L. A. Candy (18 page)

Jane slipped her arm through Jesse’s as they walked into the Arclight. They’d only been on a couple dates so far, but being with him felt so comfortable already. It was a Friday night, and the enormous, modern lobby was packed with people staring up at the big, lit-up “departure board” displaying movie titles and times. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw several
L.A. Candy
cameramen filming their entrance.

“You sure you’re ready for this?” Jesse teased. “You can still bail, you know.”

“I love scary movies,” Jane replied. “I say, bring it on.”

Jesse looked so handsome tonight, dressed in jeans and a gray cashmere sweater that accentuated his broad shoulders. Jane was wearing a white silk peasant top over skinny jeans and brown wedge shoes. As they made their way through the lobby, people pointed and whispered excitedly. Some of them even took pictures of her and Jesse with their cell phones. The show had been airing for
about a month, but Jane still wasn’t used to the attention she was getting from it. And walking in on the arm of Jesse Edwards—well, that meant
double
the attention.

She and Jesse got some popcorn and a soda to share, then headed for their theater. A young employee offered them each a pair of oversized yellow-framed glasses.

“It’s in three-D?” Jane asked, surprised.

Jesse grinned. “Yeah.
Now
you wanna bail?”

“No way. I haven’t seen a three-D movie since…I don’t even remember when.”

“This movie’s gonna be amazing in three-D. The three other times I saw it, it was in a regular theater.”

“You’ve seen this movie three times already?”

“Yeah. With Braden. It’s tradition for us to see horror movies together.” At Jane’s expression of doubt, he laughed. “We watched them together growing up all the time. Whenever I’d crash at his house, we’d stay up super-late watching scary movies.”

Jane smiled casually, trying not to react to the mention of Braden. She had spoken to him only once since the house party. He had called her the day after Jesse had taken her to Geisha House. Their conversation had been—well,
awkward
would be putting it mildly.

“So you and Jesse are going out now?” he’d said.

“Um, well, we went out last night.” She hadn’t told him about the date herself because the idea of calling him to say, “Jesse asked me out and I said yes,” felt lame when chances were he wouldn’t even care. It would be like
holding a sign that read, “I like you and you don’t like me back.”
Liked
, she reminded herself.
Liked
him.

“He said you’re going out again next weekend.”

“Yeah,” she said, noting an edge in Braden’s voice she’d never heard before. “What’s your point, Braden?”

He took a deep breath. “I know this is a strange thing to say about my best friend, but he’s not your type. Don’t get me wrong, I love Jesse like a brother. But I just don’t see you guys together.”

“What are you talking about?” She felt a little bubble of hope at what sounded like jealousy, which was kind of frustrating because she was
over
Braden. She liked Jesse.

“Look, you’re my friend. I care about you. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

Oh, of course. Your friend,
Jane thought, and the little bubble of hope burst, leaving even more frustration in its place. “I’m a big girl,” she said coldly. “I know how to take care of myself.”

And that had been the end of it. He hadn’t called or texted her since that conversation almost two weeks ago. Jane had wondered, more than once, why Braden had tried to talk her out of going out with Jesse.
Was
it jealousy? Or was it just Jesse’s history with girls? Jesse had told her when they went out last Saturday night that that had been a stupid phase, a thing of the past. Jane didn’t know him well enough to tell if he was being totally honest and sincere. But he had
seemed
totally honest and sincere. That was enough for her. Besides, they were just
dating.
It’s not like they were getting married or whatever.

Jane followed Jesse into the already-dark movie theater and sat down in their reserved seats. When she jumped and let out a quick scream at a particularly frightening part (thankfully, she wasn’t the only one; everyone else in the audience screamed too), Jesse put his arm around her. His arm felt good: strong, warm, protective. Jane snuggled a little closer, and felt his face brushing against her hair, which made her shiver.

After the movie, Jesse led her to the Arclight Bar, which took up one half of the lobby. Three of the
L.A. Candy
cameramen were positioned in the corners, shooting continuously. Jane wondered what the crew had done while she was in the movie. Maybe they had gone to a crew meal?

