Dana had also bugged Scarlett about Gaby, since she had (correctly) picked up that Scarlett was giving Gaby the cold shoulder. The truth was, Scarlett had concluded that Gaby had to be the one who had sold out her and Liam to Gossip. It was the only explanation. The question was, why? Madison was a ruthlessly conniving bitch. But Gaby was…Gaby. What could have been her motive? Scarlett had to admit that the realization kind of hurt—actually, really hurt—since she had grown to think of Gaby as a friend.
Fortunately, Scarlett had brought Chelsea from school; her trainer, Deb; and a couple of Deb’s friends to the party. At least she’d had some people to hang out with. They’d even agreed to sign releases and wear mikes, although they’d complained (good-naturedly) about them.
Scarlett wondered how much more of this show she could take. Trevor hadn’t spoken to her yet about her contract for the second season. Maybe he was planning to fire her, after all, either because of Liam, or because of her general inability to “play well with others.” That was just who she was. And if Trevor and Dana and the rest of them couldn’t deal with it…well, that was their problem. Scarlett had done nothing to hide who she really was when she met them. Maybe getting fired would be a blessing in disguise.
Her cell continued to ring. Why wasn’t the call going to voice mail? Annoyed, Scarlett glanced at the screen.
It was Liam.
Scarlett quickly pressed Talk. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Hey!”
They hadn’t spoken in over a week, since the day the Gossip story broke. Liam hadn’t called or texted, and she had decided to give him some space. After a few days, though, that space had seemed more like a void. Not knowing how to deal with it, she had thrown herself into her schoolwork, spending most of her nights at the library. She had written a fascinating twenty-page paper on Petrarchan sonnets (only ten pages were required), researched the entire history of the British monarchy, and learned how to conjugate compound tenses in French.
She had also finished rereading Wuthering Heights, which had unfortunately made her think of Liam even more. In the novel, the heroine, Catherine, and the decidedly unconventional Heathcliff were passionately in love, but Catherine was afraid of that passion and had ended up with a more conventional guy instead. It was like Scarlett’s worst nightmare.
“Is this a bad time?” Liam asked her.
“Not at all. Just got home from the Valentine’s Day party at the Roosevelt.”
“Oh, yeah, the party-by-the-pool scene. How was it?”
“The usual. Actually, better than the usual. Jane did a great job. Uh, and Gaby, too.” Scarlett hadn’t told Liam yet about her suspicion that Gaby was the source.
“Sorry I missed it.”
“You would’ve liked it. So what’s up?” Scarlett got out of the car and started walking toward the elevators. She wondered why he was calling her now, after such a long silence.
“Yeah, so I’m in bed with the flu or something.”
“Oh! Sorry to hear that.” His voice did sound a little raspy.
“No, it’s okay. I was only telling you that to explain.”
“Explain what?”
“Explain why I haven’t come by to talk to you in person.”
“Talk to me…about what?”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.” Liam hesitated. “About us.”
Oh.
“I know that our relationship is complicated,” he went on.
“Yeah, kinda.”
“I’m a pretty private person. And despite the fact that you are on a reality show, I think you are, too. But we don’t have any privacy anymore.”
“I’m sorry about that. And I’m sorry about your job.” Scarlett figured apologies were futile at this point—she was totally about to get dumped. But she was sorry and she wanted him to believe that.
“Me too. But you know what? I don’t care. I don’t care how complicated this is. I don’t care if we have to deal with photographers. I don’t care if our pictures are in all the magazines. I really like you and I want to be with you. Like, all the time.”
Scarlett practically dropped the phone.
A few months ago, hearing those words from a guy would have made her abruptly change the subject…or run…or both. Now, hearing them from Liam, all she wanted to do was get back in her car, drive to his apartment, and throw her arms around him.
But instead, she settled for the next-best thing. “I really like you, too,” she confessed. “A lot.”
“You…do?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m so glad to hear that.”
“You are?”
“Yeah.”
