Thief:A Bad Boy Romance(93)

 

“Do you even hear how crazy what you just described sounds?”

 

“I’m telling you, the one I went to before was AMAZING.”

 

“Jess, who even goes to something like this?”

 

“Um, me, Mads.”

 

“Yeah, but you’re-” I stop, shaking my head and biting my tongue.

 

Jess giggles. “Oh c’mon, say it! What, ‘slutty’?”

 

“I did NOT say that.”

 

“Whatever, it’s kind of true.” Jess grins. “So I’m in my slut phase, big deal.” She leans across the table at me. “Look, my casting agent got me in last time, and I know he can get us in again tomorrow.”

 

“No way.”

 

“Mads, you need this.”

 

“Like I need another hole in my head.”

 

She laughs and pokes me in the arm. “Look, you’ve had a rough fucking year, okay? No, stop, you have, and you deserve an escape. Do you have any idea how much your life is about to change?”

 

“Jess I’m living in a hotel under an assumed name, in a city I don’t even know, a week before the the inauguration of my mother as the first female President of the United States.” I stick my tongue out at her. “Yeah, I’ve got an idea.”

 

“So come with! Dude, you’re going to be the most closely watched person in the fucking country in a week; do you have any idea how hard it’s going to be to get laid?”

 

I laugh.

 

“I’m serious! You need to bang Harry right out of your head with one last night of crazy with your wild slutty friend who’s NEVER going to get to see you after next week.”

 

“It sounds super dangerous.”

 

Jess breaks into a huge grin, and I know her well enough to know that SHE knows she’s got me. “It’s exciting, and crazy, but it’s safe, I promise. It’s a certain class of people they let in.”

 

“I can’t believe we’re still talking about going to a fucking SEX party, Jess. This is nuts.”

 

“Oh stop calling it that, you’re making it sound so tawdry. And besides that, GO nuts, because after this, your life is planned to the letter.”

 

 

 

The knock on my door brings me back to the now, still slumped back on my bed,wearing my whole outfit from before; pumps, pearls, and all. I glare at the door to my room. “Oh fuck off, I’m not even peeing!”

 

The door opens and Emma, my new publicist-slash-personal assistant comes in, looking very confused. “Is that a new slang or something?”

 

I smirk. “Sorry, forget it.”

 

I’d call Emma my “handler”, but that’d be mean. And she’s actually been great so far this past week with gearing up for the inauguration, as well as making sure I’m aware that all family members of Presidents get people like her, and that it has nothing to do with my issues from school.

 

She’s young — probably barely older than me, bookish, timely, on schedule, and efficient like a well-oiled machine. And quite honestly, I could use a whole lot of all of that in my life.

 

“You okay?” Emma raises an eyebrow behind the thick black rims of her glasses, just a hint of a smirk teasing her mouth as she eyes me lying like a Jackie-O rag-doll across the bed still in my skirt-suit. “You look worn out.”

 

“I’m fine, it’s just my mom. It’s nothing, just remembering why I don’t live with her anymore.”

 

“Ah, yes, well, the President does have a lot on her plate.”

 

I roll my eyes. Okay, so Emma can be a bit formal and machine-like.

 

“Do you want to change or something? You know your schedule is cleared the rest of the night, you can relax if you’d like.”

 

“Oh, yeah, I was…uh,” I suddenly feel like a complete weirdo being worried about hidden cameras and spy-listening devices in my flowers.

 

It’s just the guilt, that’s it.

 

Yeah, the guilt and the physical, living reminder of that night that’s going to be following me around like a damned shadow for the next few months.

 

Fantastic.

 

“Are there cameras in here?” I blurt it out before I can stop myself, and immediately feel like a complete moron for letting it out. Emma and I are basically the same age, but while I’m a petulant, sulking hot mess of a law-school drop-out, she strikes me as someone with multiple ivy league degrees and her shit together.

 

Right, which is why she WORKS here and you’re COMMITTED here.

 

Emma does have her shit together, and people with their shit together tend to put your life in very sharp perspective, first daughter or not.