it?" Liam asked me.
"It’s fine."
Like almost everything else when it came to Liam, I didn't really have a reason to say no, aside from the fact that being around him perpetually knocked me off balance.
Emily perched on the arm of a sofa and crossed her legs with a straight back. Her expression turned serious as she flicked on the tape recorder.
"First," she said, "Can we talk about some of your musical influences?"
"I've always been a big fan of the bandI'll Never Say," I said. "I've always looked up to their female lead singer."
"I've never heard of them," Emily said.
"They’re a bit more obscure," I told her. "And they broke up a few years ago. When I heard that they were going their separate ways, I think I moped in my bedroom for a week straight."
"And what about you?" Emily asked the others. "What bands do you guys look up to?"
"You can never go wrong with the big names," Gael said. "Metallica, AC/DC, The Stones."
"Us too," Seth nodded. "Julian’s the one who introduced me to rock music, and he’s a big fan of the classics."
Emily nodded and jotted down some notes.
"Next question. Can one of you explain the meaning behind the name Cherry Lips?"
I tensed up. I’d been asked this before, and I had a lie ready to go, but this time was different. Liam was in the room. He would know immediately I was making it up. Would he call me on it?
The guys looked at me expectantly. I was always the one who answered this question. I felt Liam's eyes on burning into me.
"My name means cherry in French," I said. "And, as the lead singer, I thought using the word lips was an appropriate choice."
That was the easy answer of course, but Emily just nodded and made another mark on her paper. Liam shifted in his seat with an amused smile but he didn't say anything out loud. He was happy to let the fib go unchallenged. I continued with my explanation.
"Maybe it's kind of a narcissistic thing to do, naming your band after yourself. But I’m not the first artist to do it. I'm sure you can tell I sort of have a theme going." I gestured to my hair with fingers tipped in cherry-red nail polish.
"I had noticed you seem to like that color," Emily laughed. With her curiosity satisfied, she turned the conversation to another topic.
"Cerise," Emily said, turning to me with a determined look. "I want to ask you about something more serious."
My shoulders hunched up to my ears before I forced them to relax. I didn't want to seem on edge. I just had to hope she wasn't going to bring up those awful rumors. If she did, I didn't know if I’d be able to keep calm enough not to embarrass myself.
"Go ahead," I told her.
She leaned forward, as if getting closer to me physically would help her get closer to me in a more personal way.
"Can we touch on what it's like to be a woman in the music industry?" she asked. "I'm sure there are challenges you face that your band members don't, especially considering you’re in the rock genre."
That wasn’t a bad question to ask. She wasn't bringing up the gossip directly, but she was giving me a way to address the hardships that came with my career choice.
"It's tough," I said. "Truthfully, you're right when you say I have to deal with a lot of stuff my brother and the other guys don't. It's hard to be taken seriously. People always underestimate you, patronize you. You have to work twice as hard at everything. The industry is still male dominated, and it can be really tough as a woman to break into it. That being said," I continued, "there are a lot of female musicians who have come before me who have broken through that glass ceiling. They’ve paved the way for other girls like me to follow in their footsteps, and I'm eternally grateful for that."
Emily smiled at me and nodded emphatically. "I totally get what you mean," she said. "I experienced something similar as an independent journalist."
The interview continued as Emily quizzed us on the meanings behind our lyrics, the process we went through to write songs, and other questions that had to do with the techniques and nitty-gritty details of our work. There were no mentions of gossip or rumors. She was completely professional, just as Gael had promised me she would be.
And then she said something that made my stomach drop.
"Can you tell me a bit about your love lives?"