Scarlett started laughing, because the two of them sounded so cute and dumb at the same time, like something out of a Trevor Lord–produced love scene. Except that this love scene wasn’t produced. It was real, it was right now, and it was happening in the most un–L.A. Candy setting possible—she in a parking garage, Liam sick at home—and there wasn’t a single camera or microphone to document the moment.
Liam started laughing, too. And then the laughter turned into a massive coughing fit.
“Oh, God! You sound awful. You want me to come over with some chicken soup or something?” Scarlett offered.
Liam cleared his throat. “That’s really sweet, but I don’t want you to catch whatever this is. Maybe if I’m feeling a little better tomorrow?”
“Okay.”
“Wow, so you know how to make chicken soup?”
“Yeah, with the can opener and everything.”
Liam chuckled. “So I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”
“’Kay. Feel better.”
Scarlett smiled and leaned against the elevator door, listening to the pounding of her heart, just letting the incredible cosmic shift that had just occurred in her universe settle in.
Forget like. She was pretty sure she was in love.
Scarlett didn’t know what to make of the barking coming from inside the apartment. She just stood outside her door, confused. Obviously, she was hearing things. She didn’t have a dog. So why would there be a dog in her apartment? Liam didn’t have a dog, either—or a key to her apartment, and besides, as of five minutes ago, he was at home, sick in bed with the flu. Maybe it was the neighbors’ dog?
She clutched her cell in one hand as she unlocked the door with the other, poised to call 911, just in case. She pushed the door open a crack and cautiously peered in.
Yup. It was definitely a dog. It was medium-size, with a long nose and big ears and soft-looking beige-and-brown fur. It was cute. It pushed its nose up to the crack of the door and started sniffing her.
How had it gotten into her apartment?
“Um…good doggy?” Scarlett took a couple of baby steps into the front hall and reached out a tentative hand.
“You’re home!”
Scarlett let out a scream. There was a person in her apartment, too.
She saw a familiar face peeking out from the living room.
Jane? What was she doing here? Scarlett was even more surprised to see her than the random dog, who was now licking her hand.
Jane was dressed in her blue jammies and holding a steaming mug of something that smelled like old, rotten leaves. “Hey! I’m sorry if I scared you,” she apologized.
“It’s fine. Um, how did you get in?”
“I still have a key. Sorry. I kept meaning to give it back.”
“It’s okay.” The dog was now sniffing at Scarlett’s shoes. “Who’s this?”
“His name’s Tucker. I adopted him from the shelter. Cute, huh?”
“Yeah, he’s beautiful.”
Scarlett bent down to pet Tucker, who panted and wagged his tail in response. She had about a million questions to ask Jane, and at the same time, she was at a complete loss for words. She was feeling so many emotions jumbled together: happiness, surprise, curiosity, confusion. Jane was the last person she had expected to see tonight, under these ci
rcumstances.
“So.” Jane sat down on the cream carpet, cross-legged, and stroked Tucker’s fur. She took a sip of her funky-smelling tea. “I came here to apologize.”
“Apologize?”
“Yeah. Because you were right about Madison.”
Scarlett stared at her in disbelief. She had been waiting forever to hear those words. “How’d you…What made you change your mind?”
“D told me tonight that she was the one behind the pictures. He found a bunch of emails between her and Veronica, on Veronica’s computer.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. They were pretty awful.”
“Ohmigod. I’m so sorry, Jane.”
“You’re sorry? I’m the one who should be sorry. I should have believed you from the beginning.” Jane smiled bitterly. “She was soooo sweet to me, you know? In Mexico and after we got back. She acted like she was my big sister or something. She was acting the whole time. Just so she could find out personal stuff about me to tell Veronica.”
“Why?”
“So Veronica would publish pieces about her.”
“What a bitch!”
“Yeah.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’ll get over it. I just feel so dumb. I should have listened to you.”
“Don’t feel dumb!” Scarlett told her.
Jane took a deep breath. “There were emails about you, too. And Liam.”
