Part 14 (1/2)
Still . . . why did she care what he thought of her?
”She'll be here at six sharp, right, Jane?” Trevor asked.
”Um, yes. Six sharp. Dana arranged that,” Jane said. She had to stop it with the psychoa.n.a.lysis and focus on the party.
Trevor gave Jane a few more instructions, then said good-bye to her and D and took off. ”Your boss is one good-looking man,” D remarked.
Jane laughed. ”D, he's, like, forty.”
Jane surveyed the room to see what other area needed setting up. She noticed a small brown notebook lying on the floor nearby. She leaned over and picked it up. ”This isn't yours, is it?”
D took the notebook from her and turned it over in his hand. ”I wis.h.!.+ It's a Smythson, crocodile.”
Jane's cell buzzed. She glanced at the screen and saw that it was Hannah. ”D, I have to get this. See if you can figure out who it belongs to.”
”No problem, sweetie.”
Jane spoke briefly to Hannah, who was at OfficeMax and had a question about the poster. When she hung up, she saw that D was poring over the notebook with an intense expression. ”D! I didn't tell you to snoop. I meant, look for a name or something,” she teased him.
”Jane?” D looked up. ”I thought your restaurant opening wasn't until next Tuesday.”
Jane frowned. ”It's not. Why?”
”Then why does Trevor have notes about the party from start to finish, like it's already happened?”
”Wait. That's Trevor's notebook?”
”Yep. He must have dropped it. Check this out.” D slid the notebook across the table and stabbed his finger at an open page.
Jane stared at the entry, which was in Trevor's familiar, nearly illegible handwriting. It wasn't easy to read, but as far as Jane could tell, it said: SIRLOIN OPENING.
J arrives late, looks fl.u.s.tered (2030 min late).
F's reaction = perturbed.
H already there (push her call time 30 min earlier so she's on time).
J & H discuss expectations for night while doing a task (gift bags?).
Line from J: ”What could go wrong?”
M enters through side door. (Make sure to have 1 camera on J.) J won't be expecting M b/c she's not working that night. (Earlier have M say she's going to be ”out of town.”) J upset that M is there.
F asks J to seat M.
Possible beat later: Chef offers girls a sample of special hors d'oeuvres (oysters, scallops?). Jane refuses (doesn't eat sh.e.l.lfish). Chef's reaction = insulted.
Jane gasped. WTF?
D was shaking his head. ”Jane, this is just creepy. It's like you're his little puppet. He knows what you're going to do before you do.”
Jane was so shocked that she could barely speak. ”This . . . is . . . sick,” she finally managed.
”Yeah. I mean, we all know reality TV isn't one hundred percent real, but this is crazy.”
Jane began leafing through pages, growing increasingly disgusted. ”OhmiG.o.d! He's got my 'scenes' for the next three weeks all figured out. A week from Monday, I'm apparently having lunch at the Sunset Marquis with Scar, and we're apparently going to run into Madison's sister.”
”Seriously?”
Jane slapped the notebook shut. She couldn't take any more of this. She picked up her cell and scrolled through her address book.
”Honey, what are you doing?” D asked her.
”Calling him. He can't treat me like this. I'm a human being!”
”No, no, no!” D s.n.a.t.c.hed her phone away from her and tucked it into the inside pocket of his black velvet blazer. ”Sweetie, you have to learn to fight fire with fire. I know you're upset, but Trevor will just talk his way out of it, and nothing's gonna change.”
”But-”
”Hus.h.!.+ You know I'm right.”
Jane fumed. D was right. But she couldn't just sit back and do nothing, could she?
D squeezed her hand. ”The good news is . . . do you understand what you have here? You have the other team's playbook.”
”Huh?”
”You know exactly what Trevor has in mind for you for the next three weeks. You can be a step ahead of him the whole way. Why not use that to your advantage?”
Jane nodded slowly. D was on to something. ”Yes! You're brilliant!” she said, hugging him.
”Yeah, and you thought I was just a pretty face. Come on, girl. We've got some reading to do.”
Chapter 22.
Fame and Fortune
”I'm obsessed with this,” Sophie said, punching the keys on her new BlackBerry. ”It's way better than my other phone. Or surfing the Web on Mom's piece-of-c.r.a.p PC. It was super-sweet of Trev to give it to me. I think he really likes me, don't you?”
”Don't get too excited. We all got one. For the show,” Madison explained. She looked around, wondering where in the h.e.l.l the waitress was. She and Sophie were sitting at an outdoor cafe, waiting for the PopTV crew to show up. According to Dana's earlier email, they were going to shoot a quick scene of the two sisters discussing tonight's (yawn) surprise party for Scarlett.
”Check out this picture of me. Isn't it cool?” Sophie held up the screen for Madison.
Madison glanced at it. It was the same red-carpet shot from the video-game launch that had popped up all over the internet, with captions like: L.A. CANDY'S NEWEST HOTTIE! and SMOKIN' SOPHIA! She fake-smiled, trying to mask her annoyance. ”Yeah, it's kind of a big deal that you're my sister.”