HDU (12 page)

“That’s for you to sign,” he said.
 
“Do you have a pen in your purse? Or
whatever that thing is.”
 
He nodded
at Amanda’s slouchy red hobo bag.

“I do, but what is it?”

“Your contract from me,” he answered as she unfolded
the sheet.
 
“I have one for your
friend too.
 
So you don’t write a
tell-all book about how this was all fake when it’s over.
 
Or post the story to HDU, or whatever
your website is called.”

“You know what it’s called.
 
Don’t act like you didn’t read it,” Amanda mumbled as she
read the contract.
 
It was
relatively straightforward.
 
She
was simply not to publish or divulge personal information about him during or after
their false romance unless she wished to face legal action.
 
She was prohibited from pursuing any other
relationships during the time as well, to preserve the verity of their
own.
 
Like we really have to worry about that
, Amanda thought as she
signed.

“So what are you going to do while you’re my
girlfriend?” Liam asked.
 
“Are you
going to get a job somewhere? What do you even do anyway?”

Amanda looked up at him, taking a calming breath
through her nose.
 
Everything out
of his mouth managed to sound so rude, but there was no sense in throwing a
tantrum each time.
 
It would just
make everything more difficult.
 
“Moderating
HDU is my job,” she said plainly, trying to hide the mild shame in her
voice.
 

“How much do they pay you?”

“That’s private.”

“So nothing much, then,” Liam concluded with a laugh.
 
He took the last swig of his beer and
set the bottle on the ground, leaning forward on his elbows, his body
practically casting a shadow over hers.
 
“Is that what you want to do for the rest of your life?” he asked, the
slight crinkle in his nose conveying his feelings on that possibility.
 
Amanda wasn’t sure if she should be
offended by his judgment or simply amazed that he even cared.

“And if it was?” she asked.

“It’s not,” Liam answered for her.
 
“I have a feeling you’re a little better
than that.
 
Unless I judged you
incorrectly somewhere between Missouri and New York, which I guess is possible
considering that was,” he glanced at his watch.
 
“Four hours ago.”
 

Was there a
compliment in there somewhere?
Amanda was quiet as she thought about Liam’s
words.
 
She tried to remember if
she and Ian had laid out any plan about what her official occupation would be
upon arriving to New York as a celebrity girlfriend, what she would be doing on
a daily basis, what they would be building a foundation for post-Liam.
 
Her mind was coming up empty.
 
Famous for being famous was becoming a
lot more complicated than she had anticipated.

“Talk.
 
Say something,” Liam said, impatient.
 
“We’re stepping out as a couple tomorrow.
 
Going on a date.
 
We need to look like we have some kind
of rapport.”

Merit was in Amanda’s head.
 
She was finally realizing just how terrified she was.
 
Without Ian by her side, she questioned
how ready she was for any aspect of their plan.
 
She knew that she was exhausting Liam’s patience with her
silence, but she couldn’t think of anything to say that he wouldn’t
ridicule.
 
Finally, he spoke again.

“So, Megan was crazy hot.”

Amanda’s head snapped up to glare.

“There she is,” Liam grinned.
 
“I knew that would get your
attention.
 
Wow, look at those big,
scary eyes,” he said as if he were talking to a child.

“Do you enjoy being generally annoying?” Amanda
asked, heating up.

“Around you, yeah.
 
I don’t know why,” Liam answered truthfully.
 
“But also, I think I deserve to know
more about Megan.
 
She would’ve
been an easy one for me.”

Amanda shrunk back against the couch with
revulsion.
 
“Well, she’s dating my
ex-boyfriend, so you’d have to fight for her.”

Liam laughed.
 
“No, I wouldn’t,” he said matter-of-factly.
 
No, he really wouldn’t, and Amanda wasn’t sure why she even
suggested that he would.
 
Brandt
was a good five inches shorter than Liam and at least fifty pounds
lighter.
 
“Sucks that she’s dating
your ex though,” Liam offered half-heartedly.
 
Amanda snorted.

“Yeah, because you care so much about fidelity,” she
said, quickly regretting it.
 
She
wasn’t sure where she was getting the gall to say such things to a
stranger.
 
It was much ruder than
saying it anonymously online as she used to.
 
Or was it the same?

“This might be hard for you to believe, but I haven’t
cheated on anyone since Angie,” he said, unfazed by her remarks.
 
Amanda raised her eyebrows, surprised
to hear him acknowledge his dating history at all considering he refused to
ever speak about it to the media.
 
She
paused.
 
Angie
, she repeated.
 
That was what he called Angelica Moss.
 
Again, she was hit with how surreal it was to witness a
celebrity’s day-to-day behavior – searching the fridge for food, calling
an ex by a nickname that the world didn’t know her by.
 
“Everyone I’ve dated since was properly
dumped before anyone else came along.
 
Abruptly maybe, but last I checked, that still counts.”

“You broke up with April too, right?” Amanda asked,
suddenly remembering that she too was somebody’s replacement.
 

Liam nodded.
 
“I would never make you the other woman.
 
You’re supposed to be my pure Midwestern angel,” he
smirked.
 
“We just have to convince
the world that I would actually go for someone like you.”

Amanda stifled her desire to smack him for the
remark.
 
“We’ll just be convincing
on our date tomorrow,” she said, composing herself.
 
“Which reminds me… I’ve always wanted to go to a place
called Lilac.”
 
Her voice was
steady despite knowing that she was testing the waters of Liam’s limitations.
 