“Oh.” Guess I owe Gaby an apology, too, Scarlett thought. She had obviously been wrong, suspecting her. “I was way too pushy with you about Madison—and Jesse, too. I wouldn’t have listened to me, either. I should have just let you figure this stuff out yourself.”
“Well…I guess I did.”
“Yeah, I guess you did.”
Scarlett got down on the floor, next to Jane. They sat there for a while, just petting Tucker and not speaking, as though they were letting the emotional dust of all their drama settle. There had been so much drama these past few months: Madison…the show…reporters…Jesse…Braden…Liam. And most of all, their fourteen-year-old friendship almost coming to an end.
Scarlett wanted to tell Jane all about Liam. She also wanted to ask her if the rumor was true that she and Jesse had broken up. But there would be plenty of time for catching up later.
“So I’m guessing you need a place to live?” Scarlett said. “Because I’ve been looking for a roommate, and if I remember correctly, you’re pretty good roommate material. Except when you leave the coffeemaker on every morning…or eat all my leftover lo mein…or shrink my favorite navy V-neck in the dryer.”
Jane cracked up. “Ha, ha. I get it: I’m an awful roommate. But, Scar, I think I’m the best you can do.”
Scarlett laughed and gave a little shrug. “You’re probably right.”
“What about Tucker? Can he live with us, too?”
“Sure. He and I are besties now. See?” Scarlett leaned toward him, and he started licking her face.
Jane giggled. “Yeah, well, just hide your shoes, because he likes to snack on them.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“Hey, Scar? I’m glad you asked me to move back in, because I kinda already did.”
“What?”
“Well, Penny’s back in her old spot. And Tucker already took a nap on your bed. I think that’s gonna be his new favorite place to sleep. You don’t mind, do you?”
Scarlett smiled. Not only did she not mind…she was happier than she had been in forever. She had Liam back. She had Jane back. And eventually, she would figure out what to do about season two. Her problems with Trevor and the rest of it seemed insignificant now. Everything was falling into place.
Tonight was definitely a night of cosmic shifts.
40
SEASON TWO
Trevor leaned back in his chair, staring at the sparkling stretch of L.A. night sky outside his office window. He never got tired of this view. He loved watching dreary downtown Los Angeles, with its smoggy sky and dirty streets, transform into something so beautiful.
Funny that the same view could look so different at two separate moments. But it was something Trevor could understand. It was what he did. He captured moments. And like this view, he knew that the best ones were worth waiting for.
He’d been gazing at this view at the exact moment he had come up with the idea for L.A. Candy last June. There was something about it—its glamour, its energy, its sense of endless possibilities—that had spoken to him, and that had inspired him to create an entire show following the lives of ordinary girls against the backdrop of this extraordinary city.
He thought about that moment, and about everything that had happened since then. Starting with the first shoot in September, he had wanted to maintain an “invisible hand” approach to production. After all, it was reality TV, and he had wanted to keep it real. It hadn’t always worked with his other shows, but he wanted this one to be different.
But he hadn’t counted on all the ways in which things could go out of control—out of his control. Jane and Braden. Scarlett and Liam. And Jesse’s nosedive into a vodka bottle. Sure, Jesse had always been a drunk. But his descent this time had been unprecedented.
And now…Jane had gotten herself a “team” and had a lot more demands, namely no future scenes with Jesse or Madison. In fact, he was still negotiating her damned season two contract with her damned agent. Trevor rubbed his eyes wearily. God. Why was this happening? A Jane-and-Jesse breakup scene would be great for ratings. Unfortunately, it had happened off-camera. And their subsequent encounter at the Tropicana party was worthless, because Jesse had been both very, very wasted and not miked. Trevor made a note to look over the footage once more. He might be able to salvage something with the help of a few voice-overs in the studio. He knew he could get Jesse to agree to that. The guy loved getting airtime almost as much as he loved getting trashed. The fact that Jesse was becoming more and more difficult to edit into the charming boyfriend that young female viewers pined after couldn’t be ignored. Trevor knew he couldn’t fight this particular reality for much longer.
