Sugar and Spice_ An L.A. Candy Novel - Lauren Conrad [75]
Many of the guests were milling around or sitting at the large round tables decorated with gold silk cloths and antique candelabras. Jane tried to make out who was who, but it wasn’t easy, since almost everybody was wearing a costume mask. She knew there were more A-list celebrities than usual because of Aja and Miguel, who were one of the most powerful couples in Hollywood. She spotted D near the VIP seating area, chatting up a model type; she recognized him easily thanks to his purple vintage tux and spiky crew cut. She also saw Veronica Bliss talking to a short dark-haired guy (Jared Walsh?); there was no mistaking the petite redhead in Chanel, mask or no mask. And there were a lot of people not wearing masks: Hannah, Oliver, Trevor, Fiona, Xavier and Hank from the Venetian, Aja’s assistant, Anna Luisa, her publicist, Wanda, and Gaby’s publicist, Annabelle. Although where was Gaby? She must be out there somewhere, along with Caleb, Naveen, Scarlett, and Madison. Not to mention Sophia and Jesse, if they weren’t too wasted to make it down from their room.
Jane continued toward the dock where Aja and Miguel would be pulling up momentarily. At the top of the steps leading down to the water was an arch covered with roses, freesias, and tiny white lights. Thousands of flower petals blanketed the steps themselves. Two attendants in ivory waistcoats awaited the couple’s arrival. It all looked pretty spectacular, if Jane had to say so herself.
Her phone buzzed with a text; Jane glanced at it quickly and saw that it was from Braden.
FLYING HOME TOM. DINNER MONDAY?
Her heart skipped a beat.
Jane was so tempted to reply YES!!!!! But what about Caleb? She couldn’t be dating Caleb and hanging out with Braden, too—especially since she and Braden were a little more than friends. And also because she had decided to make more of an effort with Caleb. So he was a bit starstruck. Hollywood had that effect on people, and he would get over it soon. In the meantime, he was still the same great guy he always was: fun, sweet, thoughtful. Hot. She was going to try to talk him into more off-camera dates so they could be themselves again, the way they used to be, before he got the fame bug and before Dana started micromanaging their conversations. No wonder their on-camera chemistry was so lame, when they couldn’t even be themselves most of the time.
“Jane!” Oliver came rushing up to her. “Sorry to bother you, but Fiona wanted me to ask you . . . can we rearrange some seats at the head table? Aja’s sister and her husband weren’t planning to be here because they live in Martinique and they just had a baby. But they made some last-minute arrangements, and now they’re here, and it’s supposed to be a big surprise for Aja and Miguel. Is there anything we can do?”
“Ohmigod . . . the head table!” Jane went through a mental picture of the seating chart. Aja, Miguel, Aja’s parents, Miguel’s parents, Miguel’s brother and his wife . . . they couldn’t possibly move any of them over to another table.
“You know, the tables are kind of big,” Oliver remarked. “Maybe we could ask Hank or Xavier to have someone squeeze in two more place settings? And maybe get rid of one of the candelabras, to make space?”
“Yes! Oliver, you’re brilliant!”
Oliver blushed. “Glad I could help.”
“Yeah, well, it would have been a disaster if we couldn’t accommodate the sister and brother-in-law.”
“Guess I won’t be having this problem at my celebrity engagement party, since I don’t have any siblings,” Oliver joked.
Jane smiled. And then her smile faded. Oliver was an only child?
Jane flashed back to another mental picture, of an entry in Trevor’s notebook she had never been able to decipher. It was a short entry, with just four items:
Right age, height, attractive
From SD, only child
No acting aspirations, needs $?
Seems very willing to go along