Professional Publicity Stunt » Shawn Mendes✔️

zero: how it begins.

A/N: So this first part is in third person because I thought I was going to write this entire story that way but changed my mind by the time I got to the next part (as I always do). So this is the only one in third person, it will switch to first person (from Rylie) in the next chapter and from then on. Enjoy.

Rylie Banes has wanted to do one thing since she was young: travel. Being raised in a small town in the middle of nowhere will do that to a person.

But if someone had told her she would get to travel the world while having fake relationships with celebrities every few months, well, she would have told them to go to hell. And yet, at 22 years old, this is her life.

Toward the end of March, around two months after she had returned home from a different publicity relationship, Rylie receives a call from her manager, Sidney.

"Shawn Mendes?" She repeats the name as she sits down at her desk, opening her laptop.

On the other end, Sidney answers her. "Sound familiar?"

Rylie nods as she types in Shawn's name into the search bar. "Weirdly familiar. He's a singer, right?"

"An insanely famous singer," Sidney emphasizes. "And he has an album coming out in May."

Rylie raises her eyebrows as she clicks on the images tab in her browser. "That's soon," she comments, raising her eyebrows. She pauses to scroll through some photos, a smile crawling onto her face without her realizing it. "Aww, he's a cutie."

"So you want him?"

"Well, Sid, when you say it like that it makes it weird," she chuckles, "but yeah." She leans back in her chair, spinning around to face her empty living room. "It's been a while since I left this apartment."

"How long?"

Rylie knows she shouldn't have said those words the second she said them. She nearly rolls her eyes when Sidney says her name, pressing his earlier question.

"A week?" He pauses, and Rylie swears she can practically see the incredulity on his face. "Two weeks?"

"No, god, I'm not that much of a caveman. I had lunch with Kate last Thursday."

Sidney's silence was deafening. "That was two Thursday's ago."

"What? How would you know?"

"Because I asked if we could have lunch that day and you said you had plans."

I cross my arms over my chest. "Fine. So it's been two weeks."

"Rylie—"

"Can we just— I'm assuming I'm leaving soon to be with Shawn Mendes for a couple weeks. So tell me more about him. What's he got coming up?"

Sidney sighs heavily, his indirect way of telling Rylie that they will be discussing this later. And Rylie knows that. But she also knows that they've had that same conversation many times before, and each time it has got them nowhere. So she isn't worried.

Instead she listens to Sidney tell her about Shawn.

He's releasing a single called "In My Blood" tomorrow — and another called "Lost In Japan" that hasn't been announced to the public just yet, but will come out Friday. The two are supposedly off his upcoming album, that doesn't have a set title yet. He's performing on the Late Late Show next Wednesday — a performance she'll probably have to attend.

It's the typical story Rylie always hears. A singer has a new album being released soon, an actor has a new movie or show being aired soon, and on and on. And they are never in the public eye, so this gives the media something to talk about. Promotion and publicity: the two things Rylie have become good at in the past few years since she started doing this.

"Your flight leaves tomorrow morning—"

"Where am I going?"

"New York," Sidney replies. "Shawn will be there for a meeting with his label about the album, and that will be when his team tells him about you."

"Oh, great. They're going to drop the bomb right before I walk in, I'm guessing?"

Rylie can almost hear Sidney's smile. "All in the nature of business, darling."

"Yeah, yeah," Rylie laughs. "I'll be preparing myself for a yelling-fest."

"Shawn is mellow, I don't think you'll need to expect any yelling."

Rylie raises her eyebrows. "So some passive aggressive side glances. Got it."

"Rylie—"

"Have you ever met the guy?"

"Many times, yes."

"And he seemed nice?"

"Very."

Rylie purses her lips. "That was before he knew he was going to be a victim of a publicity stunt, though."

"Yes, well—"

"I'll prepare myself for some yelling and some passive aggressive side glances."

Sidney sighs again. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

That causes Rylie to laugh loudly. "I'm sorry," she says, but doesn't totally sound sincere. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"He has never had a...public relationship before."

She pauses, pinching the bridge of her nose. "And that is my note to self to stay away from social media for the next month. Thanks."

Most of the guys Rylie have hung around have had these types of things before. So for starters, it was easier. They treated it as a fling — because that's all it is. And the guys understood that. And because their dating record wasn't exactly the cleanest, the fans weren't all out of whack with her hanging around for a month and disappearing. It was almost normal for them to witness and shrug off. Granted, some of them did become enamored with the whole thing and she would catch a few nice comments about how sweet they looked together. But Rylie tried not to look at those too much. She has a strict No Feelings policy with herself when it comes to these relationships and seeing those positive comments from fans never help. Because yeah, they did look cute together. She'll give the fans that. But if the fans only knew the truth – how they hung out, but she's getting paid for it – then they wouldn't be thinking the same nice things about the relationship.

But with every new piece of information Rylie is given about Shawn, it's clear this one will be different. And a little difficult. Well, maybe not difficult, but an adjustment for sure.

He's never done one of these, so she'll have to dust off some of her teaching skills the first time they have a moment alone. Let him know how it normally goes, what to expect, what's okay and what's totally up to him, how to make it look real without feeling pressured, and so on and so forth. Lay down the ground rules, basically, because there are rules to this. One of them being: sex is not required, so if it does ever transpire, it is because they both want to, not that she has to do it in order to get her check at the end of the month. She hates to admit that she has run into a few relationships where the guy didn't always agree with this, which led to Sidney swooping in and getting her out of there as soon as possible.

It'll be different, to take things from the beginning this time. But hopefully a good different. The last couple times she has done this, they really have just jumped right into it. The guys were normally getting over a relationship or still pining for their exes, so she was there to fill the space and help them feel again, even if for a few weeks. But it's just a fling, and really, in those situations, it truly was a fling. They often went back to their exes or found a long-lasting relationship months later, and she would watch them finally get to be happy.

So, to be tasked with getting the current teen heart throb some publicity is going to be...different. But not something she can't handle.