Sugar And Spice Part 21

"Where are you going?" Braden said, trailing after her. "Are you hungry? We could grab some breakfast."

Jane turned and gazed at Braden. "I've gotta go," she said quietly. "Good-bye, Braden."

Braden frowned. "Wait. What's wrong? What did I do?"

Jane smiled sadly at him. "Nothing. Thanks for last night. But I don't think we're going to be doing that again." She added, "Oh, and let me give you a heads-up. As soon as I walk out that door, you're gonna decide you want me back. You might even tell yourself that you're in love with me. But you're not. You never will be."

With that, she left.

Chapter 34.

Becoming n.o.bodies

"So here's to your amazing new job," Scarlett said, lifting her gla.s.s of champagne.

Jane lifted her gla.s.s, too. "And here's to your amazing new college. Columbia's not gonna know what hit them," she joked.

"Ha-ha. By the way, Liam and I just ordered a sofa bed for the living room. It's got your name written on it."

"Yeah, well, I'm gonna be sleeping there a lot, so don't even bother changing the sheets."

Scarlett giggled. "Ew."

Jane took a sip of her champagne and glanced around the trendy new Rodeo Drive restaurant, checking out the other people there, worried that she might start crying if she didn't distract herself, quick. Outside the window, the air shimmered with the late July heat wave . . . candy-colored convertibles glided by . . . and a row of palm trees swayed slightly in the nearly stagnant breeze. Summer in L.A. Had it really been a whole year since she and Scar moved here from Santa Barbara?

In a few days, Scarlett and Liam were flying out to New York: Scar for her Columbia University orientation, and Liam to work for a film production company. They had already lined up an apartment in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.

As for Jane, she was going to start her new job next week, with RSVP, a small but high-profile event-planning firm with offices in L.A. and New York. Unlike Fiona, the owner of RSVP had zero interest in being part of a reality show. Jane was really excited about working for him and also having the opportunity to travel to Manhattan for business-and be a total third wheel in Scar's and Liam's lives.

Hannah was coming with Jane to RSVP. She and Oliver had also quit the show and were still together. Jane had dinner with them last week, and was pleased to see how happy they were.

Someday, I'm gonna have what they have . . . and what Scar and Liam have, too, Jane thought. Someday, I'm gonna find a wonderful guy who loves me for me. Not a Jesse or a Caleb or a Braden, but someone way better.

In any case . . . L.A. Candy was behind her now. Shooting had wrapped in May, and the Season 2 finale had aired in June. Just as Jane had predicted, Trevor had pulled out all the stops to try to get her to change her mind: pleading, cajoling, offering her larger and larger sums of money, and at one point even losing his cool and yelling at her, which was so unlike him. She knew how high the stakes were for him; the show was his baby. He had finally backed off, but she suspected deep down that he was never going to give up. Fine-whatever. Let him keep pleading and cajoling and negotiating and yelling. Jane wasn't interested in coming back, not now, not ever.

Besides, Trevor had his hands full at the moment. In the aftermath of Las Vegas, he had scrambled to rewrite and restructure everyone's story lines. Madison had "left Fiona Chen Events and moved out of the city." In reality, Madison had gone through a brief, intense period of total media humiliation about her sister's revelation in Las Vegas. That was followed by a wave of "Before" and "After" photos that (ironically) ended up impressing a lot of people, landing Madison her own reality show-a makeover show-with one of PopTV's compet.i.tors. Even more surprisingly, Madison recently started a charity to give scholarships to underprivileged girls. The Madelyn Wardell Foundation awarded its first scholarship last week to a girl who grew up in the same trailer park as Madison and who wanted to attend USC.

Sophia and Gaby were still under contract, and Jane had heard rumors that they would be the focus of Season 3, starting in September. Sophia had decided to keep the name Sophia Parker (versus Sophilyn Wardell), and Trevor had trumped up some crazy story line about how Sophia had changed her ident.i.ty in order to escape an abusive boyfriend back home, which had drawn big ratings and a lot of sympathy in the press. Sophia had broken up with Jesse, no surprise, and gone through a string of equally hot, dysfunctional boyfriends in the last couple of months, all of whom would be appearing on future episodes.

