HDU (28 page)

And as if that weren’t bad enough, Liam suddenly
turned from Megan’s picture to her, trying to sound casual as he said, “I think
I’ll come with you tonight.”

- Chapter 9 -

LIAM ISN’T
CHEATING – YET

Pop Dinner

February 3

Whoops! We at Pop Dinner apologize for this
afternoon’s mistake of publishing a two-year-old photo of Liam Brody and a former
hook-up identified as model Alyssa Bernardes.
 

 
But hey,
don’t get mad at us yet! We’re only bringing you news that you’ll no doubt see
in the coming months (and when it officially happens, you can be sure to find
the first headline on Pop Dinner)! So let’s open this post up for discussion:
When and with whom do you think Liam Brody will cheat on his sweet Plain Jane,
Amanda Nathan? It’s only a matter of time!

Shortly after Liam invited himself to dinner, Amanda
gathered herself.
 
Rather than
indulge in some sort of panic attack, she decided to get up off the couch and
put up her best fight.
 
If Megan
wanted to put on a show for Liam and the paparazzi, so would she.
 
After all, they’d known her thus far to
be a modest and almost prudish dresser.
 
She could easily be the better story by stepping out with a surprisingly
sexy look.

In what felt like their realest relationship moment,
Amanda got ready for dinner while Liam watched SportsCenter outside.
 
Makeup was actually becoming less of a
painstaking process for her, though it still took a few tries and two whole
makeup wipes to get her bronzer, mascara, and smoky eye shadow looking
right.
 
Megan’s makeup had appeared
flawless, so her own face had to look somewhat on par, at least
effort-wise.
  

Then came the dress.
 
What she picked for the night was an early castoff of the
items sent to her from June Magazine.
 
They had done such a good job picking quaint and dainty-looking dresses until
that piece.
 
Amanda had laughed then
and tossed it in her closet, but tonight, she went on her hands and knees to look
for it among the piles of clothes that had fallen off their hangers.
 
Maybe they had known something she
didn’t know – that every girl needed one of those show-stopping dresses,
just in case.

When Amanda finally found it, she held it before
herself with both hands and exhaled through her pouted lips as if preparing for
something epic.
 
She kind of was.

The scarlet mini-dress managed to look somewhat sweet
with its tiers, but it was mostly seductive with a low-dipping V-neck that
forced Amanda to go braless.
 
Braless,
she realized, felt a bit liberating and a lot sexy.
 
With her curled hair and heels, the entire look inspired her
to actually gaze in the mirror for longer than needed, even strike a few poses
with her butt sticking out.
 
She
never did that kind of thing, so she figured it was permissible every once in
awhile, especially on nights when she needed every last ounce of confidence.

“Okay, Liam, I’m ready,” Amanda said, casually
stepping out of the bedroom as if she weren’t trying to test his reaction.
 
She was hoping that he would look at
her for more than two seconds, though her real goal was to briefly render him
speechless and thus, jokeless.

She did.
 
Liam was in the middle of a squinting yawn when he turned from the
television.
 
Upon seeing her, his
eyes popped open and his mouth snapped shut.
 
His second reaction was to stand immediately, then blink
with a bit of confusion as if wondering why he was suddenly on his feet.
 
Only when she smiled – she
couldn’t help it – did he awake from his daze, nodding and pointing at
her as if she’d tricked him with some sort of ruse.

“Alright, good job,” he said with a reluctant
smile.
 
“Let’s go.”

~

“Ouch! Amanda, my heart!”

The paparrazi were having fun with her new look.
 
Liam enjoyed their reactions for a
second or two before reassuming his role as her protector.
 
As usual, he ushered her to their car
with a hand on her lower back, though tonight, it felt just a few inches lower
than usual.
 
Right, I forgot he’s horny
, Amanda thought.

They were both silent throughout the car ride.
 
Amanda kept her eyes out the window
because she was afraid of meeting Liam’s gaze.
 
As much as she had hoped for his astonished reaction, she
was simultaneously unsure of how to handle it.
 
When they arrived at the Chelsea restaurant she had chosen,
Liam finally spoke.

“Don’t worry, okay?” he said.
 
They weren’t the words she was
expecting.

“Okay,” Amanda responded.
 
Though despite her outward calm, her heartbeat began racing
as they approached the restaurant with its large, curtained windows and metal
doors.
 
Megan was already somewhere
behind those walls, probably right in the waiting area next to the door.
 
As Liam opened it for her, Amanda
sucked in a deep breath as if she were about to go under water.

Inside, Megan was nowhere in sight.
 

“Where is she?” Liam asked to her annoyance.
 
Why did he have to be so eager?

“I don’t know,” Amanda murmured, but just as she did,
she spotted a flurry of white rushing towards her.
 
It was of course Megan and her brilliant dress, the male
eyes of the restaurant following her as she approached with outstretched
arms.
 
Her wide smile broke into a
drawn-out gasp upon seeing Liam.

“Oh, Mandy, you
brought
him!” she squealed, truly giddy.
 
“I wasn’t sure if you would!”

“Yes, I – ” Amanda started the polite greeting
she had rehearsed in the car, but Megan’s hug ended up a hasty one.
 
She removed Amanda from her body to
turn and properly greet Liam.
 
“
Mister
Brody,” she said, setting her hands
on her hips.
 
“I think I might’ve
been a total embarrassing nightmare the last time I saw you, so we need to be
completely reintroduced.”

“Okay,” Liam laughed, his eyes curious.
 
She extended her French manicured hand.

“I’m Megan,” she said as they shook hands.
 
“And I’ve been such a big fan of yours
for
so
many years.
 
