Star Struck(24)

     



 

Mandy turned from the windows with a breathless laugh. Just as she faced  Ethan, he grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her in for a kiss.  Whew.





Chapter Ten





"Interesting," Jessica Charles said with a discerning twist of her thin,  red-coated lips. She tossed the celebrity gossip sheet on the desk, the  one with Ethan kissing Mandy on the cover.

It was the Monday after the concert and Mandy was having her early  morning briefing with the zesty Jessica, whom Mandy had found thumbing  through the very same magazine moments earlier when she came in.

Now seated in front of Jessica's desk, Mandy squirmed in her chair even  as her boss went on in a businesslike tone. "I guess there'll be no  questioning your enthusiasm for the upcoming London assignment.  Well … maybe this can work to my  –  our - advantage. Convince Ethan to get  my firm as the band's sole stylist, and I'll open doors for your career  like you've never dreamed of. With your ambition and my tutelage, you'll  be running your own firm in a year. You'll be the ‘It" girl of  celebrity fashion styling. With the right springboard  –  that's me  –   there'll be no stopping you in as little as five years."

Jessica rose to pace her ultra-modern glass-themed office. "It took me  fifteen years to get where I am today. No one gave me any leg-ups in my  time, but I did do a lot of leg-opening of my own, if you catch my  drift." She smiled thinly in Mandy's direction. "And it didn't matter to  any of those big-shot jerks that I was married or not. To them, I  should be ready to do whatever it took. And they were right; I was  ready."

She squared her narrow shoulders, which were encased in her black and  white patterned trouser suit. When she faced Mandy, her eyes were cool  slates. "Now I don't know what your game is with Ethan. I could go on  about the errors of mixing business and pleasure, but then you strike me  as smart. You know what you're doing, so all I can say is what I always  say: whatever happens, don't you dare fuck this up for me. Now get back  to work."

It seemed incredible that her boss had just given her a proposition,  Mandy thought wonderingly as she nodded and stood from her chair. She  could see that Jessica wasn't kidding. She'd meant every word she'd said  about shooting Mandy's career forward if she got The Strum on board.  Mandy didn't even want to think of what would happen if she didn't  succeed.

Mandy heaved a sigh of relief once she'd shut the door to Jessica's  office behind her. But Mandy's feeling of relief was only short-term.  She was thinking of her upcoming lunch date with Marcus.

He'd rung her at work just that morning, insisting that they needed to  meet. Mandy had no excuse why she couldn't make it and had reluctantly  agreed. She'd held it back for too long and would have to face the truth  sometime.

When the hour came, Mandy was ushered to the table where the handsome,  well-dressed Marcus stood waiting. Once she was settled in he retook his  seat, his expression calm. "Hello, Mandy."

Mandy found it wasn't as hard as she'd feared to tell Marcus the whole  truth. They ordered lunch and spoke calmly about Marcus's trip and how  he'd cut it short after a client had withdrawn an offer on a deal. "I  could have stayed to drive home my bid, but I decided to return. I had a  feeling something was wrong. I just never expected I'd lose you so  entirely." He sighed heavily. "I saw the photos, Mandy. The story is in  Mob Celebrity magazine. You and Ethan Tyler at that concert on  Saturday."

"I'm sorry," Mandy said, lifting her eyes and squeezing her fists on the  table. "Really sorry for causing you any kind of pain or embarrassment.  And you haven't lost me entirely. We can still be friends. You'll never  be my enemy, Marcus."

To her surprise, he suddenly reached out and placed a hand over hers.  "Don't do this, Mandy," he said softly. His eyes were pinned on hers.  "It doesn't have to end like this."

"Marcus, it already has," she said firmly, pulling away with an almost imperceptible shift of her hand from beneath his.

He looked down on his plate for a few moments before he spoke again, his  tone brisk. "In three days, you'll be going to London for the festival  that Ethan's band is headlining. When you get back, we can talk again.  I'm not prepared to let you go, Mandy. So if you want to have your fling  with the rock star, that's fine. But this isn't you, not really. And I  want to be there for you when it all falls apart. And we both know it  will."         

