Under the Lights

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I ask, scratching the back of my neck. I’m not used to being sincere, and it’s uncomfortable as hell just listening to myself. “You seem…not.”

She purses her lips. “Are you, Josh Chester, seriously showing some sort of caring right now?”

“For Christ’s sake, K-drama—”

“Sorry,” she mutters. “No, I appreciate it. I just — I don’t know. I’m a little off.”

“Does this have to do with your meeting today?”

She shifts uncomfortably and takes another sip, but this time I’m pretty sure she’s just hiding behind the mug.

“I promise, I won’t say anything. Or make fun of you.”

I can tell she’s contemplating telling me, but man, does she not want to. And now, of course, I’m dying of curiosity. Finally, she says, “We’re talking about something I’m not sure I’m really behind, is all. But maybe I am. I just need a little more time to think about it. And Jade isn’t exactly the most patient.”

“So maybe Brianna can convince her to chill out a little. She works with her. Get her to come up with some reason you guys need to slow down on whatever this mystery plan is.”

A funny look crosses her face, and she looks like she might puke. I thrust the water bottle in her face, but she waves it away.

“I need to take a shower,” she mutters. She drains the rest of the mug, then walks it over to the sink and rinses it out. “You said half an hour?”

“Yeah. You gonna be okay?”

She shrugs, and we head out the doors and back to the main house, where we part for different bathrooms. It’s driving me crazy, not knowing what’s eating at her, which is dumb; who cares? Anyway, she’ll probably bitch and moan about it in the car, whatever it is. Nothing that’s my problem.

I brush my teeth and use my other hand to turn the shower to scalding hot, just how I like it. I need to rinse off this hangover, and my weird concern for K-drama. All I should be thinking about right now is my meeting with Holly and what the hell I’m gonna do next. Because tonight may belong to my mother and Chuck, but I need to find a way to make it the last night that does.

Chapter Fourteen Vanessa

Despite Josh’s having been weirdly nice-ish this morning, I couldn’t bring myself to say much to him in the car ride down to LA. The mention of Brianna in the context of the meeting I’m about to walk into completely threw me. Somehow I hadn’t really put together that, as Jade’s employee, of course she would find out about the whole purity pledge thing. Hell, she’ll probably have to help plan however it goes down.

The coffee that’d been so welcome this morning gurgles in my stomach as I push open the front door to the building that houses Jade’s office. She insisted on meeting here because she has a policy against bringing clients to her home (presumably because she’s pissed off enough former ones that she doesn’t wanna be stalkable) and she doesn’t trust waiters. This place has always kinda given me the creeps, though. There’s too much glass; everything’s transparent. Even with the office mostly empty, as it is now, I still feel like there are eyes on me everywhere.

I take the elevator to the second floor, praying with everything in me that Bri won’t be there when the doors open. After what I said last night — never mind the fact that I can still feel her hand on mine — the very idea of making eye contact with her right now fills me with even more queasiness.

I am really, really sorry I had that coffee.

The doors open, and I see her immediately. She looks up at the sound of the dinging elevator, and for a second before she puts on her phony PR-girl smile (which still looks pretty grim), I see that she looks hurt as hell.

And I feel like shit.

You have no reason to feel bad, I tell myself as I step out of the elevator, moving at molasses pace. She knows you have a boyfriend. And of course she knows you’re just friends. You don’t like girls like that. Things have just been getting a little confusing because you miss Ally and things maybe aren’t where they should be with Zander. You’ll have this meeting, you’ll establish where you and Zander stand, and that’ll be the end of this. You can go back to being friends.

I paste a smile on my face that’s every bit as phony as hers. “Hey. Didn’t realize you’d be here. Funny seeing you again so soon.”

“Yeah, well, didn’t know you were coming in until this morning.” Her voice is tight, and if I hadn’t been sure she was pissed before, I am now. “Jade and Zander are already in.” She steps out from behind the desk and leads me to the office. “Can I get you a drink? Water?”