Unlucky Break (14 page)

Andie watched the pretty reporter speaking to James. She was annoyed by the way the girl flipped her hair whenever she asked a question.

Andie timed each interview. Three minutes each, exactly. What could you learn about someone in three minutes?

At one point, Taylor Lautner walked past and Andie wished she had the courage to speak to him – not because she was a fan, but because she knew it would piss Marissa off. But then, Marissa would never find out. Why did she even care anymore?

Across the room, Andie saw Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth giggling in a corner. Elle and Dakota Fanning were posing against the photo wall. They were so pretty, Andie thought. She tried not to compare herself to them.

There was so much waving and kissing and posing. Everyone seemed to know everyone – except Andie. No-one wanted her photo or spoke to her at all.

She glanced back at James, who was now having his photo taken with Amanda. The flash of the cameras was exhausting, blinding. She couldn’t understand how they could be so unaffected by the flashing lights and screaming fans and shouts of the photographers.

What was she doing here? She didn’t belong in James’s world any more than James belonged in hers. Here she was in a borrowed dress, with her hair and make-up done by herself, watching this circus she wasn’t really invited to. With a flash of homesickness, Andie wished she could just go back to her old life.

‘How are you liking the bright lights of Hollywood?’ Andie heard in her ear. She turned to see Barry Rosen standing behind her. At the sight of him, she felt her hand tighten around the stem of her champagne flute.

‘It’s fine,’ she said in a strained voice.

‘Taking care of our boy?’ he asked with a gleam in his eye that suggested he wasn’t talking about Andie’s assistant duties. Andie wanted to punch him.

Before she could answer, she heard James’s voice. ‘She’s great, Barry, thanks for finding her for me.’

Barry raised one eyebrow at Andie. ‘Yeah, she’s really bowled me over too.’

God, she hated him.

‘See you later,’ said Barry as the man with the clipboard ushered the last of the crowd towards the theatre.

‘You ready?’ asked James, gesturing to the door of the theatre. There was a hum of conversation coming from inside into the nearly empty foyer.

Andie looked at the door. She was exhausted and wanted to go home. ‘Maybe … we don’t have to sit through the movie,’ she said, not meeting his eye.

‘We don’t?’ James raised an eyebrow.

‘Let’s … let’s go and do something else.’ She was desperate to leave, and hoped that he wouldn’t call her on her change of heart.

‘Okay,’ said James, looking relieved at being let off the hook. ‘Let’s go.’

They moved towards the back of the foyer, where the waitstaff were cleaning up the glasses and trays of canapés.

‘Where are we going?’ asked Andie.

James pushed open the door and they found themselves in a side alley.

‘Hungry?’ He grinned at her, and Andie nodded – she was suddenly starving.

James pulled out his phone and sent a text.

‘Who are you texting?’ she asked.

James didn’t answer her. His phone beeped at the arrival of a text and he looked up and smiled at her. ‘You ready?’

‘For what?’ asked Andie, looking around the dirty alley. A slight breeze blew and the smell of rubbish filled her nostrils and she made a face. ‘Can we go?’ she asked.

‘Any minute,’ said James, looking up the alley as the headlights of a car appeared, blinding Andie. She covered her eyes.

James stared right into the light and waved. ‘Our ride is here,’ he said.

A man in a suit got out of the red Jaguar and handed the keys to James with a nod. Then he turned and walked back down the alley.

‘Oh my god, what can’t you do?’ asked Andie in astonishment.

‘Drive,’ said James, throwing the keys to Andie, who caught them ungracefully.

James threw his crutches into the backseat and then hopped and jumped into the passenger seat.

Andie got into the driver’s seat, slightly apprehensive about driving this powerful, expensive car down the narrow alley in her heels.

‘Where are we going?’ she asked, turning on the engine and backing the car slowly out of the alley and onto the street.

‘Just let me give you directions,’ he said. ‘I’ll be your GPS.’

Andie smiled.

In twenty minutes they were driving out of an In-N-Out Burger with shakes, burgers and fries. James directed Andie through the Hollywood streets, up through the hills, until he told her to pull over and turn off the headlights.

In the distance, high above the blinking lights of Los Angles, sat the illuminated Hollywood sign.

‘God, it’s so perfect,’ said Andie as she took in the view. ‘Just like the movies.’

‘It is kind of amazing,’ said James. ‘You get a bit desensitised when you live here, I guess.’

Andie smiled at him.

‘Thanks for allowing me to escape, Ms Assistant,’ said James.

Andie nodded, not wanting to admit how much she’d needed to leave as well.

James handed her some fries. ‘Did I tell you how amazing you looked on the red carpet tonight? That dress looks great on you.’

And Andie was gone all over again.

11

Andie lay in bed wondering if she was living in this house with the guy of her dreams as some sort of karmic punishment.
You can look, Andie, but you can’t touch
.
You know why. You deserve it.

She rolled over in bed and checked the time on her phone. It was nearly midday. James was due for his painkillers.

