Jet Set
Page 16
Who could it have been?
Angelina, looking as poised and beautiful as ever in the candlelight, cleared her throat. “Oh, let’s just say a Friend was looking out for you,” she said with a wink.
I looked at her, bewildered. “You?” I asked softly, amazed.
“I found a weird wire in my room a few weeks ago,” Angelina continued. “I had my family’s own private detective look into it, and we found her prints everywhere. Then they did a thorough background check and found out she worked for Gab! and had fake names, a fake accent, fake everything!”
“Go, Ange!” said Victoria, who was now standing behind Tiggy. “That is so cool and Interpol of you!” The rest of the Diamonds gathered around Angelina to congratulate her, and the crowd started to disperse. The mood seemed to be set by Victoria—everyone was ready and willing to forgive my gullibility for getting caught up with Sofia’s shenanigans.
As I dried off the remainder of Van punch from my gown, everyone rose to hit the dance floor again.
“So, friend…,” Angelina said, smiling at me, “I’m so happy everything has turned around.”
“So you were my friend all along?” I marveled aloud. “Angelina, I’m so grateful!”
She leaned in, grin widening as she took my hand. “Well, my dear, as your cyber friend and also now your real-life friend, there’s one more thing I have been meaning to tell you.”
“Uh-oh,” I said jokingly. “I think I’ve had enough surprises for one night.”
“Last one, I promise: Oliver is not my boyfriend. He’s my cousin.”
What?
“Are…you…kidding me?”
“Nope. We’re really like brother and sister.”
“But…I thought you two were together….”
“We are together. Practically all the time. He’s one of my closest friends. Our mothers are sisters and he’s like the brother I never had! But he likes you. And he knew about Antony’s cheating with Chérie. Antony did the same thing last year with our little second cousin from Scotland when she wouldn’t sleep with him, and Oliver knew it.”
“Oliver tried to warn me…. I can’t believe I didn’t see it. Antony’s so awful!”
“Well, his days here are numbered,” she said knowingly.
“How come?”
“Let’s just say, friend to friend, that my private investigators put counterespionage devices in many places to see who was sending photos of me to the press. And let’s say they just so happened to find many, many recordings of Antony and Chérie, which have been delivered to the dean’s office tonight. I highly doubt the school would be happy with the student/employee affair. I doubt he’ll be seeing us in Gstaad next semester.”
Incredible.
Just then, as the band finished their song, a famous DJ flown in from Berlin took to the turntables and everyone hit the dance floor. Angelina took my hand. “Come on, let’s go dance! Everyone’s leaving tomorrow for vacation, so we may as well party all night!”
Our whole class was out there shimmying together. Rioko spun me around and I was laughing, feeling so freed from the cloak of worry that had been hanging over me these last few weeks. I couldn’t believe everything that had happened that night—Sofia was out of the picture, Antony had revealed his true colors…and I wondered did I dare dream that I had a chance with Oliver after Angelina’s revelation? I looked around for him but didn’t see him. After a half hour of dancing, Moabi yelled, “After paaaartay!!!” Everyone started hooting and cheering and ran to the cloakroom, where staff held out fur coats and beaded jackets. Outside, limousines were lined up to take everyone dancing.
I looked around, still not seeing Oliver anywhere.
“You coming?” yelled Tiggy through her limo window.
“Lucy! Get in!” said Victoria, tugging on her sable stole.
I wasn’t sure what to do because there was only one person I wanted to see.
“Hey you!” I turned to find Angelina looking as glamorous as ever in her floor-length mink. “My cousin says he won’t be at the club but that you’d know where to find him….”
I smiled brightly.
“You guys go ahead!” I yelled back to the Diamonds. “I’ll see you at the dorm later.”
“Try tomorrow, honey!” said Iman. “Have fun!”
As the fleet of sleek cars pulled away to take my classmates to dance the night away, I stood still, the crisp moonlight twinkling over the majestic river. Yup, there was only one place I wanted to be. I made my way down the sloping hill.
Chapter Forty-Six
I wandered gingerly down the solitary footpath in my heels, reveling in the midnight air and the smell of wood-burning hearths. As I saw the flickering dim lights of Le Ciel, I got my first shiver of the evening—not because of the winter’s heavy ice-laden frigidity, but because of the excited charge I got from knowing who awaited me inside.