Over martinis, Jane and Jesse talked for the next hour. He told her about how he had dropped out of U.C.L.A. to work in finance for a friend of his father’s, but had quit that and was now thinking of going back to school, maybe to major in business. She said she hadn’t totally ruled out college either. He talked about spending a lot of time at Braden’s house when they were kids since his own parents traveled to be on location so much. He told some funny stories about all the trouble he and Braden used to get into, and she reciprocated with stories about her and Scarlett.

Over the course of their conversation, Jane found that the mention of Braden had less and less of an effect on her. Braden was her friend. He had never indicated to her that
he wanted anything more than a friendship. But Jesse was right here, right now. He was handsome, he was sweet, he was fun. And he liked her as
more
than a friend. Jane realized it was time she truly let go of whatever feelings she’d harbored for Braden and move on to something
real
—Jesse and whatever tonight (and their next date and their next date beyond that) might hold for them.

Jesse’s voice cut into her thoughts. “You ready to go home?”

Jane shrugged. She’d had two martinis—one fewer than he’d had—and she was starting to feel their effect. “Yeah, I’m a little tired. I spent the last few days driving all over L.A. doing stuff for Fiona. Things were kind of not-busy with her for a while, and now they’re crazy-busy again. I knew the job was going to be a lot of work, but I was hoping I’d be more than a glorified errand girl, you know?”

“You just have to be patient,” he counseled. “I’m sure Fiona will come to her senses eventually and realize that you’re great and give you real stuff to do.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Oh, I’m right. You’re definitely great.” He flashed his big grin at her, while she willed herself not to blush. “So great that I’ve been talking about you to my friends for weeks. I really want you to meet them.”

“Your friends?” Jane repeated. Her mind immediately flashed to Braden. She wondered if Jesse discussed her with him. She didn’t dare ask.

“My birthday is in two weeks,” Jesse went on.

Jane leaned over and kissed him lightly on the cheek. “Really? Happy birthday!”

Jesse smiled and pulled her in for another kiss. Jane smiled back.

Breaking from a kiss, Jesse continued, “So like I was saying, I’m gonna be twenty-one. I thought I’d get some friends together at Goa. ’Course you know Braden already, but there’s a bunch of other people you haven’t met. I’d love it if you could be there. You should invite your friends too. Like Scarlett. And Madison and Gaby and whoever else you want. It’d be nice for me to get to know them.”

Jane wondered if Jesse knew what her friends thought about him. Scar giving him the cold shoulder whenever he picked Jane up at the apartment might have tipped him off.

“Absolutely,” Jane said. “I’ll text everyone as soon as you tell me the date and time.” She stopped and studied him. He was staring at her with an expression she couldn’t read. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Sorry. It’s just that you’re so beautiful.”

“I am
not
.”

“You are. You know I’m kinda crazy about you, don’t you?”

“Hmmm…or maybe you’re just crazy, period,” Jane teased.

Jesse reached for her and kissed her again.
I’m kinda crazy about you too,
Jane thought as they kissed.

Scarlett was in her room, watching
L.A. Candy
on TiVo. She and Jane had seen the first couple episodes together, Jane excited and laughing at how crazy it was to have their lives edited into perfect half-hour segments, and Scarlett cursing and horrified at how the producers chose to package them into pretty little clichés. But Scarlett was watching tonight with a purpose: to see if this might be the episode where she had tricked Madison into showing her true colors during her tour of U.S.C. She hoped it was, and she hoped the producers had the sense not to cut those scenes. She was trying to fast-forward when she heard Jane come through the front door. The clock on the DVD player said 1:14. Scarlett quickly stopped the show and switched to Comedy Central—she wanted to see it alone first before revealing Madison’s true nature to Jane. She listened, making sure Jane was alone. Hearing only one set of footsteps, she
called out, “Hey! Wanna come watch TV?”

No answer. A moment later, Jane walked by, digging through her purse. She glanced briefly in Scarlett’s direction. Scarlett saw that her cheeks were flushed pink, and her eyes were…glowing. Dreamy. Scarlett stared at her for a minute, disoriented. She hadn’t seen Jane look like that in ages. Not since Caleb, during their first blissedout year before he took off for Yale and decided to redefine “monogamy.” That was Scarlett’s theory about him, anyway.

