hidden desires |lando norris|

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ringing filled zara's ears as she stirred awake, picking up her phone to turn off her alarm she frowned, gina her pr manager was calling her. she only ever calls when she's had bad press or she's congratulating her, which zara knew it would be the former as she hadn't had anything arranged yesterday. she accepted the call, voice still croaky from just waking up
"hello?"
ginas shuffling could be heard on the other side of the phone
" zara, what have i told you about going out with him, you were supposed to be at the cafe by yourself so it wouldn't seem like your sleeping around, not going out just you two"
zara already knowing who gina was on about fell back into her pillow all signs of previous worry leaving with a sigh
"gina were friends you can't just tell me not to see him because some tabloids think we're sleeping together, cee's my friend i'm not cutting him off cause there's a bit of bad press besides i was only with him cause i saw him there it's not like i invited him"
ginas annoyance could be heard through the phone
" i know zara but can you go out in groups or just not go out with him, he has a big image and part of that image as a rapper is to be sleeping around with girls like you and that does not help your case"
zara groaned, she had been dealing with press like this since she was young if she were ever to be seen with a boy the press would immediately start saying that there sleeping together which caused multiple problems for the girl.
" zara come to my office in two hours we'll sort something out "
another sigh left the girls lips
"alright, talk later gina"
as she hung up she looked at the time 07:28 she had till half nine to be in ginas office.
the girl was currently staying in her house in france as of her current schedule. she got up out of bed and headed straight for her shower craving the warm embrace of the water.
--
by the time zara was ready it was already nine so she would need to leave soon. she grabbed her bag making sure she had everything and put her airpods in, it was a nice enough morning to walk and ginas office was only 20 mins away.on the way there she was preparing herself for what gina and her manager blake would come up with, this had been a concern before with all the tabloids talking about who she could be seeing and if she's in a relationship with anyone. the presses favourite was by far central cee who happened to be a close friend of zara as they worked on music together and were from similar groups. they often went out together making it easy for the press to take pictures of them and run with it. blake and gina never came up with a long term solution and it would always end in zara not seeing most of her friends for weeks and just going out with girls. but it seemed gina was growing tired of this and wanted a long term solution to fix her image.
--
"hey zara, how are you?"
blake asked as she walked into the spacious room the three of them were in
" i'm alright could have been better if i didn't have to come in though"
she said with a tired smile, as much as she appreciated the work gina and blake put into her career and her online image she sometimes wished they would just leave it to be.
"so you know why we're here, and i think we need to come up with a more permanent solution"
gina started walking towards the table blake and zara were sat at
" to put it simply the press are painting you as a whore and that's not who big businesses want advertising them, so we need to find a way to make you seem more .. settled and.. committed"
zara frowned
"are you telling me i need to get a boyfriend to stop press talking about my sex life?"

blake looked at her guilty
"well it would really help and the press would be focused on you and your music more if they think your in a long committed relationship well at least till the end of the year and then we'll go over everything and see if we need to extend the deadline or not"
he said with a small smile zara's brows still furrowed
"are we sure there's no other solution, i don't want to be running round with someone i don't have interest in just to be taken more seriously"
this solution had been proposed before but then discarded as it wasn't very practical with her schedule

"zara now your schedules a bit more relaxed we thought it would help and nothing else is showing as promising"
gina tried to reason turning her body fully towards the girl
"well at least let me see who you've got in mind before agreeing"
zara wasn't all for it but if it's what it takes to save her career then she can put up with hanging of someone's arm for a few months
"yes! ok i'll sort out something and message you when i can, let's get the press back to your albums "
blake said with a wide smile spreading over his face.