Amanda fixed her face and looked back down at her phone, ignoring the way her ears had suddenly gotten hot.
“He is so fine,” Patience went on.
“Helene’s wedding is this weekend and I heard the top-secret location is Sam Pleasant’s ranch. Well, his family’s ranch,” Webber said. A knot gripped Amanda’s belly. She knew the wedding was going to be held at Big Rock Ranch in Charming, California, about two and a half hours away from the city if traffic was on your side. She’d heard in passing that it was Black-owned, but she had no clue the ranch was owned by Sam’s family.
She almost started beating herself up for not researching the ranch more, but why would she? All Helene needed her to do was show up and be emotionally supportive and happy for the lovely couple. She wasn’t working and she wasn’t in the wedding party. What wedding guest researched the owners of any venue? And what person researched a person’s family before they had a spontaneous one-night stand with them? She swallowed and pretended to focus back on her phone.
“Not so top-secret then,” Tally laughed in reply.
“It’ll all be in People next week. Who cares?” Dru said with her own chuckle.
“I care,” Tally replied. “I want to see what she’s wearing.”
“Enough about her though,” Webber said. “Back to Sam Pleasant. What did he smell like?”
Laughter came sputtering out of Tally. Amanda would have laughed quietly too if she didn’t already know the answer to that question. Amanda was currently in hell.
“Sorry, hun. I didn’t smell him, but he just—ugh—godly up close. Great skin.”
“I’m so glad he won,” Patience said. “That movie was brutal, but he acted his ass off. He deserves that award.”
“I may have slid into his DMs the other day,” Dru announced. Amanda looked up then. Luckily, Dru was looking in the mirror as Patience removed the foam latex ridges from her cheek. She didn’t catch the wide-eyed horror on Amanda’s face.
“What did he say?” Tally asked. “What did you say?”
“I just told him he should ask me out for a drink some time. He hasn’t responded yet, but I’m sure his DMs are flooded. He pretty much announced that he was single and looking in that GQ article. I’ll give him some time to sort through the riff-raff before he gets back to me.” She winked at Webber in the mirror before she looked back down at her phone. Amanda pretended to stretch her neck and let out a quiet, but deep breath. Dru said a lot of things. Maybe she was just lying about messaging Sam. Not that it mattered. Sam was a nonentity in Amanda’s life.
If Dru wanted to shoot her shot, she was welcome to. Amanda had bigger problems. Like what the hell she was going to do if she ran into Sam at this wedding. Maybe she should tell Helene what actually happened after Kata and Rina’s party, that she hadn’t gone straight home to get some much-needed sleep. She could totally trust Helene with the dirty details of that night, but Amanda wasn’t one to kiss and tell. Especially when there wasn’t much to tell beyond the intimate bits she wanted to keep to herself. That she’d really spent the night in Sam Pleasant’s arms.
No. It was Helene’s wedding weekend. She was not going to bother her with her petty problems. If she ran into Sam and he mentioned their night together, she would simply remind him why they were both there. For Helene and Ignacio’s special day. Not to rehash the interesting things Sam could do with his thumb. Forcing herself to shake the thoughts off, she opened the email at the top of her inbox. Valentina’s assistant had finally replied, confirming Dru’s Met Gala fitting for the following afternoon.
She idly listened as they moved on to less interesting gossip. By the time Dru was back to her normal human self, Amanda had caught up on all her emails. She thanked Tally and Patience, then followed Dru back out into the rain.
“Have you talked to my mom?” she asked, her tone cold again.
“She’s still in Malibu, but she said she’ll get back in time to meet you for breakfast tomorrow.”
“No she won’t.”
Amanda fell silent until their short walk brought them back to Dru’s car in its reserved parking space. She held the umbrella until Dru was behind the wheel of the matte red G-Wagon she’d bought herself at the end of the last season. She never let Amanda drive, which suited her just fine. Freed up her hands to do more admin work as they made their way back to Dru’s apartment.
Amanda buckled her seat belt and waited until they left the studio lot before she went on.
“Your mom is going to meet you after your workout tomorrow at ten for breakfast and then at one you have your audition for the Spright holiday movie.”
“Ugh.”
“Remember,” Amanda said carefully. “This was the one you wanted. You were so excited when you heard they were interested in talking to you.” Yes, that had been six months ago, but that didn’t change the fact that Dru had not so secretly been dreaming of starring in a made-for-TV holiday romance since she was twelve.
“Do you think Sam Pleasant would date a TV movie actor?” she asked wistfully.
“I’m not sure what kind of woman he dates,” Amanda replied, which was the truth. Though she did know some more personal things
