Sugar and Spice_ An L.A. Candy Novel - Lauren Conrad [17]
There was a flurry of cheek kisses and hugs. Naveen’s hand lingered for a moment on Scarlett’s back when he hugged her. “Hey, it’s been ages,” he said. He smelled faintly of some spicy aftershave.
“Yeah, it has,” Scarlett agreed. Smiling, she gently maneuvered herself out of his embrace and scooted back into the white leather booth, far away from him. Then she tugged on Jane’s hand and pulled her down next to her.
“What are you doing, Scar?” Jane whispered.
“Sit!” Scarlett hissed, keeping her smile plastered on her face. Now the seating arrangement was perfect: Naveen and Caleb on one side, Scarlett and Jane on the other. No one could get in trouble that way.
Scarlett had no problem with Jane and Caleb being friends. But she was concerned about Jane getting sucked back into dating him again. Jane had fallen madly in love with Caleb when they were together in high school, only to have him dump her after his freshman year at Yale because, according to him, she “deserved better” (which was basically boy code for I want to be free to hook up with other girls). Scarlett spent many nights last spring consoling Jane when she couldn’t stop crying about him, trying to cheer her up with funny movies and countless pints of Ben & Jerry’s.
Besides, Jane was still recovering from her relationships with her completely dysfunctional ex, Jesse, and the perpetually unavailable Braden. She needed to keep her life simple for a little while.
“Soooo.” Caleb glanced expectantly at Scarlett, then Jane. “What did you girls do today?”
“School,” Scarlett said.
“Work,” Jane added. “What are you guys up to? Naveen, are you in school or working or what?”
“I’m a sophomore at UCLA,” Naveen said, taking a sip of his drink. “Premed.”
“Wow. Dr. Singh!” Jane said, sounding impressed.
“Yeah, my boy here is planning on becoming a plastic surgeon,” Caleb explained, slapping him on the back.
Scarlett stared at Naveen incredulously. “Seriously? You want to spend your life carving up people’s faces?” she asked him. Her father was a plastic surgeon, and she had nothing but contempt for a profession that made money from making women (and men) believe that surgically altering their appearance would bring them happiness.
“Actually, I want to specialize in reconstructive work for burn victims, accident victims,” Naveen explained. “Also babies who are born with cleft palates and other disfiguring birth defects. It’s kind of amazing what you can do for them nowadays. I mean, plastics is about more than double Ds and tummy tucks.”
“Oh.” Well, shut me up, Scarlett thought.
Naveen grinned at her, then turned to Jane. “Listen, thanks for the invite to the season premiere party. I’m sorry I had to miss it. Heard it was really cool.”
“No worries. Next time,” Jane promised.
A commotion at a nearby table caught Scarlett’s attention. She glanced up and saw half a dozen girls craning their necks to stare at her and Jane. They were whispering excitedly to one another—That’s Jane Roberts, right? And Scarlett Harp? Ohmigod!—and pulling cell phones out of their purses.
This ignited a chain reaction in the room, and suddenly, more people were staring and whispering and snapping pictures.
“Wow, that’s so weird,” Caleb said, peering around. “Does this always happen to you two when you go out?”
“Not always. It happens a lot, though,” Jane admitted.
“So what’s it like? Being famous, I mean. Is it fun? Crazy? Stressful?” Naveen asked.
“All of the above,” Scarlett replied.
Jane nodded in agreement. “It’s important not to take the whole Hollywood thing too seriously, though. Like, if either of us starts playing celebrity name-drop during dinner, just slap us, okay?”
“Except now we get to play celebrity name-drop. Like at the gym tomorrow. ‘Hey, losers, Naveen and I had dinner with Jane Roberts and Scarlett Harp last night,’” Caleb bantered.
“You wouldn’t!” Jane exclaimed.
Caleb reached across the table and squeezed