     



 

Mandy's teeth clamped tight together as she fought back the pang of hurt in her chest. "Don't be hateful, Marcus."

"I apologize," he said deeply. With uncharacteristic discomposure,  Marcus pushed a hand through his otherwise impeccably styled hair. "But I  still love you, Mandy. I wanted us to get married. I picked out the  ring during my trip  –  I went to the biggest Swiss jeweler in the world.  If you think I'm going to give that up because of your fleeting hots for  some trippy rock head … "

"Don't talk about Ethan like that," Mandy protested, eyes blazing as she  slammed down her napkin. "I know you mean well, Marcus. But I  can't … this isn't working. I can't do this. It's over. I'm so sorry, but  I'm too far gone to look back now. I do hope we can stay friends like I  said earlier. It doesn't seem right to cut you out of my life  completely."

Marcus' lips twisted sardonically. "So how would your rocker boyfriend  take it if he knows I'll be waiting in the wings? Because I will be,  Mandy. If he dares hurt you or make you cry a single tear, I'll … " He let  out a harsh breath, shook his head, and picked up his silverware to  start cutting almost viciously into his steak.

Mandy's heart softened as she let herself think about his earlier words.  He'd picked a ring; he'd rushed back to propose only to find out she'd  left him for a famous rock star. She could only imagine what he had to  be feeling right then. She wanted to reach out a hand to his but stopped  herself in time. She wouldn't want to give him false hope. She had to  be strong and walk away because already, her heart and body belonged to  another.

Every day she seemed to be drawn to Ethan more. The romantic texts, the  sexy pictures he sent to her phone, their long, steamy nights together  whenever they could find the time … Mandy was having her first taste of  that restless, sweet young love laced with red-hot passion that never  seemed to end  –  and she couldn't get enough. Ethan, for all his  ruggedness and devil-may-care ways, treated her like fine china. Apart  from showering her with thoughtful gifts  –  some so horrendously  expensive she had to send them back  –  he always called to find out how  she was, what she was doing, and how he could make her day go even  better.

And Mandy loved that she could call him up at any time of day and he'd  pick up the phone, happy to hear her voice. Whether he was with his band  brothers, celebrity friends, or even working at some video shoot, he  always spared a minute to just let her get through to him. What touched  her the most was that he'd let her meet his step-sisters. They were both  lovely ladies, not much older than Ethan, with their respective  husbands and kids. They'd already gone on big family dinners together at  the nicest restaurants, and Mandy had been made to feel like one of  them in no time at all.

So the last thing she should feel was worried, especially after Marcus's  warning speech about things going wrong in the future. Mandy couldn't  see it happening. The party life, the booze, and the chicks; Ethan  wasn't about that life now. He showed her every chance he got that she  was all he needed.

Finally, the time came to fly out to London. The few days before that  were a blur as Mandy was practically joined at the hip with Ethan,  working with other assistants to get the outfits for the show to fit  perfectly before they left. Every seam had to stand just right and of  course it had to go with the outfits of the rest of the band without  being too ‘matched up' since each member had their own individual look.  Mandy got to meet a lot of people working on Ethan's team and even got  hired to make some pieces for the personal wardrobe of the stylist  working on Ethan's hair. Mandy was gratified that Ethan liked all the  pieces they'd picked out for him. Many of them were ideas that Mandy had  worked on herself during her consultations with Jessica. She couldn't  wait to get to London and finally be part of something monumentally  fantastic, both professionally and otherwise.

Spending so much time around the band, Mandy got to watch them rehearse  and do choreography while making sure the clothes suited each set. Soon  they were like family, eating together and hanging out even for just an  hour whenever they could get off rehearsals. Mandy loved to listen to  them polish their songs. Watching Ethan, getting to feel his particular  energy taking up the room had Mandy feeling more and more awed that he  was hers. Judging by the gossip columns she'd long stopped reading, no  one really understood how Ethan Tyler, who had the worst case of  commitment phobia, was so tied down to his ‘pretty' new stylist. He  stopped making the tabloids for his wild partying and exploits with sexy  starlets and groupies. Now he was seen having romantic dinners or long  walks with Mandy, the pictures always making the couple look totally  hooked on each other.