by T V Hartwell
After mingling and hobnobbing at the Vanity Fair party for a while longer, Adam and Amanda hopped back in the limo to head over to Elton John’s party next. Camilla was on both their minds.
“I think Camilla has a crush on Cass,” Adam said.
Amanda snickered and shook her head as she stared out the window of the limo, still annoyed at her mother.
“Seriously. Did you see the way she was fawning over him? I mean, I don’t know your mother that well, but I think she wishes you were with him instead of me. I got the impression she doesn’t like me all that much. Maybe I shouldn’t have kissed her hand. Was I too forward?”
“No, it’s not about you. It’s about me. She can’t bring herself to say anything positive about me or anything I do, unless she’s giving a speech in a room full of people like she did at my bridal shower. But then, that’s only meant to draw attention to herself and how great a mother she wants the world to perceive her to be. Did you hear how she complimented Lucy on her dress? Telling her that it was more age-appropriate than mine?”
“She said that?”
“That’s what she meant.”
“Your dress looks way hotter than Lucy’s. And it was designed by Tom Ford. Are you kidding me?”
“And then she starts asking Lucy and Alana about the bag launch as if I wouldn’t know anything about such things. She never asks me a fucking thing about the business, and all of a sudden she wants to know what’s going on.”
Adam smirked. “You’re basically the face of the brand now.”
“That doesn’t matter to her. In fact, she’s probably jealous about all of the attention I’m getting.”
Adam looked at Amanda, dumbfounded. “I guess I didn’t realize you and your mother butt heads.”
Amanda sighed. “You don’t know the half of it.”
***
Upon arriving to the Elton John bash, Adam and Amanda made the rounds, mingling with more celebrities and posing for more photos. They eventually met up with Lucy and Cass there, and together they all huddled in a corner on lounge sofas, sipping fancy cocktails. They toasted Cass and Lucy’s one-year anniversary, commemorating the fact that they’d met at the very same event a year before.
“You two have already surpassed my expectations. Given the survival rate of Hollywood courtships, I honestly didn’t think you’d last this long,” Adam said to them.
“We had a bet going about this,” Cass said.
“Oh my God,” Amanda said, knowing of the bet but never saying anything to her friend about it.
“What? What was the bet?” Lucy demanded.
“He thought that we would’ve broken up before the end of last year,” Cass said.
Lucy gasped, incredulous.
Adam grinned sheepishly as he sipped his cocktail. Then he tried to defend his presumption. “Well, given both your track records—”
Lucy screeched, cutting Adam off. “Excuse me!”
Adam busted up laughing at her, as did Cass and Amanda.
Lucy got in Adam’s face. “My track record? I don’t know what you’re talking about. And considering we were all in Sydney together on New Year’s, you clearly lost the bet, Adam.” Lucy gritted her teeth and poked the side of Adam’s forehead with her index finger playfully. “You lost, buddy. Lost, lost, lost. So there.”
Adam continued to laugh at her before pulling her hand away from his face. “I know Cass just wanted to prove me wrong so he could win the bet. Now that that’s out of the way, we’ll see if his player instincts resurface. So don’t be surprised, Lucy.”
Cass was incredulous. “Whaaat? Wait a minute, mate, the same thing could be said about you. You have the reputation for being an even bigger player than me in this town. I think Amanda’s the one who should be on the lookout. Look out for this man, Mandi. Seriously,” Cass said, turning to her.
“Dude, no way. You’re a much bigger player than me,” Adam said grinning. “Look at who you’ve dated, bro.”
“Oh my God, what a prick—” Cass retorted before Lucy interrupted them.
“Okay, okay. While you two act like douche bags and argue over who’s the bigger player in Hollywood, Amanda and I are going to go freshen up, and then we’re hitting the dance floor.”
“I know. You guys are acting so lame,” Amanda added as she and Lucy got up to step away.