From posts on HDU, she knew the restaurant-lounge
to be an impossible-to-get-into celebrity hotspot and one of New York’s most
expensive restaurants.
 
Liam simply
gave her an incredulous look.
 
“Unless of course you can’t get in,” Amanda shrugged.

His first reaction was to scoff, but then he laughed.
 
“I see what you’re doing here,” he
said.
 

“Is it working?”

He took a drink.
 
“We’ll go,” he said simply.

Amanda nodded with suppressed satisfaction.
 
“I just need to find something to
wear,” she said, biting a nail, not trying to appear as coy as she did.
 
Liam rolled his eyes.

“What, is this the part where the makeover happens? I
thought the point was to keep you ugly,” he said.
 
When the smile fell from Amanda’s once-again stony face, he
laughed so hard he was compelled to give her knee a little squeeze.
 
“Kidding.
 
We’ll figure it out tomorrow.
 
Just never make that face again.”

WHO IS
LIAM’S MYSTERY GIRL?

Pop Dinner

January 11

Can anyone identify Liam Brody’s new female
companion?

Questions about the young brunette’s identity have
been circling the web since this evening, when pictures surfaced of 25-year-old
Brody at Columbia Regional Airport in Missouri, accompanied by a
twenty-something female with reddish-brown hair wearing a turquoise dress.
 
Her height – and let’s be honest,
quite a few other features – suggest she isn’t a model, so who is the
young woman and what is her relationship to Hollywood’s favorite lothario?
 
Fact checkers have confirmed that Brody
has no sisters, but perhaps she’s simply a cousin.
 
As hilariously strange as it would be, let’s be honest, the
girl does not look like any love of Liam’s.
 

Amanda leaned back against her patterned headboard, buried
in plush white sheets and staring into space as she attempted to compose a post
for HDU.
 
Liam had put her up in a
room at The Crosby Street Hotel.
 
Judging
by the location and décor, Amanda knew it had to be pricey, but as Ian said,
“We’re going to give him a lot of love on HDU, so it’s totally worth it.”

The scenery outside the window was enough to keep her
distracted and excitable.
 
Daytime provided
an entirely different view of Manhattan that Amanda found just as if not more
spectacular.
 
The sidewalks were busy,
full of life and style that she had never really seen before.
 
Since arriving at her hotel the night
before, she had been somewhat stressed about her first official date with Liam
– she had already begun to brace herself around him, being so easily
irked by his words – but now she couldn’t wait to get out of her room to
shop and eat and most importantly, explore.

“Come on, let’s finish this so we can get lunch,” Ian
said, sitting against the green wall of her room.
 
“Let’s make it good though, so he doesn’t skimp on dinner
tonight.
 
The dessert at Lilac is the
shit.”

Amanda raised her eyebrows.
 
“You’ve been there, Fancypants?”

“With my parents when I was a kid.”

“Aw, that’s sweet.”

“Yeah, once upon a time, they cared about me,” Ian laughed
tartly.
 
He flashed her the screen
of his iPad, his eyebrows suddenly wiggling like worms.
 
“Look.
 
This commenter on Celeb-O-Matic said ‘the guy in the
sunglasses and hoodie is hot.’
 
Ka-ching.
 
Getting closer.”

Amanda laughed.
 
“Congratulations,” she said.
 
Before Ian could ask, she hastily added, “I’m still not looking at what
they say about me and I don’t want you to tell me, thanks.”

Ian groaned.
 
“Fine.
 
But it’s mostly nice
stuff.
 
And you’re just prolonging
the inevitable.
 
You’ll have to
read once HDUers start commenting.”

It was true, and they were the harshest critics of
them all.
 
“I’ll mentally prepare
myself by then,” Amanda said stubbornly.

 
“Oh,
okay, so between now and five minutes? Is that why you’re taking forever on
that thing?”

“I’m just trying to make it sound believable.
 
I have to stay a tough critic at first,
I can’t just do a complete one-eighty,” Amanda said.
 
“I’ll be fully convinced about him after three or four more
posts.
 
And if
I
am, everyone will be.”

Ian tapped his head before pointing at her and making
a sly face.
 
“You’re smart, Pretty.
 
This is going to be good.”

 
Amanda
grinned.
 
“I think so,” she agreed
as she published the post.

BREAKING:
LIAM BRODY SPOTTED WITH GIRL OF TOTALLY AVERAGE HEIGHT AND LOOKS

January 12
11:27AM

Posted by
PrettyKitty29

HDU via
The Pop Source

At this point, no one is surprised when playboy
Liam Brody jumps from one relationship to the next in just a matter of
weeks.
 
However, Brody’s alleged
new romance presents an inconsistency in the actor’s prior dating record
– his new lady is no model or starlet.
 
In fact, she’s so below the Hollywood radar that she’s yet
to be identified!

The only existing clue about the mystery woman is
that she may be from Missouri, where Brody was visiting to research a
role.
 
While onlookers at Columbia
Regional Airport alleged that the pair was holding hands before their flight to
New York, no other proof has surfaced that these two are in fact a couple.
 
But if they are? Movie fans are
dubious.

“Liam Brody has a type, and it’s been
well-documented,” says Jessie Olm of Pop Rock Gossip.
 
“Maybe he’ll shock us and announce that this unknown is his
new girlfriend, but I think I speak for the rest of Hollywood when I say that I
highly doubt it.”

The most recent photos of the nameless brunette
show her leaving Brody’s apartment at late evening, after arriving there
approximately two hours prior.
 
Thus far, Brody and his rep have been unreachable for comment.