by Jillian Dodd
“Sounds like you’d be good at public relations. You ever want to work directly with me, you let me know.”
“Really? Ohmigawd,” she says, sounding just like Keatyn. “I would totally love that!”
“Good. Now, are you going to tell me what the article says?”
“Ohmigosh, I almost forgot! Let me read it to you! It says . . .
The Golden Ticket
Well, people.
I’m holding in my hand a gorgeous white glittery invitation on paper so thick you could sleep on it. Captive Films invited yours truly to what they are calling a Purity Party to promote a new film project. Attendees have been asked to wear—you guessed it—white.
Included with the invitation is a glossy photo of Jennifer Edwards wearing a skimpy white lingerie angel costume—complete with feather wings—and tossing away a halo. On the edge of the photo, there are two sets of male hands waiting to catch it. The bottom simply says #DaddysAngel.
After scouring the internet for information about this project, I came up empty. So I decided to do it the old-fashioned way. I hit up my sources inside the film company.
And here’s what I learned:
Jennifer Edwards, Knox Daniels, and Jake Worth will be starring in Daddy’s Angel. No word on what the movie is about, other than Jennifer’s role will showcase a double life. Her minister father thinks she’s still a virgin, when in truth, she’s promiscuous, wild, and a bit of a hellcat. Rumor also has it that Captive Films’ CEO, Riley Johnson, will have a cameo role.
So here’s the deal. This party has me wondering. Was the group’s recent crazy Vegas weekend—which landed them all in jail—just a publicity stunt?
Now I’m off to buy something white and fabulous to wear tonight. Who cares that it’s after Labor Day. When you’re as successful as Captive Films, you can break the rules.
Also, did you notice the unnamed hottie in the Vegas photos? My sources say that it is none other than Riley’s brother, Dawson Johnson, a recent addition to the Captive Films executive team.
P.S. Watch out Hemsworths, your reign as the world’s hottest brothers may be coming to an end.
P.P.S. Speaking of watching out . . . Dawson, I’ll be stalking you tonight. I’ll be the one in . . . Well, white.
“That’s just great,” I mutter, feeling jealous at the mention of Dawson.
“So this article could be just the beginning,” Avery says, reminding me that she’s still sitting in front of me. “Don’t you think since she suggested it, everyone will believe it?”
“That’s what we’re hoping for. Are you coming to the party tonight?”
“Yes, Mom’s letting me borrow a gorgeous white dress. She hasn’t even worn it yet. I’m so excited!”
“Why don’t you hang out near the door with Tyler and greet people.”
“Really? Ohmigawd, that would be amazing! Thanks, Vanessa. I’m heading home now to get ready.”
“Have fun. I’ll tell Tyler and see you tonight.”
“Did you get a dress?”
“I haven’t had time. I have some white dresses at home that will work,” I say.
“I thought you might say that,” she says, running out of the room and returning with a long dress bag. “I brought a dress for you to wear.”
“You did?”
“Yes, it was one of the dresses Mom had. You know designers are always sending her things. I saw the dress and knew it would look perfect on you. Or at least the you that you are today.”
“What do you mean?”
“You seem different. Happier than I’ve seen you in a while. This is a happy dress.”
“A happy dress?”
“It’s hard to explain, but yes. If you end up not liking it, it’s okay. I won’t be offended. I’ll see you tonight!”
After she leaves, I think about two things. About the reporter who will be stalking Dawson at the party, and that except for today, Avery is right, I have been the happiest I’ve been in a while.
Because of Dawson.
I acted like a little jealous brat last night and have been avoiding him all day.
And I understand. I do.
But it still hurt.
And the hurt surprised me.
And that made me mad.
At myself.
I look at the clock. Three hours until party time.
But I have one more thing to take care of before I go get ready.
Asher Vineyards — Sonoma County
ARIELA
I’m just walking back into Maggie’s office after my visit to the bakery to finalize the wedding cake details when I get a call from Collin.
“Your dad told me the good news.”
“I told him the good news on Tuesday. I expected to hear from you sooner.”
“I was out of the office until today.”
“What were you doing?”
“I took a couple personal days, Ariela,” he spews. “My wife filed for divorce. It kinda shook me.”
“Sure it did. You were so shook up that you went straight to your secretary’s arms.”
“Are you having me followed?”
“Actually, yes. And I have pictures.”
“Pictures of what?”
“Of you boning your secretary, darling.”
“You’re lying, pumpkin. You would never think to do something like that. You trust me. You’re just testing me.”
“Trust me, pumpkin. I’m not lying. I’m also working on a special surprise for you.”
“Yeah, your dad told me. You’re throwing a holiday party for all my clients. Big whoop.”
“That was supposed to be a secret.”
“Your dad and I are tight.”
“Collin, a quick uncontested divorce from your boss’ daughter that is nice and clean and agreeable, will be much better for you than one where all your dirty laundry gets aired by your wife.”
“You would look like a fool. No way you’d do that to your dad. You don’t have the balls.”
