Sugar and Spice_ An L.A. Candy Novel - Lauren Conrad [70]
“Well, look at you, Jane. Working hard at your important job?” he had said in a gruff, slurry voice, his hot breath reeking of alcohol. “Yeah, you definitely didn’t waste any time getting a new boyfriend. Not that I give a damn. I’m hooking up with Sophia now. I guess you can say I upgraded.”
Jane—aware that there were at least two cameras trained on her—had simply replied that she was happy to see that his rehab had paid off, then excused herself. It was a low blow, but it would also make it difficult for Trevor to use the scene, since he would never address Jesse’s alcoholism on the show. Although knowing Trevor, he would probably find a way.
“You want one of these? They’re pretty tasty,” Caleb said, offering her an oyster.
“Um, no, thanks,” Jane said, making a face. She didn’t know how he could eat those slimy things. Gross.
Jane’s cell buzzed. She sighed. Of course it was a text from Dana:
YOU’RE ON A DATE WITH YOUR BF. SMILE!
Jane groaned inwardly as she placed her cell back in her lap, took a deep breath, and forced a smile. She knew all about Trevor’s efforts to try to “heat up” her and Caleb’s relationship from reading his little notebook. Was their chemistry, or rather, lack of chemistry, that obvious? That was kind of sad. But watching the last few episodes of the show, Jane had noticed that she and Caleb weren’t the most exciting couple ever. Of course he was gorgeous (he already had a huge female fan base from the show), and of course they had fun together. But something was . . . missing. And things had become kind of strained between them lately because of his continued obsession with being filmed, photographed, and interviewed. She was starting to wonder if he actually liked her, or if he was just with her for the media attention. What had he said to her at STK? You know me, Janie. I’m your biggest fan, and I’ll always be your biggest fan. Not because you’re a star, but because you’re Janie Roberts from Santa Barbara who saves stray animals and likes to eat Cheerios out of an Elmo bowl.
What happened to that Caleb?
As for Trevor’s notebook . . . well, it was a gold mine, but it was a curse, too. Jane spent way too much time going through it and plotting ways to mess with Trevor’s head. She’d wasted her entire lunch hour yesterday figuring out how to foil his plans for her in the coming weeks. She was going to “run into” Madison at Kate Somerville on Tuesday? She would tell her how pretty her manicure was! She and Caleb were going to “run into” Jesse and Sophia at Beso on Thursday night? She would tell Sophia that she should order the Bibb salad!
But frankly . . . Jane wasn’t sure she would follow through with either idea. The game was already growing tiresome, and eventually, she would have to face the real problem, which was that Trevor treated her like she was a mouse in a maze—his mouse in his maze that he had carefully constructed with a predetermined outcome.
Jane was still trying to make out some of the entries—Trevor’s handwriting was a disaster—and trying to understand some of them, too. There were entries about Scar and Naveen (which Scar was not happy about when Jane had shown her) and also Madison, Gaby, Hannah, and Sophia. But there was one entry which Jane couldn’t figure out at all. It seemed to be about a guy, and the entry had intrigued her because the guy in question didn’t appear to be either Caleb or Naveen. She reminded herself to make another stab at deciphering that entry later.
Her cell buzzed again. Oh, God, Dana. Without bothering to read the text, Jane automatically reached across the table and laced her fingers through Caleb’s. “This place is nice, isn’t it?” was all she could manage to come up with. She was out with her handsome boyfriend on a Saturday night, having dinner at a trendy L.A. restaurant. So why wasn’t she enjoying herself?
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Hey, what are you doing tomorrow? Dodgers have a home game, and Naveen and I were thinking