Gaby was apparently dating Caleb, which was pretty much too gross for Jane to contemplate. She'd heard through the grapevine that Gaby was having second thoughts about him and about all the other recent changes in her life. She fired her sleazy publicist and went back to wearing her hair, makeup, and clothing the way she used to. Jane wondered how long Trevor would keep her around on the show.

As for Braden . . . well, Jane didn't think about him much anymore. She was surprised at how quickly she had been able to recover and move on. She was obviously stronger than she gave herself credit for. She wasn't the same old Janie Roberts from last summer who didn't know who she was or what she wanted out of life.

She still hadn't figured it out completely. But she was getting there.

The waitress came by with their appetizers. "This is great, I'm starving," Jane said, digging into her cheese plate. Now that she wasn't under a constant media microscope, she wasn't going to worry about gaining an extra pound or two.

"Isn't it so great not to have to wear mike packs anymore?" Scarlett said, popping an olive into her mouth.

"I'm so used to them, I feel practically naked now."

"Right? And not having paparazzi camped outside our building twenty-four/seven?"

"Yeah. It's so lonely without them." Jane laughed, but then got serious again and added, "Speaking of press . . . was Liam okay about your Maxim cover?"

"Wellllll. He said he was gonna buy every single copy out there and hack the Maxim website so no one could see the pictures."

"Yeah, that sounds like Liam. I think Madison's got the September cover?"

"Hmm. Can't wait."

Just then, Jane noticed a guy standing behind a nearby column, looking in their direction. He was middle-aged, balding, and wore a camera strap around his neck. . . .

"Scar! There's a paparazzo inside the restaurant," Jane whispered.

"What? Where?"

Jane nodded in the direction of the column.

"Hey, you!" Scarlett raised her voice. "Yeah, you! We can see you! You'd better get out of here before we call the manager. Paparazzi aren't allowed in this restaurant!"

The man stepped out from behind the column. Jane realized with a start that his camera was not a professional camera. Maybe he was a customer who had been waiting at the bar for his drink?

"Je ne comprends pas l'anglais," he said, looking confused.

"Oh, G.o.d, Janie. He's French. He's probably a tourist," Scarlett whispered, sounding mortified. "Je suis desolee!" she called out, waving. "Ce n'est rien! Never mind!" She buried her head in her hands. "Oh, G.o.d. How embarra.s.sing was that?"

"Pretty embarra.s.sing. Sorry! I guess I'm still paranoid."

"Yeah, well . . . no one wants to take our pictures anymore. We're practically n.o.bodies now," Scar joked.

Jane grinned and raised her champagne gla.s.s. "Here's to becoming n.o.bodies," she toasted.

Scarlett smiled and raised her gla.s.s.

Acknowledgments.

Thanks to Max Stubblefield, Nicole Perez, Kristin Puttkamer, PJ Shapiro, Dave Del Sesto, Adam Divello, Tony DiSanto, Liz Gately, MTV, Zareen Jaffery and Farrin Jacobs and everyone at HarperCollins, Matthew Elblonk, and everyone else who made this book possible.

And a very special thanks to Nancy Ohlin, my collaborator; I've learned so much and have loved creating these books.

About the Author.

LAUREN CONRAD is best known for starring in the MTV hit series The Hills. Her novels L.A. CANDY and SWEET LITTLE LIES were both #1 New York Times bestsellers. She is also the author of LAUREN CONRAD STYLE, a fashion guide. She began her career as a fashion designer in spring 2008 with the debut of the Lauren Conrad Collection and expanded in 2009 with a second line, LC Lauren Conrad, exclusively for Kohl's. She has been featured on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, Rolling Stone, and Entertainment Weekly, among others. Lauren also launched the m.powerment by mark charity campaign in 2008. She lives in Los Angeles.

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