Part 18 (2/2)
Her heart skipped a beat.
Jane was so tempted to reply YES!!!!! But what about Caleb? She couldn't be dating Caleb and hanging out with Braden, too-especially since she and Braden were a little more than friends. And also because she had decided to make more of an effort with Caleb. So he was a bit starstruck. Hollywood had that effect on people, and he would get over it soon. In the meantime, he was still the same great guy he always was: fun, sweet, thoughtful. Hot. She was going to try to talk him into more off-camera dates so they could be themselves again, the way they used to be, before he got the fame bug and before Dana started micromanaging their conversations. No wonder their on-camera chemistry was so lame, when they couldn't even be themselves most of the time.
”Jane!” Oliver came rus.h.i.+ng up to her. ”Sorry to bother you, but Fiona wanted me to ask you . . . can we rearrange some seats at the head table? Aja's sister and her husband weren't planning to be here because they live in Martinique and they just had a baby. But they made some last-minute arrangements, and now they're here, and it's supposed to be a big surprise for Aja and Miguel. Is there anything we can do?”
”OhmiG.o.d . . . the head table!” Jane went through a mental picture of the seating chart. Aja, Miguel, Aja's parents, Miguel's parents, Miguel's brother and his wife . . . they couldn't possibly move any of them over to another table.
”You know, the tables are kind of big,” Oliver remarked. ”Maybe we could ask Hank or Xavier to have someone squeeze in two more place settings? And maybe get rid of one of the candelabras, to make s.p.a.ce?”
”Yes! Oliver, you're brilliant!”
Oliver blushed. ”Glad I could help.”
”Yeah, well, it would have been a disaster if we couldn't accommodate the sister and brother-in-law.”
”Guess I won't be having this problem at my celebrity engagement party, since I don't have any siblings,” Oliver joked.
Jane smiled. And then her smile faded. Oliver was an only child?
Jane flashed back to another mental picture, of an entry in Trevor's notebook she had never been able to decipher. It was a short entry, with just four items: Right age, height, attractive
From SD, only child
No acting aspirations, needs $?
Seems very willing to go along with it
Seems very willing to go along with it. Jane felt sick to her stomach all of a sudden as a terrible realization dawned on her.
”Jane? Are you okay?” Oliver sounded concerned.
Jane reached under her clothing and switched her microphone off. She signaled for Oliver to do the same. He obeyed, looking confused.
”Oliver, tell me the truth,” Jane said as calmly as she could. ”Did Trevor cast you to date Hannah?”
Oliver stared at her. ”W-what are you talking about?” he stammered.
”Did . . . Trevor . . . cast . . . you?”
Oliver started to turn away, then stopped. ”Look, it wasn't like that, exactly,” he blurted out. ”A friend of mine told me that some producer was looking for a guy my age to be on his reality show. I went in for the interview. Trevor practically signed me up on the spot. He said that all I had to do was be a part-time intern for an event planner, and he hinted that I might like some girl named Hannah.”
”Nice,” Jane said, disgusted.
”It's not what you think!” Oliver said. ”I couldn't say no to the money. My dad got laid off last year, and I'm trying to pay my own way through school.” He raked a hand through his dark auburn curls. ”Besides, you don't understand. Hannah and me . . . it's not like Trevor made me like her. I was just gonna see what happened. But then I fell in love with her.”
”You're . . . in love with her?” Jane said, stunned.
”Head over heels. She's the most amazing girl I've ever known.”
”Jane!” Hannah's voice came over her earpiece. ”The gondola's gonna be here in, like, sixty seconds.”
Jane glanced quickly at Oliver. ”Oh, hey, Hannah,” she said loudly. Oliver looked startled. ”I'm on my way. Everything okay where you are?”
”Everything's perfect!”
No, it's not, Jane thought grimly as she signed off, thinking about Oliver's confession. She told herself that Hannah was going to need lots of support in the coming days and weeks. Because she was pretty sure that Hannah was in love with Oliver, too, and it wasn't going to be easy for her when she learned the truth.
Although . . . something told Jane that Hannah would find it in her heart to forgive Oliver. After all, Hannah had done something similar when she first started working for Fiona, pretending to be Jane's friend for the cameras per Trevor's and Dana's instructions.
”Jane, you're not gonna tell her, are you?” Oliver said worriedly. ”If she knew Trevor cast me like that, she'll think I'm lying about the way I feel about her. And I'm not!”
Jane put her hands on his shoulders. ”No, I'm not gonna tell her. You are.”
”What?”
”Yep. And it's gonna be okay.”
”It is?”
”She might surprise you. She's pretty understanding.” Jane gave Oliver a rea.s.suring smile. ”Okay, come on, back to work.”
Jane switched her mike on and hurried toward the dock, just as the DJ on the stage began playing ”At Last” by Etta James. The white-and-gold gondola glided into the square, and the crowd erupted into wild cheers as Aja and Miguel, looking happy and radiant, stood up in the boat, waving and blowing kisses.
”Jane?” A guy in a black tux touched her arm. He lifted his mask.
”Oh, hey, Naveen! Are you having fun? Where's Caleb?” Jane asked him distractedly. She noticed a PopTV camera guy about ten feet away, filming them. Yeah, Naveen and I are having a pretty fascinating conversation right now, she thought drily.
”I'm not sure. Have you seen Scarlett?”
”Not in, like, the last half hour. Listen, I'm sorry, but I'm working, so I've gotta run. I'll catch up with you later-ow!”
Someone b.u.mped into Jane, hard. She glanced up, startled, and saw a familiar-looking girl holding an empty winegla.s.s.
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