“Um…how was your date with the man-whore?” Scarlett yelled from her room. Jane had been dating Jesse Edwards for about two weeks now, and Scarlett had been giving her a hard time about it the whole time. She had seen all those tabloid articles featuring Jesse.

Jane took a few steps back and popped her head in the doorway. “His name’s Jesse,” she corrected her in a cool voice. “It was good.”

“It was?”

“Yep.” Jane smiled.

She walked into the room and slid into bed beside Scarlett, checking a text message. Scarlett leaned back to take a peek. It said: I REALLY HAD A GREAT TIME TONIGHT. CANT WAIT 2 SEE U AGAIN.

ME TOO, Jane typed.

Vomit,
Scarlett thought.
Way to play it cool, Jesse
.

“Uh, Janie? Not to be a buzzkill, but we’re talking about Jesse Edwards, right?” Scarlett said in as gentle a voice
as possible. “How many times have we seen his picture in
Gossip
magazine? And how many different girls have we seen
next
to him in those pictures? I’m just saying…”

“He told me that was a stupid phase he went through, and he’s trying to get away from all that now,” Jane said defensively. “I guess one of his friends from high school died in a DUI a few months ago, and it really shook him up and changed his perspective on stuff.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously.”

Jane turned her attention back to her phone, intently pressing buttons. Scarlett didn’t know what to do. Her best friend had a bad history with boys, and bad judgment too. Caleb had burned her. Braden, with his nearly invisible but definitely very real girlfriend (she didn’t care what Braden called her—she was a girlfriend), had
almost
been a huge mistake. Jane was probably still recovering from both Caleb and Braden on some level and was vulnerable to male attention of any kind—especially male attention from someone as hot as Jesse.

Maybe it’ll blow over,
Scarlett thought.

Then she watched Jane reading another text and smiling happily to herself.
Maybe not.

“Well, just be careful,” Scarlett said, feeling partly protective toward Jane, and partly annoyed that Jane was walking into another relationship with blinders on.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he’s
Jesse Edwards.
You know he’s probably
going out with like four other girls. He’s a player.”

Jane turned to face Scarlett. “You know what? I like him, and he’s really sweet to me,” she snapped. “New subject, okay? How’s
your
love life?”

Scarlett didn’t feel like answering the question. The truth was, she’d kind of been checking out Cute Camera Guy from the U.S.C. tour, Liam. He was not only hot, but he seemed smart, too. That day, she’d spotted him reading a copy of
One Hundred Years of Solitude
—one of her favorite novels—during a break.

She knew that the “talent” wasn’t supposed to date the crew—Dana had gone over the ground rules in the beginning—but maybe there was a way around that?

Jane was staring at her, waiting for an answer to her question. Scarlett pretended not to hear and climbed off the bed. “I need a little TV-watching snack. Do you want anything from the kitchen?”

“I’ll come with you,” Jane replied, following behind Scarlett. “So how’s your love life?” she repeated.

“Hmmm.” Scarlett opened up the refrigerator. She gave it a moment, and then decided that even though she was kind of annoyed at Jane for not trusting her judgment about Jesse, she had to answer the question. She didn’t want to say anything about her inappropriate crush on Liam, though. Not yet. “Nonexistent at the moment.”

“Any cute guys at school?”

“Nah, not really.”

“You’re telling me that there are
no
cute guys at U.S.C.?”
Jane asked, teasing her. “There’re, like, thousands of students there, right?”

“Yeah, well. I don’t know. I’ve been kinda busy with papers and exams and stuff. And…” Scarlett hesitated, grabbing a bunch of grapes. “Don’t you find it weird having the cameras around all the time? I don’t want the entire country to see who I’m hooking up with, ya know?”

Jane shrugged. “I’m sort of getting used to it. Besides, it’s not like they’re with us twenty-four/seven.”

“Sure feels like it sometimes.”

Jane’s phone buzzed on the counter just then, loudly. She glanced at the screen. “Oh, I gotta get that. Hello?” she said brightly. “Hey, Jesse!”

Jane listened for a moment, then laughed. “Yeah, I know. What? You want to take me
where
Monday night?” She laughed again.

Sighing, Scarlett walked back to her room and shut the door.