Minutes later, Amanda and Lucy stepped out of the ladies’ room raving over Heidi Klum, whom they’d just run into and exchanged a few words with. They had met her several times before, mostly at Fashion Week events in New York.
“Oh my God. I love her. She’s so gorgeous,” Lucy gushed.
“I know. I do too. She’s flawless. Can’t believe she’s had four children. That’s how I want to be after having four kids. I swear…,” Amanda said as she and Lucy continued walking directly toward a tall, dark, handsome man neither of them noticed at first. They were so engrossed in conversation that they nearly crashed into the man before his greeting startled them to attention and stopped them in their tracks.
“Hello, ladies,” Kirby said.
Chapter Six
“Kirby! Oh my God,” Amanda said before she instinctively reached to hug him without even thinking about it at first. That’s how she normally would’ve greeted him, especially if she hadn’t seen him in a while. Kirby hugged back, but the minute their bodies connected, they both recognized the awkwardness and didn’t linger, pulling away quickly.
“Hi, Lucy. How are you?” Kirby said, turning to look at her.
“Hi, Kirby,” Lucy said, smiling awkwardly, appearing giddy, intrigued, and stunned all at once. “I’m fine. How are you?”
“I’m good. Everything’s good,” he said, revealing his trademark beautiful smile.
“I didn’t expect I’d see you here,” Amanda said.
“Yeah, a producer friend of mine bought a couple of tables and gave me and another friend tickets.”
“Oh. Nice. That sure does beat spending three thousand of your own money for a single ticket.”
Kirby grinned. “Sure does. How about you?”
“I’m here with Adam. Adam Weinstock. I believe you know him,” Amanda said, her mood quickly shifting from surprise to vexation.
“Of course. How is Adam? This was a big night for him.”
“He’s fine,” Amanda said curtly while staring Kirby straight in the eye with a look that read, So what the fuck, man?
Kirby broke her gaze. He looked down, rubbing his chin and appearing uncomfortable.
Silence fell between them momentarily. Amanda turned to Lucy, who looked back at her as if trying to tell her friend with her eyes, Let’s go, but Amanda wasn’t budging. She had wanted to confront Kirby for a while, and now was her opportunity.
Amanda looked back at him. “I think we need to talk.”
Kirby didn’t say anything. Still rubbing his chin curiously, he just looked at her, then over at Lucy, and then back at Amanda.
Lucy touched Amanda on the arm. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just give me a few minutes,” Amanda said softly to her.
“Okay. I’m going back over to Cass and Adam.”
Once Lucy stepped away, Amanda looked at Kirby with deep resentment on her face. “Gee, where do I begin?”
“Uh…,” Kirby uttered, still contemplating his choice of words, looking to the ceiling, then back at her. Just when he appeared on the verge of saying something intelligible, he went from rubbing his chin to covering his mouth with his hand as if to keep himself from delivering whatever was on the tip of his tongue in the wrong way. He then jammed both hands in his pants pockets sheepishly before finally saying, “I’m sure you must have a lot of questions.”
Amanda sighed heavily. “Well…basically…Jake told me everything…I guess. How you two had been sleeping together and whatnot.” She looked away and shook her head as she spoke. Feelings of disbelief and anger began to rise within her again after lying dormant for a while. “I don’t und
erstand, Kirby,” she continued. “Were you two in love? And then it’s my understanding that you had a thing going with Adam’s assistant, Antonio Villar, too, all while you were dating Laren. I don’t get it.”
Kirby spoke haltingly. “It’s…complicated. And I’m not sure there’s anything I could possibly say that would make it sound palatable to you.”
“You were cheating. You and Jake were both cheating. Fucking each other and God knows who else, while you had girlfriends. I mean, seriously? How could you deceive Laren like that and deceive me? How shitty.”
Kirby sighed, closed his eyes, and shook his head in embarrassment before he spoke. “Amanda, I honestly don’t know what to say other than I’m sorry, sorry for the pain you’ve been put through.”
“So is it true…that you and Jake were in love with each other?”