Last night they had come home from the premiere buzzed, neither of them in the mood for sleeping. So they’d ordered pizza, laughed and talked about films and books until the early hours of the morning. James had shown her his favourite scenes in films. Surprisingly there were a lot of romantic comedies.

‘I thought you’d be more of an action-movie guy,’ she said.

‘Love is a great subject,’ he said, waving a blu-ray disc of
When Harry Met Sally
at her. ‘Nothing beats a good romance. I defy any guy not to enjoy a film like this. But you won’t find many admitting it!’

‘You’re very brave,’ she laughed.

‘I’d love to make a romantic comedy, but no-one sends me the scripts,’ he said. ‘RPatz gets them all.’

Andie had finally crawled into bed at 3 a.m. trying to stop herself from thinking about the way his hair fell enticingly over his blue eyes. The way those blue eyes gazed steadily at her, as though they knew every intimate detail about her.

Andie took a glass of water and the painkillers to James’s room and knocked gently on the door. There was no answer, so she knocked again, louder this time. She was due to meet Jess’s stylist friend in two hours and needed to know if James wanted her to do anything while she was out.

She waited, but there was still no answer. She thought about leaving, except he needed to take his meds regularly.
Plus he might have fallen over or something,
she thought, remembering her mum’s falls when she was sick.

Opening the door a crack, she saw the outline of him asleep in bed, headphones in his ears.
No wonder he didn’t hear me
, she thought and pushed the door open further. She decided to let him sleep – she’d just put the water and tablets on the side table. He probably wouldn’t sleep much longer, and he could always call her if he needed anything.

As her eyes adjusted to the dim light she saw the mess on the floor – clothes, scripts, books, several guitars, plates, glasses and large canvas mailbags, spilling their contents onto the floor.

Andie stepped over a stack of books and picked her way carefully across the room, placing the tablets and water down on the bedside table. She stepped backwards to creep out of the room again, but misjudged her footing and tripped over a pile of scripts, falling backwards. The scripts slid sideways onto a guitar.

Andie sat still, but James didn’t appear to have heard the noise. His beautiful face was still peaceful. She got carefully onto her knees and started crawling towards the door, figuring this way she wouldn’t step on anything.

‘Why are you crawling around my room?’

Andie jumped, thinking quickly to try and cover her embarrassment. ‘Because it’s such a frigging mess, it’s safer than walking,’ she retorted. ‘I just had a massive fall into a leaning tower of books and a guitar.’ She was glad the room was dim, so he couldn’t see how red she knew she was turning.

‘Yeah, I saw that,’ he said, laughing.

‘You saw it?’ she cried.

‘Yep.’

‘Okay, I’m just gonna keep crawling out of here now that I’m completely humiliated,’ Andie said, mortified. ‘If you need me, I’ll be under a rock.’

James pressed a button next to his bed and the blinds went up around him. Andie put her head on a nearby pile of books.

‘Great. Good, let’s highlight my awkwardness,’ she mumbled into the books.

James burst out laughing again. ‘Come on, you can see how weird it is for me to wake up and find you in my room on your knees.’

Andie got to her feet. ‘As Hollywood’s hottest movie star under twenty-five, according to my sources, I thought you’d have girls on their knees in your room all the time.’

Andie was surprised at the tone of her voice and that she’d said such a catty thing. She bit her lip, wondering if she’d gone too far. She was his employee technically, after all.

James just laughed though. ‘You’re really funny,’ he said, stretching.

Andie blushed at the compliment, and looked around the room to hide her pink face from him. ‘You live like a person raised by wolves,’ she said.

‘Says she who walks on all fours,’ James grinned at his own joke.

‘This isn’t safe for you while you’re on crutches. Why don’t you let the cleaners sort it out?’ Andie heard herself being pissy. She softened her voice. ‘I mean, I’m just thinking of your safety.’

‘Thanks,’ he said, sitting up on the edge of the bed and taking the pain tablets from the bedside table. He was wearing blue boxer shorts and nothing else. She tried not to stare at his perfect abs.

‘I don’t trust the cleaners,’ he said. Then he paused. ‘Actually, I don’t trust anyone,’ he laughed as he swallowed the tablets. She thought the laugh sounded fake – he was trying to be flippant, but she could hear the hard edge in his voice.

‘No-one?’ she asked, frowning.

He shook his head. ’No-one,’ he repeated.

Andie thought about that. ‘That’s okay,’ she said finally. ‘I don’t think I trust anyone either.’ She started picking her way back over to the door – it was easier now she could see the floor. ‘Oh, and you need to eat with those tablets, so when you’re ready come down and I’ll make you something to eat.’

James shook his head and laughed. ‘You’re supposed to be my assistant, not my nurse.’

‘Is there a difference?’ she said cheekily and walked out of the room.

Flirting? Really?
she thought as she waited for him in the kitchen.
Stop it, Andie,
she told herself.
Be professional.

James came down to the kitchen on his crutches. He was still in the blue boxer shorts, but luckily for Andie’s resolve, he’d put on a T-shirt.