He looks at me, searching my face. I widen my eyes and hope that gets the message across.
‘But I’ve got some edits to finish today, so I’ll have to give it a miss this time,’ Luc finishes.
‘No worries at all,’ Jess smiles, and then it turns into a smirk. ‘I’ll leave you to it. I’ll have a coffee if you’re makingone.’ She gestures to the cafetière on the counter behind me, the ground coffee sitting dry in the bottom. When Jess leaves the room, Luc and I stare at each other from our new locations.
‘Do you have sugar? I can never remember,’ I stammer, avoiding eye contact. I drop a spoon as soon as I pick it up and it clatters on the side.
‘Depends on the day. None today, thanks,’ Luc responds.
I’m sure I hear Jess laughing from the living room. ‘I’ll have a sugar today, please,’ she calls. Is she making fun of us?
‘You always have sugar,’ I point out.
Once the coffee is ready, I pour all three of us a cup, taking Jess’s through to the living room with Luc close behind me.
‘We’ve decided for pre-sale, Sienna, to surprise anyone who either pre-ordered the album or who was already registered to your newsletter before the album was announced with a code to access a super-exclusive pre-sale,’ Jess says.
‘That’s a great idea.’ I take a mouthful of my coffee. ‘Good for PR.’ I join Jess on the sofa but Luc hovers, standing near the record player.
‘Anyone would think that’s my job,’ Jess laughs. She doesn’t look up. ‘You can sit down, Lucas.’
He perches on the armchair next to the sofa.
Jess gestures to the papers scattered across the coffee table. ‘If you’re looking at these plans now, I’ll have to get you to sign an NDA,’ Jess warns him.
‘I’m keeping an entire fake relationship a secret for Sienna, I think you can trust me.’
I glance at Luc and then back at Jess. ‘He won’t say anything.’
‘Now, you know the UK and Europe leg of the tour started at the beginning of November originally. This has now been brought forward to the middle of October due to huge demand overnight,’ Jess explains. ‘We’ll be announcing thedates later on today, but tickets go on sale a month-ish from now.’
‘Middle of October is soon,’ I tell her, at the same time as Luc says, ‘How have you managed to schedule a tour at that time of the year, with the football season, and everything?’
Jess frowns at him. ‘She’s Sienna Martin.’
Luc shrugs. ‘Fair point.’
Jess turns to me, ‘Actually, it’s still pretty far away in the grand scheme of things.’
She can’t know that I’m thinking about the end of the arrangement. That mine and Luc’s end date is now weeks earlier than it previously was. Alarm bells ring.
‘Is that enough time to finish choreography and rehearsals and… everything?’ We’d started them when we did thinking the tour would start in November.
Jess nods. ‘I’ve also managed to get Colin and all the other money grabbers at the label to turn off dynamic pricing for tickets.’
A quick exhale of breath escapes my mouth. ‘Thank fuck for that.’
It’s Luc’s turn to frown.
‘It’s when a ticket seller – I mean like the official ticket seller for the tour not, like, a scalper – automatically raises their prices to hundreds of pounds for a ticket right at the top of the stadium. Just based on the demand in the virtual queue,’ I explain. ‘So, like, when the pre-sale starts, a ticket in the top level of Wembley might be seventy pounds, but by the time general sale opens it might be more than two hundred for the same seat.’
‘And who would want to make more money?’
‘I don’t want to be crass, Luc,’ I say. ‘But I don’t need the extra money. And if those prices are the difference between someone who was a fan from the beginning getting tickets or not, then I don’t want to raise the prices.’ I pick up my pen and start drawing in the top corner of my notebook. ‘I’mhappy with seats at the top of the stadium being a standard seventy pounds. I would go cheaper if the venues let me.’
‘Yeah, we also don’t want to see any articles about how Sienna is ripping people off plastered all over the tabloids.’ Jess shakes her head. ‘PR disaster.’
‘I just want people to be able to see and enjoy my music. I don’t want to price anyone out.’
