HDU (26 page)

Amanda tried not to think about the odd moment as she
waited for her and Liam’s car outside.
 
Liam was still inside chatting with Ben and others, but she felt the
need for fresh air, even if it meant a paparazzi shot or two.
 

“Figures I’d only catch you at the end of the night,”
a voice said from behind her.
 
Recognizing
it by its first word, she spun around.
 
Dylan smiled at her as he pulled on his trench coat.
 
“This is becoming a pattern, isn’t it?”

“I hope not,” Amanda breathed.
 
“Congratulations on the film, by the
way.
 
I really enjoyed it.”
 

“Thank you,” he said graciously.
 
“I’m glad everyone seemed to.
 
Though I don’t think I’ve heard louder
weeping in my life.
 
Were you one
of those people?” he asked teasingly.

“I found it very tragic, but I don’t think I cried.”

“Me neither.
 
I strangely might’ve laughed more than I cried,” Dylan said.
 
Amanda giggled, feeling daring.
 

“Was it because you were thinking about how much
better you’d have done that crazy nude scene?”

Dylan burst out laughing.
 
“No!” he cried, though as Amanda’s cheeks flushed red, he
surrendered.
 
“Alright,
yes
,” he confessed.
 
“But I swear it’s not as terribly
conceited as it sounds.
 
I was
just… reminded of our conversation in the cab.
 
It was fresh in my mind.”
 

Amanda bit her huge smile back.
 
“Me too.”

“Oh.
 
Well
then,” Dylan smiled, cocking his head a bit.
 
“Is it odd that we thought of each other while looking at someone’s
hairy bum?”

Amanda put a finger to her lips.
 
“Um, I don’t think so? Pretty sure
that’s normal.”

“Oh, good.
 
And extremely romantic, I’m sure.”

She laughed and blushed at his suggestion at any sort
of romance.
 
But just then, felt a
hand on her lower back.
 
Dylan’s
eyes slid past her to where Liam had suddenly appeared.

“The car’s here,” he said, his eyes traveling from
her red cheeks to Dylan.
 
“Hey,
how’s it going, man,” he greeted him, leaning forward to do a
handshake-slash-hug move that Dylan completely botched.
 
Liam pretended not to notice.
 
“I didn’t make it for the movie, but I
heard it was great.
 
Congratulations,” he said.

“Thank you,” Dylan responded with a nod.
 
After a bit of a silence, he motioned
towards the Mercedes.
 
“Well, don’t
let me keep you if you’ve got a car here,” he said amiably.
 
“It’s too cold to be waiting for
another second.”

“You’re welcome to hitch a ride,” Liam said –
and genuinely, to Amanda’s surprise.
 
She watched for Dylan’s answer as she got into the car, unsure of how
she felt about sitting in a confined space with the both of them.
 

“Thank you, but that’s alright.
 
I think I’ll take a taxi,” he smiled
courteously, laughing when he caught Amanda’s grin.

“Don’t let anyone steal it from you,” she called out
the window.

“I don’t let just anyone do that,” he called back before
Liam shut the door.
 

LIAM ON
AMANDA: I MISS HER WHEN I’M WORKING

Posted by PrettyKitty29

HDU via The Pop Source

January 31th
 
9:33AM

The Pop Source caught up with Liam Brody last week at
the New York premiere of
What Was Lost
and
the hunky actor gladly shared a few words about his new sweetheart, Amanda
Nathan, who attended the premiere to support her good friend, Casey Mulreed.

TPS
: It’s been about two weeks since you flew Amanda out
to New York.
 
Has she had any sort
of calming effect on your fast-paced life?

LB
: She’s definitely good at making me laugh and
remember that things aren’t that serious.
 

TPS
: We know you’ve been auditioning for the next Terrence
Rambis film
, A Soldier
.
 
Has it been hard to juggle those
responsibilities while showing Amanda around?

LB
: A little.
 
There was a three-day period where I didn’t get to see her at all, which
was tough because I missed her.

TPS
: Did she miss you?

LB
:
[Laughs]
Honestly, I don’t think so.
 
She has a few friends who are really good at making her forget about me,
so I think it was a one-sided yearning.

My, oh my! Could it be that
Amanda’s
the heartbreaker in this relationship?
Whatever it is, looks like she’s bringing out the never-before-seen side of our
favorite ex-playboy!

(OKAY, I
ADMIT IT, THIS INTERVIEW WAS KIND OF CUTE AND HE MIGHT NOT BE THE SPAWN OF
SATAN.
 
HDU, please just make it
easier on me by admitting that you’ve hopped the Liam bandwagon too.
 
Love >>> hate, tbh. –
PK)

TOP
COMMENTS

Honeybee103192

K now that PrettyKitty approves of Liam I can admit
that I’ve been super attracted to him since he stepped out with that meh-looking
chick. Makes me feel like I have a chance…

Kitster629

Fiiiiiiiiiiiine that was cute.

x_lanfi_x

OMG, HDU. My friend who goes to school in NYC bumped
into Amanda and Ian near her dorm yesterday and she said that Amanda is much
cuter in person and that Ian Marsh (the hipster guy she hangs out with) is
actually better-looking than most celebs in real life. Yup, cool story bro.
 
 

mrstylerchase

that hipster kid looks like he’d be a douche irl. but
damn, those green eyes <3

FilmFreak
(Moderator)

Huh?? How does he look like a hipster or douche??

