Hollywood Remake (A Celebrity Love Story)

Chapter 6: Shallow Hal

 “So what’s the deal?” Paul asked, the moment Kate and Hal stood up to go hit the ladies’ room.

 “What’s the deal with what?” Aidan met his friend’s eyes across the table. Paul merely raised his eyebrows and tilted his head in the direction the girls had just gone.

“I dunno,” Aidan shrugged, looking down at his hands. “She had a couple weeks off. I invited her to come out and stay with me.”

“So she’s staying at your house?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow,” Paul said, eyeing him speculatively. “That’s a big deal.”

Aidan felt himself starting to fidget in his seat under the scrutiny. It was a big deal. Paul had no idea how big a deal it was. Well, maybe some idea. If anyone knew how long Aidan had been carrying a torch for this particular woman, it was Paul – his best friend and songwriting partner.

“Just—don’t make a big thing out of it, OK?” Aidan said. “I don’t know where this is going.”

Paul took the hint and changed the subject. Minutes ticked by, and the two of them were just about to send in a search-and-rescue party when they saw the Kate and Halley emerging from the restroom at last. The girls had their arms linked at the elbows – fast friends, apparently – but Aiden did a double-take when his eyes landed on Kate. She’d taken off her jacket and let down her long brown hair around her shoulders. Hal had done up her eyes with sparkly shadow and taken a scissor to her blouse, cutting it off a few inches above her waistline to expose her bare midriff.

“What the hell happened in there?” Aidan asked, not failing to notice the blush creeping up Kate’s neck and coloring her cheeks as he ran his eyes over her new outfit.

“Makeover!” Hal exclaimed. “Doesn’t she look amazing? Come on, we’re all going to Lure!”

Aidan couldn’t quite read Kate’s expression. Makeover in a restaurant bathroom? Seriously? Who did that? Of course, there was some kind of makeover scene in 90% of chick flick scripts he'd been reading lately, but he'd never actually seen that kind of thing happen in real life. He opened his mouth to question further, but Halley was already dragging Paul up out of his chair and talking a mile a minute about some DJ who was spinning tonight.

“What did you do to your shirt?” he whispered in Kate’s ear as they all made their way out of the restaurant.

She merely shrugged and nodded her head toward Halley. “Crop-tops are in, I’m told.”

“We don’t have to go with them,” he whispered. “Aren’t you tired?”

“Why would I be tired? It’s barely ten o’clock!”

“Really? You really want to go?”

“Definitely,” she answered without looking back at him. “It sounds amazing.”

Half an hour later, they were all ensconced in a corner booth in the club’s VIP section. Hal had insisted on ordering a bottle of Cristal, of course. “It’s a special occasion!”

“I’m in hell,” Aidan muttered under his breath in response.

He was the last place on Earth he wanted to be. He hadn’t even wanted to go out to dinner. All he wanted was to be alone with Kate and peel those skinny jeans off of her. Now it was nearly midnight, and he was in a packed LA club with the strobe lights flashing and the music blaring so loud they couldn’t even carry on a conversation.

How had he let the evening get away from him like this? He could swear he’d been five minutes away from getting her back home at the end of dinner. He took a gulp of champagne and tried his best not to let his growing impatience show on his face. What was he doing here? How much longer was she going to want to stay?

Just go with it, he told himself. Things could be worse. Think of all the things that were going well right now. Kate was here. She was sitting next to him. These were good things. He had his arm around her shoulders, and she was leaning against him, bopping her leg to the beat of the music. If he turned his head and inhaled, he’d be able to smell her hair. That would be a bad idea, of course. Smelling her hair tended to get him in trouble. But at least the possibility was there. These were all very good things.

The music made it difficult to talk, but she seemed to be having a good time. She was smiling. She was getting along with his friends. Very good things. Excellent things.

He had to think about the long game here. The key was to show her a good time in LA and convince her to stay. Permanently. That’s what he really wanted. As long as she was having a good time, there would be plenty of other nights to come.

He heard Hal let out an ear-piecing squeal and looked up to see her waving across the room to one of her friends. He recognized the other girl vaguely. Some model. Must have met her at the Sports Illustrated swimsuit party last month. Or maybe the after-party of the Victoria Secret fashion show? He couldn’t remember. They all ran together.

He couldn’t quite remember what the girl’s name was either. Some letter of the alphabet… Gigi? Bebe? Mimi? But of course she remembered his. “Aidan!” she shouted as she approached, ignoring the other three people at the table. He had his arm around Kate, but the other girl didn’t seem to notice as she came over to his side of the booth and plopped herself unceremoniously into his lap. “Oh my God, I looove Cristal!” she shrieked, picking up his half-finished glass and draining it.

Aidan shifted his weight, trying to ease her off his legs and onto the seat beside him. Always awkward, trying to get a girl out of your lap without offending her. This one wasn’t taking the hint. He felt Kate slide away from him and shrug his arm off from around her shoulders. Shit. He needed to adjust the seating arrangements. Fast.

He leaned toward Kate and shouted in the direction of her ear. “We should dance!”

“Go ahead!” he saw her mouth back to him.

“Yes!” the girl in his lap shouted, jumping to her feet and grabbing his arm. She was trying to pull him up out of the booth. He managed to extricate his arm and reached back, taking Kate by the hand.

“Come with me!” he yelled, as he slid her toward the edge of the seat. This was good, he thought. Dance with Kate. She wanted to go dancing. This would not be unpleasant. And then maybe he could suggest moving the party home after a song or two. “Come on!” he shouted again.

Kate allowed him to pull her to her feet and started walking with him toward the dance floor, with the lap-sitter a few paces ahead of them. They left the roped off VIP section and entered the main part of the club, and Gigi (Didi? Fifi?) reached back to grab onto the lapel of his jacket, forming a three-person chain as they made their way single file through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd.

They were just reaching the heart of the dance floor when Aidan felt someone’s full body weight come careening into him. He lost his balance and staggered, falling to one knee and losing his grip on Kate’s hand as he went down. Koko (Lolo? Lola! Pretty sure it was Lola!) turned back toward him and grabbed him by the arm now, laughing as she hauled him to his feet. He looked back behind him in the direction Kate had just been standing, but he couldn’t see her – only a wall of people, gyrating to the beat. Lola started dancing now, still holding onto his arm.  He craned his neck, looking around in all directions, but it was no use. Where was she?

“Did you see my friend?” he shouted into Lola’s ear. She took the opportunity when he brought his head close to throw her arms around his neck and start undulating against him.

To hell with being polite. He peeled her arms off of him and began pushing his way back off of the dance floor. Maybe Kate had gone back the way they’d come. He forced his way through the crowd and back to the VIP section. The bouncers stepped aside to let him pass.

"Fuck," he swore out loud as he craned his neck to look inside at the booth where they’d all just been sitting.

Empty. No Paul. No Halley. And worst of all, no Kate.