Or he might even try to convince Jane to film a breakup scene with Jesse, despite what she (or rather, her pain-in-the-ass “team”) had conveyed to him. She might be open to it, after she’d had a few days to cool off. The Jane-Jesse story line deserved closure. Their millions of fans deserved closure. That was how he would pitch it to her, anyway—privately, over lunch at the Polo Lounge, away from her annoying hired guns.
Jane and Madison’s fight would have been a ratings spike, too, except for the Gossip angle, since in the world of L.A. Candy tabloids didn’t exist. He had already come up with some great ideas for season two. Maybe he could work this twist in somehow. A feud between Jane and her former BFF and roommate, Madison. Hmm. He could make it seem like Jane found out that Madison had been the one who told Jesse that she had cheated on him. It might not have been the reality, but in a way it was true. Of course, Jane would refuse to be in the same place as Madison for some time, so an encounter would have to be arranged. Or at least a phone call.
At least Scarlett and Jane had made up. Despite his frustration with Scarlett, she could work well as Jane’s newly restored BFF and roommate. And the scenes would be a lot easier to edit than Scarlett-and-Gaby scenes. Besides, now Jane had someone to talk to about her feud with Madison. Scarlett didn’t have anything nice to say about Madison, and that would fan the flames perfectly.
As for Gaby and Hannah…well, Gaby could go on being the comic relief, as always. And Hannah had proved surprisingly popular with focus groups. But she hadn’t turned out to be as malleable as he had hoped. Maybe he would give her a love interest of her own? That might be a smart move. Trevor smiled to himself. All of a sudden, he had a good feeling about all of this. In fact, if he played it right, season two just might be bigger and better than season one.
He booted up his laptop and began typing some notes.
SEASON 2. EPISODE 1.
&nb
sp; 41
A FAN LETTER
Madison moved around the living room, jabbing the weird white cleaning contraption around the floor. How did this stupid thing work, anyway? She was pissed. The cleaning lady had called in sick. She would have to talk to Derek about replacing his unreliable help—again. In the meantime, the place was a mess, and Derek was coming over later, so it was up to Madison to try to straighten it up.
Something squeaked, startling her. She reached down and picked up a rubber bunny from the floor. God, how annoying was that? She kept finding the mutt’s toys all over the apartment, under furniture and behind plants. Jane should have been more thorough when she moved out.
Madison flung the rubber bunny into a nearby wastebasket, swearing. She wasn’t sure why she was in such a foul mood. So the apartment was a pit. Big deal. So Jane wasn’t talking to her. She would come around eventually. Generally speaking, Madison’s life was good. No, it was better than good. It was great. Things had actually been looking up since the nightmarish Valentine’s Day aftermath two weeks ago (soon after which Veronica had fired her joke of an assistant, Diego, for snooping around on her computer—served him right). Madison had seen a lot of Derek lately, because his wife and their brat were in New Jersey visiting with her parents. Better still, Madison had been getting lots of press, with pieces in Life & Style and Star as well as Gossip. The one in Life & Style had been an entire page on “Madison’s Rules for Dating,” with photos of her with various good-looking, well-dressed, well-behaved men she had on hand to escort her to parties as necessary (and with cheesy speculations as to whether some of them might be more than “just friends”).
Best of all, Trevor had invited her to lunch yesterday, just the two of them at the Ivy (Anna Payne was at the very next table, picking at a few lettuce leaves, no doubt to reverse the damage done by that hideous Gossip cover), to talk about how he wanted to give her more airtime in season two, and sharing some ideas he had about that. It was a dream come true. Being the star of the show was what she had been working so hard for and sacrificed so much to achieve. Granted, Trevor hadn’t exactly used the word “star.” But she was sure that was what he meant. And even if he wasn’t thinking along those lines now…well, he would, after he saw what she had to offer. On-screen, that was.