Fire and Ice

Chapter 3

"Pepper! Pep- There you are!" Krist's voice boomed in my small- well huge- room. I had been trying to hide under my bed but it was useless. Krist was going to do it. I never expected it from him, but he was going to do it. He was going to take me to yet another meeting. 

"Come here, Pep. We have a big meeting today." He told me, as he picked me up, ignoring my struggles. It had been five weeks of these meetings with publicists and managers, and it was of no use. All those things were still being said about Krist because of Victoria Rhode.

The drive to Krist's office was longer than usual, or so it seemed. When we got there, everybody was already waiting for us.

"Sorry, I am late, I couldn't find Pepper." Krist looked down at me.

"That is fine, actually, I have some good news," Olive smiled. It was very odd seeing Olive smile, because usually he had a frown resting on his face. "Emily decided to take our offer after all."

"Cool." Was Krist's reply. Everybody thought he would be happier. Krist's reply seemed to put  damper on everybody's  mood.

"Krist, this is amazing news. We have almost nothing to worry about now!" Olive said.

"Yeah, thank you for doing it." 

"I thought you'd be a lot more excited?"

"Yeah, it's just- Emily and I got off the wrong foot, that's it. Nothing to worry about."

"Oh, okay. Well, you have a meeting with her tomorrow."

"Okay, so what exactly are we going to collaborate on?"

"Well, she has a clothing line, right? So we were thinking we could do some pieces inspired by your songs and albums. We are still figuring that out."

"What are Emily and I going to discuss, then?"

"I was thinking that both of you should get to know each other better. You'll be working in close capacity for months now. And, let's not forget, all of this is for your reputation. So, we have to really sell your friendship to the public."

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I was pretty excited for today. We were going to see Emily and I liked her. I really hoped Krist would too. Thankfully, we did not have to wait for a long time, like before, when we reached her office. She was already seated at her desk, checking her computer. 

"Hello, Emily." Krist greeted her as we entered.

"Hello." She replied, without smiling. Krist was standing awkwardly, me by his side. "Take a seat." She finally said, looking up from her screen. Krist pulled up a chair, and sat down, without looking at Emily. I jumped on the chair adjacent to Krist's. Seeing this, Emily commented.

"He is such a smart dog. What's his name?" She smiled.

"Pepper." Krist answered looking at me with pride.

"That is a nice name." Emily smiled looking at me. I could see in her eyes that she was fond of dogs.

"So, you changed your mind about me? You decided I am not the villian?" Krist asked her. I expected Emily to answer with a 'yes' or maybe a witty comment about how she was going to give him a shot but her answered surprised me.

"Um, okay, I am only saying this because I don't want there to be any misunderstandings between us," She sighed, "But not really. I only accepted your offer of collaboration because my publicist owed your publicist a favor. And Rachel happens to be my friend, so I helped her."

Krist only nodded his head in response. They sat in silence for a long time, even Emily was not working on her computer, they simply refused to talk. 

"Well, I have a recording session in half an hour so I should leave," Krist said after what felt like hours, "It was nice meeting you, I guess." I knew Krist was lying about the recording session, he did not have anything lined up for today, but I could not blame him, it was getting very awkward in there for both Emily and Krist.

"You too," Emily smiled a smile of relief.