Despite the sheer humor of the HDU article she had
posted about Liam’s yearning for her, Amanda couldn’t help but feel an unhappy pit
in her stomach.

For nearly a week, she had not spoken to or seen
Ian.
 
Since Casey’s premiere, he
had been almost entirely unreachable, similar to how Liam had been when he was
preparing for his audition.
 
With
his phone going straight to voicemail, Amanda was forced to ensure that he was
still alive by checking his Internet activity.
 
He was leaving comments on HDU, but a small fraction of the
amount that he normally posted, and he wasn’t responding to the messages she
left in his inbox.
 
He was
busy.
 
But with what
? Amanda wondered.
 

She scoured his Google searches relentlessly to find
that only one small gossip blog had published recent pictures of him –
out grabbing coffee before heading straight back into his apartment.
 
It inspired her to drop by and see if
he might let her in, but the visit proved fruitless.
 
Amanda could truly only wonder what he was so busy doing in
there.
 
Maybe Casey
, she had snorted to herself before remembering that since
Monday, Casey had been in Los Angeles and London for the West Coast and U.K
premieres of
What Was Left
.
 
It was for the better because Amanda
would have probably called her to ask if she knew of Ian’s whereabouts, which
would probably have been foolish considering there was nothing going on between
then.
 
Right
?

She pondered the thought as she sat across from Liam
at a restaurant in the West Village.
 
He had called early in the morning to invite her for breakfast on quaint
Cornelia Street.
 
It was at the
exact kind of charming bistro that she loved, but she had been mostly silent
since arriving.
 
Liam simply
watched her as he drank his Americano.
 

“Tell me what you’re thinking about,” he finally
said.
 
Amanda looked up at him and
his genuine curiosity.
 
It made his
dark eyes kind of gleam.

“Ian and Casey,” she answered, exhaling.
 
“Them having sex,” she added bluntly,
surprising herself.
 
She wasn’t
alone as she watched Liam’s eyebrows lift, for once caught off guard.

“Is... this a fantasy of yours?”

“Ew!” Amanda threw her napkin at him.
 
He caught it and laughed, giving a
shrug as she literally shook the idea from her head.
 
“I’m not thinking about it for
fun
, I’m wondering if they
did
because things have been weird with him lately.”

“How?”

“I haven’t seen him since the premiere and I don’t
think anyone has, to be honest,” she said, narrowing her eyes as she unraveled
her croissant.
 
“I think he’s been…
well this is only if they slept together, and because I just have a suspicion
that girls are like, his kryptonite, but… I think the only reason for him to be
holed up in his apartment is ‘cause he’s, like… obsessing over Casey or doing
something weird and mentally destructive?”

“He’s plastering his walls with cutouts of her face,
you know that right?”

“Ha-ha.”
 
Amanda kicked him under the table.
 
“That could actually be true.
 
To an extent.”
 
Her smile
fell to a look of worry, making Liam chuckle.

“Listen, I saw them that night too.
 
Coming down the stairs together,” he
revealed to her surprise.
 
“And
it’s more likely they were doing a line, not each other.”

Amanda’s eyes widened, briefly silenced by the sheer
audacity of the suggestion.
 
“
Pffffft
,” she said, leaning back in her
chair and drawing out the sound for as long as possible.
 
“Yeah, because Casey Mulreed is a total
cokehead.”
 
Liam nodded.

“Little known secret.”

“Psh,” Amanda brushed him off.
 
He shrugged.
 
“Okay, let’s just move on, I just had to get all that
annoying… whatever it was out of my system.”

Liam shrugged.
 
“Boyfriends are supposed to sit through those every once in awhile,” he
said, bringing his coffee cup to his lips.
 
“Though there’s usually a fair exchange,” he added before
taking a drink.

Amanda squinted.
 
“Are you going in a perverted route again?”

Liam considered it.
 
“I didn’t think it was that perverted,” he laughed.
 
“I’m taking it you’re on the
conservative side when it comes to relationships.”

Amanda scoffed.
 
“
No
?” she answered
defensively.
 
She wasn’t on the
conservative
side of that at all.
 
What an ugly thing to say.
 
At least to her.
 
Megan always loved to call her the same
word.
 
“Don’t be mad, it makes you
sweet,” she had said whenever Amanda bristled at it.
 
It never felt good to confess her relationship problems only
to be called
conservative.
 
Conservative
reminded her of the fact
that her boyfriend dumped her for another girl.
 
She knew it wasn’t technically a horrible word, but Megan
had attached a meaning to it that only ever brought back bad memories.
 
Suddenly, the mere thought of her made
Amanda writhe with anxiety again.
 
Something
Megan-related was at the back of her head, desperately trying to wrestle
forward through the hundred other thoughts on her mind.
 
Amanda had forgotten something,
something kind of important.
 

“Oh,
fuck me
!”
she suddenly gasped as she remembered.

Liam raised his eyebrows.
 
“Okay.”

“
Shh
!” She
couldn’t even bother to throw anything at him as she bobbled her phone in her
hands, scrolling through her inbox and finally landing on her exchanges with
Megan.
 
She clicked on the last
text she had received from her, the one she had forgotten about after reading
it drunk at the Turkish restaurant, the night of Roué.
 
She stared at the key phrases.

I’m embarrassed
by how I left off with u
 

I am visiting
NYC on Feb 3rd

I would love to
catch up over a nice dinner