Sure enough, as I peeked around the corner of the crowded tavern’s inner room of golden wood paneling, I saw Oliver, fondue pot waiting.
“Well, hello,” he said, smiling.
“Hello,” I said, grinning back.
I wouldn’t say there was any awkwardness between us, but now that we’d both kind of put out feelers via Angelina that we were into each other, there was some definite tension piercing our normal mellow interactions.
“So, I didn’t know you had family at Van Pelt,” I teased.
“You never asked,” he replied coyly. “Have a seat.” I slid into the banquette beside him and looked at him, heart pounding.
“Look, Oliver, I hope you don’t think I’m a scumbag like Sofia. I knew the second we played the prank it was a bad idea. I regret it so much.”
Oliver stopped me. “Look, we all make mistakes. You were honorable enough to own up to them and to get out of the situation. I have to own up to something also.”
Gulp. “Okay, sure, what’s up?”
“Lucy, I feel awful for what happened early last month when I was so weird and didn’t talk to you. Antony had been taunting me, saying you thought very little of me, and I thought maybe it was true, since you were spending all that time with him, obviously dating him.”
I was horrified. “Oh my gosh, Oliver! You must know that Antony was lying.”
“I suspected perhaps he was inventing these things, but then I saw you with him all the time and thought maybe you did despise me.”
“No way, it’s…” I paused, blushing in the firelight.
“What?” he inquired, looking at me.
Okay…the plunge. “It’s quite the opposite.”
As if reading my mind and knowing I would need reassurance after divulging that I was madly in love with him, Oliver took my hand in his and put it against his chest, then pushed my hair back from my face with his other hand.
“Lucy Peterson, I know it’s only one month we’ll be away for these holidays, but I will miss you. Very. Much.”
My pale pink blush had now fully blossomed into a dark peony hue and I gazed at this guy, gorgeous beyond fantasy, as he leaned toward me for the most passionate, all-enveloping kiss I’d ever shared.
Later that night, as we meandered hand in hand up the glittering snow-covered hill toward the dorms, after hours spent tucked away in our corner table, I marveled at how things had changed since I had first arrived at Van Pelt just a few months ago. This imposing campus now felt like home, and some of these wealthy, powerful, privileged guys and girls were now my friends—real friends, who trusted me and were willing to take a chance on me. I drew breath and exhaled, watching the misty air form in front of my face, amazed that despite subzero temperatures, I had never felt warmer.
Acknowledgments
Jill and Carrie thank…the amazing HC crew: Tara Weikum, Erica Sussman, and Melissa Dittmar—you guys are the best; and the überconsigliere, Steven Beer of Greenberg Traurig.
Carrie thanks…all of her friends and family, agents, babysitters, and life coaches.
Jill thanks…the
cousin posse who keep me young: Charlotte Coch, Emily Coch, Alexa Kopelman, and Julia Kopelman; the Swiss boarding school deep throat: Leigh Ofer, plus goddess Laura Tanny; Agents extraordinaire: Jennifer Joel, Elliot Webb, and Josie Freedman of ICM; the pals who lived through the rocky high school years with me: Dana Wallach, Lisa Turvey, Trip Cullman, and Lauren Duff. Plus, the chères who always support and have now known me half my life (!): Vanessa Eastman and Jeannie Stern. To the fam: Kargs & Kopes, I love you so—special mercis to Mom, Dad, Will, and Harry, plus the mini-cubs: Sadie, Ivy, and Fletcher.
About the Authors
Carrie Karasyov & Jill Kargman are best buds who met at their all-girls private high school in New York City. They have cowritten two novels for adults, THE RIGHT ADDRESS and WOLVES IN CHIC CLOTHING, and two novels for teens, BITTERSWEET SIXTEEN and SUMMER INTERN. Carrie is also the author of THE INFIDELITY PACT, and Jill is the author of MOMZILLAS. You can visit Jill online at www.jillkargman.com.
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Also by Carrie Karasyov
& Jill Kargman
BITTERSWEET SIXTEEN
SUMMER INTERN
Credits
Jacket art © 2008 by Jason Cook
Jacket photo © 2008 by Ali Smith
Jacket design by Joel Tippie
Copyright
JET SET. Copyright © 2008 by Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub © Edition DECEMBER 2008 ISBN: 9780061973987
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