wait one second. I’ll be right back.” He turned and went back into the club, and Kate was free to kick herself repeatedly for her stupidity. Luke was freaking cute—how was it that she didn’t remember him? Was he really so identical to Jake and Drake and Cayden and Jaden?
In a moment, Luke returned, bearing a vodka soda for her and a beer for himself. “Don’t give this one to the plant,” he said, handing it to her.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. Clubs like this aren’t exactly my thing.”
“Mine either,” Luke said. “But a friend of mine promotes this night and he made me promise to come.” He took a sip of his beer. “So what are you doing these days, my old friend Kate? Still in the biz?”
“Pardon?”
“Show business. Acting. Writing. Directing. Make-up . . .”
“Stunts,” Kate heard herself say.
He raised his eyebrows. “Really?”
“I was Megan Fox’s stunt double in Transformers.” She tried to say it with a straight face but she could feel a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. “Do you think she jumped out of that burning building?”
“You had me going there for a minute,” he said, laughing and toasting her. “You’re an actress.”
“No, definitely not,” Kate answered. “I’m a musician. I mean, trying to be.” She blushed again. “Really I’m a, uh, food services technician.” He smiled at that. “That’s much more accurate to say, because that’s what pays the bills.” For some reason—perhaps because the cameras were gone—it didn’t even occur to her to mention The Fame Game. She hadn’t totally adjusted to her new life; she still felt like last month’s Kate. “Are you in ‘the biz’?”
Luke nodded. “Yep. Just like ninety percent of the people inside this ridiculous club. I’m an actor.” He grinned. “Perhaps you’ve seen me in my star turn as Doctor Rose on Boston General?” The comic, needling way he said this told Kate, who had never seen Boston General, that he wasn’t actually one of its stars.
“I’m not much of a TV person,” she admitted.
“That’s okay,” he said, “I won’t hold it against you. But let me try another one: Did you see me in the bar scene in Inception? No? Okay, how about as that young lawyer from a competing firm in The Good Wife? No. Okay. Um, I usually don’t like to bring this one up, but since I’m striking out with everything else: Did you see me in that GEICO commercial, the one where the gecko goes to Disneyland?”
“Yes!” squealed Kate. “You were the handsome prince!”
“Guilty as charged,” Luke said, ducking his head modestly.
“Well, you were a very convincing prince,” she said. “I’m sure all the princesses were in love with you.”
“Kate Hayes! There you are!”
Kate looked over to see Carmen standing in the doorway to the patio, smiling tipsily at her. “I’ve been looking at you for forever,” Carm said. “I mean, looking for you. I thought you, like, got locked in a bathroom stall or something.” Carmen’s eyes flicked to Luke, who was leaning against a railing, looking relaxed and happy. “Um, I was going to go home. But you look like you’re having fun! So you should stay!”
Kate opened her mouth. She was having fun talking to Luke, it was true, but she was worried that she was reaching her limits of witty banter. What if they ran out of things to say to each other? Would Luke say good night and leave her standing alone on the patio? “No, I should—”
“Oh, stay!” Carmen cried enthusiastically. “Luke can take you home, can’t you?” She glanced over at her friend.
“Of course,” said Luke. “It would be my pleasure.”
“Great! ’Night, you two!” Carmen said, looking pleased with herself. She blew them both kisses and vanished.
Now what? wondered Kate.
Luke grinned at her. “I guess you’re stuck with me,” he said.
Stuck with Doctor Rose, she thought. Every girl should be so lucky.
Madison watched as her roommate poured a stream of disgusting, sludgy juice into a tall cocktail glass. Gaby had recently started some new juice cleanse that was originally prescribed as a therapy for people diagnosed with cancer. She’d heard it helped reduce bloating, though, and apparently she was on board for anything that promised to help her drop a few pounds.
There was a little left in the blender. “Want some?” Gaby asked, holding it up.
“No thanks,” Madison said. “It looks like raw sewage.”
Gaby frowned as she came over to join Madison in the living room. “It has kelp in it.” She put her feet—in big fuzzy bunny slippers—up on the coffee table. “And spirulina.”
“Still a pass,” Madison said. She leaned back against the custom-made silk cushions. The truth was, she was feeling out of sorts. She’d been blindsided by Sophie’s appearance at the club the other night, and she wasn’t happy about it. She knew that she’d have to grin and bear it, since it was obviously all part of Trevor’s plan. And even she knew her story line wasn’t exactly scintillating so far. Trevor had filmed her going to some events, taking a day trip to Vegas to appear at a Wet Republic pool party, and having a meeting with the woman who runs the Madelyn Wardell Foundation for Girls (her charity, which was still good for a photo op every now and then, and a tax write-off). Not exactly ratings bait. But Sophie was just as concerned with camera time as Madison was, if not more, which meant they were going to be elbowing each other out of the frame, metaphorically if not literally, for the foreseeable future. Maybe Madison could get a cover story out of the return of Poor Little Sophia Parker—“I just want the best for my little sister!” After all, Madison was perfectly capable of playing nice. And if Sophie wanted to play dirty, Madison was armed with plenty of stories about what a delinquent she was when they were growing up, and how Madison always came to the rescue.
Trevor had tried to fan the flames of Madison’s rivalry with Carmen, whom Madison admittedly thought was a no-talent silver-spooner. But if Trevor thought she was dumb enough to make an enemy of Carmen Curtis on national television, then he seriously underestimated her. The first move would have to be Carmen’s, and that bitch wasn’t budging.
“What time is it?” Gaby asked, sipping meditatively at her sewage juice.
Madison glanced at her phone. “Almost ten.”
“Oh, I’ve got to get to bed,” Gaby said. “Tomorrow’s my first on-camera interview for Buzz!”
“Who are you interviewing?”
“Lacey Hopkins,” Gaby said excitedly. “She just got out of jail.”
“What for this time?” Madison asked. The