Kirby didn’t answer her directly. “Jake and I really aren’t talking anymore. We had a falling out.”
“Did he know about you and Antonio?”
“No, he didn’t. And by the way, Jake never had a threesome with me and Antonio.”
“Yes, I know. I spoke to Antonio about that, and he admitted that he mistook Jake for someone else. So is that why you and Jake aren’t talking to each other…because of Antonio?”
“Pretty much.”
“So Jake thought you were with him, but you were fooling around with Antonio behind his back and Jake got jealous.”
“I guess you could say that. I mean…I think there’s a little more to it, but that’s about right.”
“What? Is there something else?”
“Well, I told Antonio about my relationship with Jake—”
“And Jake was trying to keep it a secret, right?”
“Right.”
“So you and Jake were together then. You were lovers. That’s why he broke up with me, because he wanted to maintain his relationship with you, secretly, and then you outed him to Antonio. He’d chosen you over—”
Just before Amanda could complete her train of thought, she was interrupted. “Everything all right here?” Adam said after walking up on them.
“Oh, hi. Sorry. We ran into each other and started talking. Everything’s fine. We’re just having a little chat here,” Amanda said as Adam studied her face, seeming concerned.
“Kirby, how are you? Long time no see,” Adam said, turning his attention to Kirby.
“Hey, Adam. I’m doing well. Thanks. Congratulations on your Oscar nominations. You’ve had a good year.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that, and congratulations to you, too. I heard about your TV pilot.”
“Oh, yeah. Thank you. We start taping in a week.”
“Excellent. I’m happy for you. You’re coproducing it with Jeff Hoefflin, right?”
“Right.”
“Excellent. Jeff’s a talented guy. I hope everything works out for you guys and that your show gets picked up for a full season.”
“Yes, I do too,” Kirby said with a forced smile.
Although the exchange between them was polite, it felt icy. Kirby figured he knew all he needed to know about Adam and Adam figured he knew all he needed to know about Kirby due to their mutual connection, Antonio. With nothing more to say to each other, there was an awkward silence before Adam cleared his throat and looked at Amanda, then back at Kirby. “Well, it was nice seeing you,” he said to Kirby as he wrapped his arm around Amanda’s waist, applying a little pressure to escort her away.
“Wait,” Amanda said, stopping Adam. “Can you give us just a few more minutes?”
“Sure,” he said hesitantly.
Amanda sensed Adam’s alarm and annoyance. “I’m sorry. I’ll be over there in a minute. Promise.”
When Amanda turned to look back at Kirby, he proceeded to pick up where she’d left off. “I know what you were about to say, but Jake didn’t choose me over you. He didn’t leave you to be with me. His intentions were to marry you and to end his relationship with me, at least physically speaking.”
“Then why did he leave?”
Although irked with Jake after learning of his liaisons with their mutual pal from the gym, Kirby nevertheless felt obligated to keep his promise to his former longtime friend and not reveal what he knew about the payment Jake had been offered by Amanda’s own father to break things off with her. Kirby sighed and again contemplated his choice of words before he spoke. “Jake is the one who needs to explain that to you.”
“Explain what? What more is there to know?”
Kirby shook his head as he struggled to come up with something else to say to her other than the truth, which he’d sworn never to reveal.
Seeing that Kirby was remaining tight-lipped, Amanda threw up her hands in frustration. “So what about you?”
“What about me?”
“I mean…are you exclusively dating guys now? Are you trying to get back with Jake? What’s going on with you?”
Kirby glared at her. He wanted to say, “Who I’m fucking isn’t any of your business, bitch,” but he took the high road, skipped over answering her first question, and instead answered the second. “No. I’m not trying to get with Jake. In fact, I hadn’t seen or spoken to him in months until recently, when I ran into him at the gym. Things are pretty much over between us. There’s something I still need to confront him about, but we’re done as friends.” Kirby paused for a moment before asking, “So what about you? Are you trying to get back with Jake?”
