Sugar and Spice_ An L.A. Candy Novel - Lauren Conrad [46]
“Wait, what?” Liam put his fork down and pushed his plate away. “What article?”
“One of the tabloids lied and said Naveen and I hooked up,” Scarlett explained. Was it her imagination, or was she talking really, really fast? “Which we never did! I mean, not never, because we did kind of have a thing in high school. But it was high school, and it only happened once. Now we’re just friends. I mean, we’re barely friends. We’re only hanging out because Trevor is making us.” She leaned closer and gazed into Liam’s blue eyes. “You understand, right? This is my job, and it’s not like I’m choosing to hang out with these guys.”
She stopped and took a deep breath, waiting for Liam to nod sympathetically and tell her that he understood completely. But he was looking at her with a weird, tense expression and not saying a word.
“What? Say something. You’re not mad at me, are you?” Scarlett said.
Liam sighed. “No, I’m not mad at you, Scarlett. But you should have told me this stuff before. And yeah, I get that this is your job. But do you have to pretend you’re dating this guy for the show?”
“I’m not! Trevor just wants us to hang out, that’s all.”
“Yeah, well, what does that mean, ‘hang out’? What does Trevor mean by that?”
“I have no idea what goes on in Trevor’s mind. Well, maybe I do, but I’d rather not think about it. The point is . . . I’m not Trevor’s puppet. He can’t make me do stuff I don’t want to do. And I absolutely, positively don’t want to even pretend to date Naveen. I want to date you. I am dating you.”
Liam regarded her silently.
Scarlett grabbed his hand. “In a perverse, mixed-up kind of way, maybe it’s a good thing that Trevor’s into his make-believe head games about me and Naveen. Maybe this way, he won’t give me a hard time about dating you.”
“He’s giving you a hard time about that? Still?”
Scarlett shrugged. “He’s not happy that I’m dating someone who can’t be filmed. It was the same thing with Jane and Braden. Not that they were dating, exactly. But you know what I mean.”
“I guess? God, this show is really messed up.”
“Yeah, I know. But it’s a job. A good job with serious money. And I’m lucky to have it.” When Liam gave her a strange look, Scarlett quickly added, “I wasn’t saying that because you don’t have a . . . I mean, I need the money to pay for tuition so I don’t have to freeload off my parents. And someday, after I graduate, I’ll have a way better job where I won’t feel like I’m living in a fish bowl. I mean, you know this is totally twisted, right? There’s my real life, like tonight. Then there’s my other life, in front of the cameras. And then there’s my third life, after Trevor’s done editing my scenes and they air on TV.”
Liam cracked a smile. “Yeah, that’s twisted, all right.”
Scarlett leaned over and hugged him. Liam hugged her back. Good. He was okay. Things were going to be okay between them.
“I’m gonna change the music. What is this? You getting sappy on me?” Liam said after a moment, extricating himself from their hug and walking over to the CD player. He pulled a CD case off the shelf and studied it. Scarlett could tell that the subject of Naveen and Trevor and the rest of it was closed. Which was fine with her. “Hey, we’re still on for this Saturday and Sunday, right? For your birthday surprise?”
“Yes, we are, sir,” Scarlett said, digging into another taco. “What are we doing? Can you give me a tiny hint?”
“It’s going to be amazing. Other than that, you’re not getting a single hint, so don’t even try.” Liam pulled out a cream envelope peeking out from between two CDs. “What’s this?”
“NOOOO!” Scarlett leapt to her feet and grabbed the envelope out of Liam’s hands. He looked totally confused. “It’s . . . um . . . it’s a surprise I have for you! So you can’t look, okay?