SugarCOAT

72. Brain Teaser 🧩

Rochelle smiled at me from the laptop screen. "Here's my advice. Set boundaries and work with your team. You're still new to them. I'm sure the only time they really see you is when you have a meeting with them. Talk with them individually and tell them more about yourself - what you like, what kinds of interviews you are interested in doing, what kind of shows you'd like to perform on. That will eliminate the places you want to avoid. You have a story to tell as an artist, and you want the businesses that you associate with to align with who Jae A.B. is.

"I'm glad we revisited your contract, because you don't have to do music-only things. At this point, it would be great to do acting or modeling - things not associated with music so that RiSe cannot touch it."

I completely agreed. I sat in my chair in the corner of the room with the laptop in my lap. "Do you think I should get a personal assistant?"

"Do I think? I recommend you get a personal assistant AND a manager. That way it's you, your manager, and your team - not just you and Ricky's assistant telling you what's on the menu. Zeke really should be your manager, but he has too much going on himself, but he knows that if people knew he helped you, they would discredit your talent."

"I hate that," I stated.

"That's the business," Rochelle stated. "Before I go, I do want you to talk to your team about a release date for your album. You have a two year contract with RiSe Records. They could easily push your album back to the very last year of your contract, forcing you to sign another one with way more stipulations."

Rochelle is on it! "I'm going to do everything you just told me. Also, I don't know if you're aware of the scandal at RiSe..."

"I am!" Rochelle chuckled.

I sighed, "Ever since that happened, I've been feeling like... I could be next."

"What do you mean?"

I looked out the window. It was such a pretty day. The pool looked inviting, too. "It's just this feeling that I could be the one that they put in a negative light."

"Do you have anything other than your true identity that people can hold against you?" Rochelle asked me.

I shrugged, "I mean, Zeke and I pretended to have a relationship, but we didn't even go public with it."

She asked, "Do you have something on someone else?"

I froze before answering, "Actually, I think that's what it is. Zeke's old assistant used to work for Ricky and Anaya. She even had a relationship with Ricky. Even though I wasn't really close with her, she knows what I look like. She knows about me and Zeke - or she at least thought we were a real couple. With her still being out there, I just think she's not done. I also feel like Aja Frost could be working on something along with Anaya. My gut feeling is that Anaya is trying to break me to fit into this lane that she thinks I should be in. It's really stressing me out. Before I forget, I have receipts. I just don't know what to do with them or how to put it all together."

"I don't mean to cut you off, but ma'am you are speculating a lot. I am not saying that your feelings are invalid. If this will help you, I want you to send me all the factual evidence that you have along with dates and timestamps if possible."

"I can do that today," I told her.

Rochelle smiled, "Good. If you send it by tonight. I can look through it and give you my thoughts on it by Saturday morning. I'll call you."

I gave her two thumbs up. "Perfect."