“I’ve grown a big set of balls in the last couple of weeks, Collin. Trust me, I already have the invitations being printed.”
“Big deal. Who you gonna send them to?”
“I take it my dad didn’t tell you everything. Like the fact that he gave me your entire client list?”
“Uh, no.”
“See, here’s the thing, Collin. I flat out lied to my dad. Wanna know what I’m really going to send out?”
“What?”
“Gorgeous Thanksgiving cards featuring two photos. One from our beautiful wedding and another of you breaking your vows by screwing your secretary in her living room.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, yes. I would. In fact, if you contest the divorce, that’s exactly what I’ll do.”
“I’ll take my chances. Most of the men I know would applaud me. My secretary is smoking hot.”
“You’re right. They might. Fortunately for me, most of them are married to women who don’t work. Women who get the mail. Women who would be upset by what they saw. You wanted to pretend we have an amazing, stable marriage. You wanted me to have the perfect car, the perfect handbag, the perfect house. Appearances are everything to you and your business.”
“Whatever.”
“Collin, you don’t work very hard because my dad gives you all his new business. If these photos go out, it will hurt my dad’s business. Do you really think your pretty partnership will happen after that?”
“Uh . . .”
“Exactly. Oh, hang on. Let me send you a mock-up of the card I sent to the printers. It’s cute. There’s even a poem. You’ll get a kick out of it.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe it, Collin. I’m hanging up now. Enjoy your card.”
I’m shaking again when I hang up.
“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” Maggie says, “But fuck yeah! I’m so proud of you for standing up to that asshole!” She studies me. “You know what. You look like you could us
e a glass of wine. Fortunately, that’s something we have plenty of here. Red or white?”
“White. I can’t believe I said all that. My dad is going to be mad at me when he finds out I lied to him.”
“And do you care about that?” she asks as she drags me out of her office, across the street to her house, and onto her front porch. “Sit and rock. I’ll be right back.”
I sit down and rock. And rock.
And feel a little calmer.
By the time she comes back with two glasses of a crisp Chardonnay, I say, “I’m proud of me too.”
“You should be. Can I see the Thanksgiving card?”
“Sure.” I hand her my phone.
“Oh, wow. You even made up a little rhyme.
We should thank you for your business this Thanksgiving day,
But, instead, we find Collin and his secretary rolling in the hay.
Yes, he has a wife who you all know,
But does that really matter?
Boys will be boys and all that chatter.
If you’re a wife and know how I feel,
Show Collin you won’t stand for this deal.
Move your business to someone worthy of your trust.
And not someone who just thinks about lust.
Maybe it’s time us women unite.
Like the Pilgrims and Indians did that night.
So Happy Thanksgiving,
enjoy your cranberry sauce
And know I’m divorcing this asshole,
Love, Ariela Ross.”
“What do you think?”
“I think if you stop planning weddings, you could write divorce cards. It’s awesome. Are you really going to send them?”
“It all depends on if Collin decides to play nice.”
“If I saw this, I’d be playing nice. So how is the wedding planning going?”
“Good. Your vendors are all super nice and more than willing to go out of their way to get this fundraiser done in time. The only thing I’m worried about is having them set up the furniture for the ceremony. The altar will scream wedding.”
“They deliver it the afternoon of the wedding, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, worse case, we say that Logan and I are renewing our vows.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
“Logan has a dinner to attend tonight. Maybe we could have a girls’ night. Order some gourmet pizza, get drunk on wine, and catch up.”
“That sounds perfect.”
Captive Films — Santa Monica
DAWSON
“You’ve been avoiding me all day,” I say to Vanessa as I join her in Keatyn’s office.
“I’m not avoiding you. I’m just busy.”
“Vanessa, don’t shut me out.”
I look at him and sigh. “Avery gave me a happy dress to wear tonight.”
“A happy dress?”
“Yes, she says I’ve been happy lately. I have been because of you. I’m sorry I got upset last night. I was mad at myself, not mad at you.”
I shut the door. “Why were you mad at yourself?”
“Because I wanted to be included. I understand completely why you need to spend time alone with your girls, I do. But my first reaction was that I was jealous. I was mad at myself for behaving that way. I just couldn’t help it.”
“You’re lucky Keatyn’s office is full of windows,” I say.
“Stop grinning,” she says, giving me a swat. “And stop with the sexy eyes.”
“I have sexy eyes?”
“You know damn well you do. Do you want to stay here while I make a call? Might as well learn more about what I do. It’s not always pretty.”
“What are you gonna do?” I ask.
“A little PR blackmail.”
“Interesting.” I take off my jacket, lay it on the couch, and then roll up my sleeves.
“Now, you’re stripping?”
“Just getting comfortable.”
Tyler knocks on the door, interrupting us. “I just got a call from a tabloid that I ‘leak’ things to on occasion. She said that Knox’s assistant told her off the record that Vegas was a publicity stunt and that someone, who would surprise us, leaked the photos.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Well, you told us to say no comment so I said no comment.”