Amanda balked. “Does it look like I’m trying to get back with Jake?”
“Well, you asked me. I thought I’d ask you too. Are you still in love with him?”
“Are you?”
“I asked you first.”
Amanda sighed in annoyance, sounding defensive. “No. I’m not. I’ve moved on, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“I’m not sure I’m one hundred percent convinced.”
“Convinced of what? That I’ve moved on?”
“That you’re not still in love with Jake.”
“I’m not one hundred percent convinced that you’re not still in love with him. You didn’t even answer if you were or not, but I can tell that you are. It’s written all over your face.”
Kirby didn’t have a comeback. He just stared at her, unprepared and unwilling to pour out his feelings to her about the range of emotions raging inside him—love, anger, sadness, and betrayal. After all, he was complicit in causing her to have the exact same feelings about Jake he presently felt.
Keeping her own feelings close to the vest and not wanting to send any mixed messages, Amanda made sure to underscore the point about having moved on. “Anyway, I’m dating Adam now. Are you dating anyone?” she asked in a tone that sounded doubtful.
When Kirby didn’t answer her, she seized on the opportunity and let him have it.
“Hmmm,” she uttered with a smirk. “Kirby, if you want Jake, he’s all yours. Go ahead and claim him. You’re both lying, deceitful cheats anyway. You only care about yourselves and don’t give a shit about who you hurt. You deserve each other as far as I’m concerned. Good-bye!”
Amanda turned to step away from him, but then she turned back around to say one more thing. “Oh, when you see Jake again, you can tell him not to worry. I’ll keep your little secret to myself.”
“What secret?”
“That you’re both gay even though you go around fucking girls to appear straight.”
Chapter Seven
Jake had avoided Julie all weekend long. He’d deliberately decided not to stay the night or hang out with her in any way. Jake liked Julie, even admired her, but he couldn’t keep their office fling going any longer with his heart and mind set on reclaiming Amanda.
“Hey, stranger,” Julie said as she peeked her head inside Jake’s office door the Monday morning following Oscar weekend.
Jake was rapidly typing a memo on his computer but stopped to acknowledge her. “Hey!”
Julie walked toward him and folded her arms as Jake retur
ned to typing, seeming occupied. “So did you have a hot date over the weekend?” she asked.
“Nooo. Why would you think that?” Jake said, incredulous.
“Don’t get all defensive.”
“I’m not. I just don’t know why you’d think that.”
“Well, last week when I asked you about your plans for the weekend, you seemed less than enthusiastic—”
“Whattaya mean less than enthusiastic?” Jake said as he continued to type.
“Like…you were being vague…as if you had other plans or something that you didn’t want to tell me about. I just assumed you had a date,” Julie said with a shrug of the shoulders.
“Nope,” Jake said as he kept typing.
“Oh well, I see you’re busy. I’ll let you get back to work. Sorry to interrupt.”
Just as Julie turned around to step out of Jake’s office, he asked, “You want to grab lunch later?”
She looked back at him. “Sure.”
Fifteen minutes past noon, Jake swung by Julie’s office. They headed out together to walk across the street from their office building to a favorite Mexican spot.
As they gabbed about office politics and personalities on their walk over to eat, they passed by the Jonathan Club. Feeling a little nostalgic, Julie grabbed Jake by the arm with both her hands and leaned in to him. “There’s our old spot. We haven’t been there in a while. Want to take a little detour?” she said playfully in his ear.
Jake smirked and tried to appear amused at the recollection of their past hookups there, but he hoped Julie wasn’t being serious. As they walked past the club’s entrance, Jake stared straight ahead and quickly changed the subject. “I think I’m going order the carnitas tacos this time. I’ve been craving those all morning.”
Julie took the bait. “Mmmm…sounds delish.”
After they’d ordered and found a place to sit, Julie had their earlier conversation still on her mind. “So are you going to tell me what you did this weekend?”
