Sugar and Spice_ An L.A. Candy Novel - Lauren Conrad [65]
“Hi, Dana!” Jane breezed past the producer and went up to one of the sound guys. “Hey, Jack. I’m ready to be miked. I like your T-shirt!”
“Thanks!” Jack grinned and handed her a pack.
“Jane?” Dana looked totally confused. “We . . . uh . . . we weren’t . . .”
“I know I’m a little early, but I wanted to make sure everything was running smoothly,” Jane said, smiling innocently.
The door opened, and Hannah walked into the restaurant. Her cheeks were flushed as though she’d been rushing. “Hi, Dana, hi, Jack! Jane, you beat me here! Wow, that’s gotta be a first, right?” she joked.
“Ha-ha. Is Fiona here?” Jane asked Dana.
“Uh . . . not yet. She should be here any sec. Uh, why don’t you girls get miked, then we can get a quick scene with you stuffing gift bags?”
“That sounds great!” Jane said eagerly, as though stuffing gift bags was the most thrilling activity, ever.
Dana, Hannah, and Jack all stared at her.
“So you’re in a cheerful mood,” Hannah said to Jane as they tucked gift certificates, wine stoppers, and bottles of gourmet steak sauce into small black-and-white totes with the Sirloin logo.
“Yeah, it’s been a good day. I went to the gym, then I had lunch with Aja’s publicist, Wanda, to discuss the Vegas party, then I spent the afternoon doing errands for tonight.”
“I think it’s just you and me on duty this evening. Oliver’s studying for finals, and I guess Madison’s out of town?”
“Apparently.” Jane pretended to search for a missing wine stopper as she tried to keep a straight face. She had to act as though she had no idea she was about to get “ambushed” by Madison, who wasn’t out of town at all. “Soooo. You and Oliver looked pretty cozy at Scarlett’s birthday party.”
Hannah blushed. “Yeah, he’s really sweet. And he loves the same things I do!”
“Like?”
“Like . . . old movies. And cooking. And hiking in Joshua Tree. And my parents like him.”
“He’s met your parents? That’s huge!”
“It was totally low-key. They took us out to dinner last week. My dad’s kind of overprotective and asked Oliver about a billion questions. Oliver was cool about it.” She added, “We’re going to San Diego so I can meet his parents, maybe next weekend.”
“Wow.”
Hannah smiled dreamily and stared off into space as she finished up a gift bag. Jane watched her and thought about Caleb. She didn’t feel about him the way Hannah seemed to feel about Oliver. (Or how Scar felt about Liam . . . although Liam had never made it to the birthday party on Saturday, and now the two of them seemed to be fighting, although Jane wasn’t positive because Scar didn’t want to talk about it.) But maybe it was a good thing Jane wasn’t head over heels about Caleb, since they were hanging out and not heading down the aisle. Okay, so she missed the heady wanting-to-make-out-all-the-time chemistry (the way it used to be for them in high school). But she didn’t miss the Jesse-style insanity.
And she really wasn’t into Caleb’s slightly-too-keen interest in being filmed. And photographed by the paparazzi. And in general being a “celebrity.” Jane hoped it was a phase, one that he would outgrow soon. She remembered, he went through a similar phase senior year, when the swim team won the national championship. Being team captain, he was interviewed for a dozen newspaper articles and even appeared on a couple of local news channels. The attention had gone to his head for a while. It had been annoying until he finally got over it and returned to his old self.
Her cell buzzed. It was a text from Dana:
PLZ DISCUSS OPENING TONITE, EVERYTHINGS GOING WELL, ETC. FINISH WITH LINE: WHAT COULD GO WRONG?
Jane smiled serenely at Dana, who was watching her from across the room along with Trevor and Fiona, and tucked her phone back into her pocket. It was pretty awesome, being two steps ahead of the higher-ups, for a change. “So. I’m seating the guests tonight. Can you manage the press line?” she asked Hannah.
“No problem.” Hannah peered at her watch. “People are going to start