“Perfect. I’m just getting ready to call that someone and persuade him to confess that he pushed out the photos.”
“Oh, how are you going to do that?”
Vanessa tosses a photo in Tyler’s direction. He catches it out of the air.
“Oh, my stars! Parker Hudson?” He holds the photo up to the light. “Where the hell was this party and why wasn’t I invited?”
Vanessa laughs. “Show Dawson.”
He hands it to me. My eyes get big. “Jeez. You could have warned me.” I turn the paper on it’s side and tilt my head. “Wow.”
“It all works just fine, Mr. Johnson,” Tyler teases. “I know these things.”
“I’m sure it does. But I’d prefer not to see it.”
“Well, here’s hoping that Parker prefers everyone not see it. Hush, you both, I’m going to call him.”
Tyler sits next to me on the couch in rapture. If I didn’t know he was gay, I’d think he had a crush on Vanessa.
“Isn’t she just amazing?” he says to me. “Did you see her handbag today? Brand new. I heard there’s a wait list. She’s always one of the first ones they call. Lucky bitch.”
I chuckle, but Vanessa shushes me. It’s kinda hot.
Kinda like being scolded by your hot teacher.
My mind starts wandering as she puts the call on speaker and says, “Parker, how are you? Thanks for agreeing to chat with me.”
“My publicist made me,” he says.
“Well, he’s smart because we have some publicity to talk about. I’m just gonna cut to the chase, Parker. I know that you sold the photos of Vegas to the tabloids. Jennifer was supposedly drunk and you thought she was trying to make you jealous. I’d even bet a lot of money that new girlfriend of yours—the playboy bunny—whatever her name is, encouraged you to sell them.”
“Uh,” he stutters.
“You don’t have to answer, Parker. It’s okay. So you sold the photos. The press ate them up. You made a tidy sum that, you will be announcing today, will be donated to Jennifer’s favorite charity.”
“The fuck I am. I didn’t sell anything.”
“Parker, Jennifer texted you sixty-one photos. All of which have been sold to the press. You tried to split them up, but I know people and they told us that it was you. Makes sense, as no one else would have a selfie that Jennifer took herself. Now, I know you are hot. Your fans love you. But recently, I received just one photo of you. A photo of you so damning, you’ll be swimming in a shit sewer of bad PR from which your career will never recover.”
“Bullshit.”
“Hang on, Parker. I’m going to use my cell phone to text you the photo.”
She obviously had it pre-loaded into her phone, because all she does is hit send.
“I just heard your phone vibrate. You must have gotten it already. Amazing how fast photos can travel nowadays, isn’t it? I wonder what would happen if all the mothers of your teenybopper fans caught wind of this.”
“Oh, fuck,” Parker says.
“The perfect comment,” Vanessa continues. “Now that I have your attention. What are you going to do tonight?”
“Announce that I sold the photos because I’m an asshole. That I’ll be donating the proceeds to the children’s foundation she supports. She did it on purpose, didn’t she? She knew that I would do it. She was just pretending to be drunk. I heard it was a publicity stunt.”
“I have no comment on that, but I do have another comment. I’d like you to do a few interviews with the press. I’d like you to publicly apologize to Jennifer for being the douche that you are. Never once did she come out and tell anyone why she broke up with you. She never tol
d them you were a lying cheater. She has class. It’s time for you to tell the truth.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Oh. I see. Okay. Well, nice chatting with you. Um, you might want to notify your PR firm about what’s coming up. You know, so they can prepare.”
“Fuck. Fine. Fine. I’ll do it.”
“And you’ll dump the bunny. She isn’t good for you.”
“Yes, yes. I’ll do it.”
“Perfect. Then it will stay between you and me. Cheers, Parker. Have a great night!”
She hangs up and Tyler stands up and claps. “I want to be you when I grow up. Spectacular performance. Now, you need to get going, or you will be late for your appointments. And by the way, I saw the dress Avery brought you, To. DIE. For. See you tonight.”
He rushes out of the door, already on his phone.
I saunter over to Vanessa and sit on the edge of the desk next to her. “If Tyler’s gonna die, that means your dress is probably going to make me hot.”
“I haven’t even seen it yet. It may not even fit me.”
“Uh, huh.”
“Fine. I peeked. It’s gorgeous. I’m hoping I can do it justice.”
“Wear your red lipstick. I’ll pick you up at seven.”
“Six-thirty. I need to be there early.”
I lean in and kiss her. “You really are amazing.”
Asher Vineyards — Sonoma County
ARIELA
I had so much fun catching up and reminiscing, and maybe getting a little drunk, with Maggie tonight. As I plop down on the bed and am trying, unsuccessfully, to get my boots off, my phone dings.
I fall off the bed trying to get it, hoping it’s Riley.
Coffee Kyle: So did you go? Did you see him? Is there a sweet job waiting for me?
Me: Yes. Yes. Unfortunately not.
Coffee Kyle: So what happened when you saw him?