I’m pretty sure I watched
The Sky Above
three or four times in the
theater.”

Except you
didn’t
, Amanda thought, though she didn’t say it aloud.
 

“That’s very flattering to hear,” Liam smiled
charmingly.
 
Amanda recalled how he
had declared Megan an “idiot” because
The
Sky Above
was “garbage,” but she didn’t say that aloud either.
 

“Can I give you a hug too?” Megan asked him, sweetly
holding out her arms.
 
Amanda
shrugged when Liam looked to her for what appeared to be permission – not
that it mattered when Megan took it upon herself to thrust her body into his, absolutely
smashing her breasts against his chest.
 
It didn’t look like it could be comfortable, but she seemed perfectly
happy doing it, and Amanda couldn’t help but suspect that Liam was pretty
pleased himself.
 
My God, she’s totally going for it already
,
she realized.
 
They hadn’t even
been seated yet and Megan was already prepping her next act of boyfriend
thievery.
  

Thankfully, the hostess arrived to put a temporary
end on the show by guiding them to their curtained table.
 
Amanda tried not to over think the fact
that Liam dropped back to walk behind them, a move she always assumed guys did
to check out a girl’s ass.

“So how was your flight?” Amanda asked when they took
their seats.
 
Megan’s blue eyes lit
up and she clutched her chest dramatically, though it looked more like she was
grabbing her boob.

“Oh my God.
 
This guy would not stop bothering me the
entire
flight,” she groaned.
 
“It was weird because he was a good-looking guy, but he acted so
desperate.”

Amanda laughed at the word “desperate.”
 
She knew this act of Megan’s –
complaining about male attention in order to gain more male attention.
 
In the past, her clueless admirers
would puff out their chests and offer her protection.

“That sounds irritating,” Liam said.
 

“It was, but I was nice about it as usual.”
 
Megan shrugged casually as she read the
cocktail list.
 
After they ordered their
drinks, she turned her attention back to Amanda, her eyes deliberately
lingering on her low neckline.
 
“So,
um, by the way, Mandy, you look amazing tonight? Can we discuss that?” she
asked, her tone of disbelief very much calculated.
 
“Really, could you be any cuter getting all dressed up for
me?”

    
“Oh,
this,” Amanda mumbled, looking down at her dress and feeling an odd sense of
dread.
 
Only Megan could turn
compliments into something to be weary of.

“Yes,
that
.
 
I could never pull that off! You just
can’t go braless if you’re bigger than a C – oop!” She put a hand to her
mouth, appearing suddenly bashful.
 
Amanda tried not to roll her eyes out of her head.
 
“Can’t talk about that with a
guy
here!” Megan giggled demurely.
 
Liam laughed.

“By all means, go ahead,” he said.
 
Amanda refrained from shooting him a
look.
 
It was not the response she’d
hoped for, and it of course delighted Megan.

“Well, what an understanding boyfriend,” she murmured
as their drinks arrived.
 
With her
eyes still on Liam, she sipped her Prosecco cocktail.
 
“Poor thing, you must have had to wait
forever
for her to get dressed tonight.
 
Mandy hates getting out of her sweatpants!”

Amanda bristled.
 
Okay, that’s not even
true
, she thought as Liam chuckled something low and sexy that made Megan’s
lashes flutter.
 

“Well, yeah.”
 
His eyes met her blue ones for a moment as he smiled.
 
“But it was worth the wait,” he said, putting
a tender hand on the back of Amanda’s neck.
 
He gave it a little rub, helping to relieve the surprise
from her face.
 

Megan’s nose flared for a second before she
recovered.
 
“Oh… you guys are… too
sweet
,” she drawled, her eyes darting
back and forth between them.
 
“Gosh,
I feel like I shouldn’t even be here interrupting this moment.
 
I know Sexy Amanda doesn’t come out too
often!”

Really
? Amanda
turned back to her slowly, eyes narrowing.
 
“What do you mean?” she asked, though she had a feeling she
knew exactly what Megan meant.

“Hm? Oh, Mandy, don’t make that face! It’s just a
little birdie told me that you don’t get in…
sexy moods
that often.”

Liam cleared his throat.
 
Amanda glowered, burning red.
 
Brandt may very well have never said that – it wasn’t
even all that true – but it was still embarrassing and totally uncalled
for.
 
There had to be some sort of
etiquette against referencing stolen boyfriends to the victim of the crime,
especially when using that reference to steal the victim’s
new
boyfriend.
 

“We should probably order,” Amanda muttered, her
throat dry.

“Oh, honey, don’t take it personal! You’ve just always
been conservative with the romance stuff.
 
But it’s not a bad thing! Some people just don’t have the energy for it,”
Megan said reassuringly.
 
She bit
her lip, casting eyes on Liam.
 
“And
other people have more than their fair share,” she murmured.
 
“Am I not right?”

He gave a half smile.
 
“You might be onto something.”
 
Again, not what Amanda wanted to hear.
 
Megan gazed at him and sighed, her look
flirtatious.

“God, Mandy, you should just let someone else have
him so all that energy doesn’t go to waste.”

Ex-ca-use me?
Amanda felt her skin prickle with a mounting rage, but before she could say
anything, Liam gave that sexy laugh again.
 
 

“Don’t worry,” he grinned at Megan, sliding a hand up
Amanda’s neck and into her hair.
 
“Nothing
goes to waste with her.”
 
His
fingers entwined in her curls, grabbing a handful and giving a lustful little tug.
 
The gesture quickly sent chills
down Amanda’s spine.
 
She exhaled, her
neck suddenly hot and tingly.
 
Her
whole body soon joined in on the feeling.