HDU (48 page)

And then – in a moment of weakness, despite
knowing the silence afterward would make her paranoid – she texted Liam.

hey. was just
thinking about you while wearing your sweater to the airport – should’ve
said it earlier, but thank you for everything.

 
“
Shit
, no, no, no,” Amanda had hissed to
herself as she pressed the ‘End’ button on her phone with immediate regret.
 
Stupid,
cryptic, desperate-for-attention text message
, she scolded herself.
 
The box saying ‘Message Canceled’
comforted her only slightly.
 
She
knew her unreliable old phone, and it frequently delivered the messages that
she intended to cancel.

So as she rode to the airport, Amanda couldn’t help
but wonder if the lack of response from Liam was due to her text being
successfully nixed, or due to it being sent but perceived as completely random
and awkward.
 
Ugh, ugh, ugh
.
 
Amanda’s entire body still tingled with embarrassment over the message
she had sent over an hour ago.
 
And
to top it all off, it continued to ache for the city the farther she got from
it – as if a string were tied around her heart with the other end still
wound around her old bed post at The Crosby Street Hotel.

On edge, she actually yelped when her phone buzzed.

“I’m sorry!” she squeaked to the driver, who had
gasped and slightly swerved at the sound.
 
Amanda’s hands fumbled as she looked down at the number calling her
phone, her heart still pounding with hope despite the fact that the number
wasn’t Liam’s.
 
It was Restricted,
but she figured he could be calling from some phone on set.
 
She tried to compose herself so her
voice would be steady when she answered.

“Hello?”

“Amanda?” a low voice asked.
 
Amanda was silent for a moment as she
tried to identify it, tried to give it any excuse she could think of to
maintain that it could belong to Liam, though its gravelly richness sounded
nothing like him.
 
“Amanda?” the
voice repeated.

“Yes! Yes, this is Amanda,” she exhaled.
 
“I’m sorry… who is this?”

“This is Tom Vogel.”

Amanda blinked, lost for a moment.
 
Wait
.
 
Wendy’s husband.
 
Tom Vogel.
 
Seriously? Why was he calling?

“Where are you right now, Amanda?” Tom asked.
 
“Don’t tell me you’re in Texas
already.”

Her eyes were wide as she tried to understand what
Tom was saying.
 
How did he know
about Texas? She hadn’t told anyone.
 
Well, aside from hinting at it in her blog.
 
But she doubted that Tom Vogel would have randomly read her
last blog entry.
 
Though I’m sure Wendy might’ve
…

“Oh! I’m, uh, no… I’m not in Texas yet.
 
I’m in New York.
 
On the… I think FDR Drive right now? Is
that what it’s called?” she asked her driver, who nodded curiously at her
through the rearview mirror.

“Perfect,” Tom said, sounding pleased.
 
“Now I’m going to need you to ask your
driver one more question.”

Amanda swallowed, both confused and excited.
 
“Okay?”

“Ask him if he can turn the car around and drive you
to 92 Laight Street in TriBeCa.”

Seeming to have heard, Amanda’s driver cocked an
eyebrow at her through the mirror.
 
She laughed nervously.
 
“What’s there?” she asked.

“My office,” Tom replied simply.
 
“And a good, respectable job that the
paparazzi can’t scare me out of giving you.”

~

It had taken a half hour, but the car finally dropped
Amanda off in TriBeCa, on the opposite end of Manhattan.
 
Having just been along the East River,
she now stared out at the Hudson while perched on the peaceful corner of Laight
and West, where the city seemed to end.
 
Amanda stared out at the mere parking lot separating her from the drifting
water and what appeared to be New Jersey across the river.
 
She let out a breath, finally calming
from the rush of adrenaline and nerves that had plagued her throughout the car
ride over.
 
The TriBeCa morning
helped.
 
It was crisp, breezy and quiet
enough for her to hear a mother and child’s chipper conversation from blocks
away.

The calm carried her through the imposing lobby and
up the elevator.
 
Knowing the doors
would open directly into the apartment, Amanda smoothed down her sweater and
combed her fingers through her hair to look as presentable as she could for the
business meeting.
 
But her
composure nearly melted when the elevator opened to Tom and Wendy’s stunning
open loft, its oversized windows boasting a panoramic view of the Hudson River.
 
Walking slowly, her boots clicked
neatly against the Sapele hardwood, the sound alerting Tom to her presence.
 
He poked his head out over the ample
surface of the kitchen counter.

“Amanda,” he smiled, rounding the counter to greet
her.
 
In his late fifties with
frameless glasses and a grey beard, he still managed to look like the movie
star Amanda remembered from watching his movies with her mother in middle
school.
 
She returned his smile as
she shook his hand.

“Mr. Vogel, it’s so nice to meet you.”

“Please, Tom.
 
And it’s very nice to meet you as well – finally put a face to the
name that my wife always talks about,” he said with a laugh.
 
As he led her up the stairs to his home
office, he began to explain.
 
“In
case you hadn’t figured, Wendy saw your blog entry from last night.
 
She’s in the Hamptons for work right
now, but she called me the moment she read it so I’d keep you from skipping
town,” he said.
 
He chuckled when
he sat down across Amanda at his desk, catching a glimpse of her utterly perplexed
expression.
 
“She’s been trying for
months to get me to read your blog and brush up on your journey in the
city.
 
I never did though, and it
was nothing against you – I was just busy with my current project.
 
It’s been the bane of my existence for
the past year or so.”

“Yes, your new show.
 
I’ve heard about it,” Amanda nodded politely.
 
The show, of course, was the
competition that drove Casey to desperate measures to create hype for her own project.
 
Indirectly, it was the reason for Ian’s
current residence in a mental health facility.

“I’m glad you’ve heard of it,” Tom said, taking his
glasses off.
 
“Because I’d like to hire
you to work on it.”

What
.
 
Amanda felt herself staring with bug
eyes as her jaw dropped, but she quickly gathered herself as best as she could,
clearing her throat.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
You… what?”

“Since Wendy was so urgent yesterday, I finally spent
a night brushing up on your experiences and your blog entries from the past couple
months.
 
And I agree with her
– you have a delightful voice.
 
The kind that I’m missing on my writing staff.”
 
Tom opened his drawer and pulled out a
packet of paper.
 
He handed it to
Amanda.
 
“This is a treatment for
my show.
 
It’s about an insecure twenty-four-year-old
named Milo.
 
He’s an undrafted
baseball player who’s spent years getting waived by different clubs and toiling
in the minor leagues before landing his big moment with the Yankees.
 
But it’s less about sports and more
about the personal life of a kid who becomes an overnight sensation – and
in a city with the brightest lights in the world.
 
It’s about the adjustment to that completely sudden fame and how
it changes you no matter how hard you resist it.”
 
Tom leaned forward in his tufted leather chair.
 
“Now I’ve got a bunch of veteran
writers on my team along with some athletes to help me consult.
 
But having read your writing, I know I
could use your voice too – as a person who’s been through Milo’s ups and
downs, who has a distinctly youthful, bright humor.”

Amanda touched the packet of paper, gingerly bringing
it closer to her.
 
“
LEADOFF
written by Tom Vogel
.”
 
She could feel his eyes on her as she flipped through it in awe.
 
In her silence, he continued.

“It’s been ordered by ZINC.
 
We don’t have a release date yet, but considering the stages
of both productions, we’re projected to premiere at about the same time as
Casey Mulreed’s show, which Cinereel’s picked up.”
 
Tom raised his shoulders in a mocking shrug.
 
There was a smirk in his sigh.
 
“So, now we’ve got rival premium cable
networks airing two different shows about finding fame in New York –
which, hey, is always fun when you’re on the far superior network like we are.”
 
Amanda laughed, delighting in his jeering
tone.
 
“Anyway, despite my wife’s
friendship with Casey, I’d like to keep Cinereel in its perpetual second place and
make sure Leadoff trumps her little project in viewership, awards, whatever,
you name it.”
 
He grinned, trying
to look playful though Amanda could tell he was dead serious.
 
His eyes were gleaming almost
devilishly.
 
“Now I understand
you’re also a friend of Casey’s, but since this is business, would you be
interested in helping me trump her till her show is canceled into oblivion?”

Amanda drew in a breath of disbelief, releasing it in
a broad, revitalized smile.
 
“Like
you wouldn’t believe.”

AMANDA
NATHAN: STILL IN NEW YORK

The Durt

March 11

Why’d she scare us like that? Who knows, but
honestly, who cares.
 
All The Durt
can tell you is this: Amanda Nathan is still in the city, spotted taking a car
service up the FDR and
towards
the
airport (like she’d said in her blog) before taking the same town car alllll
the way back down and across town to TriBeCa, where our stupid sources lost
track of her (just kidding, sources, we love you).

Anyway, looks like Amanda’s a woman who knows how to
keep the mystery going.
 
What’s that
scrappy fighter up to next? Couldn’t tell ya, but can’t wait to find out!

BREAKING: LIAM BRODY SLAMS CHEATING ALLEGATIONS WITH
PROOF!

March 12 11:03AM

Posted by
chilam

HDU via Celeb-O-Matic

Snapping
his history of relationship silence, Liam Brody has shockingly come out today to
refute infidelity claims made about his romance with blogger Amanda
Nathan.
 
Just this morning, Brody released
an astoundingly honest statement addressing NFL dancer Megan Mayer, who claimed
to have had an affair with the actor while he was dating Nathan.

“There was
no affair, and Amanda is none of the things that she was accused of being in
that article.
 
She was an
incredible girlfriend and is the most caring and genuine woman I’ve met.
 
She deserves the utmost respect from anyone,
and I hope any unfair misconceptions about her will be put to rest along with
this [expletive] asinine rumor.”

Brody, who
resumes shooting for
A Soldier
tomorrow in Nebraska, flew into New York this morning to obtain the
surveillance tapes from the restaurant at which the alleged affair took
place.
 
Indeed, video that has been
released shows that Brody never once left the booth let alone followed Mayer
into the bathroom.

Hm… all
this to preserve the honor of a mere
ex
? Perhaps there’s more to this story.
 
Brody gave no word on a possible reconciliation, but it sure
sounds like Liamanda is headed in that path!

Amanda stared at the article, wondering if her bleary
morning eyes were deceiving her.
 
Or
if she was still high from accepting a job on Tom Vogel’s writing staff.
 
After having done that the morning
before, she’d gone back to her Tenth Street sublet to spend the rest of her day
in a haze of disbelief, with no mental capacity to do anything besides Google
Tom Vogel and marathon his most award-winning shows on Netflix.

And now, she was struck with in an entirely different
but equally pleasing disbelief.

She was an
incredible girlfriend and is the most caring and genuine woman I’ve met.

Amanda reread the line of the article over and over.
 
Liam had actually bothered to make a
statement about her – the first one he had ever made about any of his
dozens of public relationships.
 
It
felt impossible.
 
Was he really going
out of his way to refute a rumor that barely even affected him? More importantly,
had he really, actually flown to New York?
I’m
imagining this
, Amanda decided with certainty.
 
She was delirious from being overjoyed with her new job, her
reason to stay in the city.
 
Her
body was responding by visualizing the only other thing she wanted.