Moving in Reverse (20 page)

When I’d thought everything was
fixed.

My mom answered on the third ring, and
for a second I was surprised she was home, and then I remembered
the time difference. It was the middle of the afternoon in
California, but on the East Coast, she was home from work
already.

“
Casey,” she exclaimed,
like she was surprised to hear from me. “How’s school?”

I opened my mouth to answer, and then
remembered: fall break didn’t start for real until tomorrow. My
parents, without the aid of TMZ and Life & Style, didn’t
realize that I was in California already.

“
It’s good, mom,” I lied
smoothly, angry at myself for how easy it was. “I’m sorry again
about next week.” My parents had seemed ok with the idea of me
going to Los Angeles for the break, but I knew they were still
disappointed. When I was back in New York, I’d take the train home
for a weekend to make it up to them, I promised myself.

“
Did you hear from the
sorority?”

It seemed like Rush had been a million
years ago, so much had happened in between. “Yeah,” I answered,
trying to keep any emotion out of my voice. “I, um,” I paused,
trying to think of how to explain it. “I got in, but, um, I’m not
really sure I’m going to do it.”

My mom exhaled, her voice relieved.
“That’s probably smart, Case. Focus on school for a little
while.”

I sighed. Right, I thought. Focus on
school and try to forget that a fraternity placed a bet on who
could sleep with you. And that your so-called new sisters all knew
about it and didn’t tell you. “Yeah,” I agreed. “Hey, listen, mom,”
I said, swiftly changing the subject. “Has anyone, um, called for
me?”

Her tone shifted when she answered,
suddenly sounding worried. “The phone’s been ringing off the hook.
I took a list of names at first, and then your dad started calling
them mouth-breathers and hanging up.” She paused. “Did something
happen with Blake?”

“
Oh, um,” I felt another
lie start to form. “No, everything’s fine. There was an
announcement about his band this week, no big deal. Um, I think I
might actually have to return one of those calls, but, uh,” the
lies were coming less easily now, and I talked faster, trying to
gloss over the fact that what I was saying made no sense. “I think
one of them was, um, from this PR company that Madison’s friend
works for?” My voice was going shrill, and I tried to make it sound
like it was all nothing, no big deal. “And, um, she’ll be pretty
mad at Madison if I don’t return the call, so would you mind, um,
sending me the list of messages you took?”

“
Sure,” my mom sounded
wary, but didn’t put up a fight. “I hope dad didn’t answer her
call,” she said wryly. “Casey, are you sure everything’s
ok?”

She said it so sincerely, out of
nothing but worry for me, that I felt my breath catch in my chest.
So I did the thing I seemed to do best lately: I lied, again.
“Sure, everything’s fine,” I said smoothly, keeping my breath
shallow and steady. “Hey, um, Darby just got back to the room, so I
think we’re going to go to dinner, ok? Just email me the list.
Thanks mom, love you,” I said it so quickly that she hardly had
time to say goodbye before I hung up.

I let the phone fall out of my hand
and fell back onto Blake’s pillows, crying so hard it felt like I
was going to drown.

Chapter
Twenty-Nine

I called the fourth name on the list
of eight, a girl named Lauren from a PR firm with a
professional-sounding name (not that I knew the
difference).

“
So, um,” I started, after
introducing myself. “Do you represent any hotels? In, like,
L.A.?”

She didn’t make me explain, which I
was immediately grateful for.

“
Absolutely,” she said,
without missing a beat. “We work with the Z-1 hotels, have you
heard of them?”

I had. They were the kind of places
that Lindsey Lohan would get photographed leaving at four o’clock
in the morning, with a nightclub that people waited around the
block for. Not exactly my scene.

“
Perfect,” I said, and
then decided to push my luck a little. “Can you send a car to pick
me up?”

“
Of course,” she said
without hesitation. “I’ll book it right now, they’ll pick you up in
twenty minutes. Is an SUV ok?”

“
Something low key,” I
said, moving through Blake’s room and getting my clothes together
as she kept talking. I wasn’t sure if I felt right keeping the
clothes that Blake had bought for me, but there was no way on this
planet that I was getting back into the Madonna costume. So I
packed them into a few shopping bags I found in one of his closets,
folding them delicately, not removing the tags.

“
Obviously, Heat would
love it if you stopped by anytime, but I could probably get you an
appearance there if you’re interested. It’d be in the one to two
range. Could you get Blake or Tanner to come too? They’ll probably
go higher for that, but you’d have to meet and greet.”

I had no idea what she was talking
about, but somehow I got the feeling that I was better off keeping
my naivety to myself. What was the one to two range? Money? She had
to be talking about money, right?

“
Maybe,” I said, trying to
sound noncommittal but interested. “Can you send me an email with
the details? Tanner might be able to come if he’s not too
swamped.”

I was damned if I did, damned if I
didn’t. Tanner was almost a friend, or something like it, but
showing up at a club with him would be like punching Blake in the
face. On the other hand, Blake had just disappeared for days,
without any sign of when he was coming back. I loved him, but he
was putting me through hell.

“
Sure,” Lauren said. “The
car’s all set, I just need your address for their
directions?”

I gave her Blake’s address. The
paparazzi already knew where he lived, and I figured a PR company
couldn’t make it any worse.

“
I’ll meet you at the
hotel when you check in,” Lauren said. “You’re going to love
it.”

I looked around at Blake’s
bedroom, which felt even more empty now that my stuff was all
packed up.
Anything’s better than
this
, I thought to myself.

“
I’m sure,” I said, trying
to make it sound true.

Sure enough, within ten minutes, there
was a black SUV like the ones I’d seen Mary Kate Olsen and Katie
Holmes getting into in magazines. The burly driver came out and
opened the door for me, putting his body between me and the couple
of photographers who were camped out outside Blake’s
house.

“
Casey—” One of them
called, and I tried not to listen, tried to hear it all as a jumble
of words that meant nothing.

“
How’s Tanner?”

“
How’s Blake?”

“
Are you guys broken
up?”

“
Are you guys
together?”

“
How did Blake take
it?”

“
Are you joining Moving
Neutral?”

“
What’s Tanner like in
bed?”

There wasn’t much I could do besides
give them dirty looks, especially the last one, and get into the
car as quickly as possible. And if this was what they were saying
to me, I couldn’t imagine what they’d be saying to Blake. I
shivered, sinking into the cool leather seats and trying to put it
out of my mind.

The hotel was in
Hollywood, a glass building that looked like every room had floor
to ceiling windows. A pretty blonde girl in a maxi dress waved to
me the moment the SUV pulled into the driveway
, and I figured she was Lauren
. She
opened my passenger-side door and I was immediately faced with
almost a dozen photographers, way more than there had been at
Blake’s house.

I took a deep breath. I’d pretty much
expected this.

I stepped out of the car, and the
driver started to take the things I’d packed out of the backseat,
not shielding me from the cameras this time. I took a deep breath,
and tried to square my shoulders.

I was turning over a new leaf, and
that applied to the paparazzi too. I stood still for a minute,
giving the photographers a chance to get their photos.

“
Just give us a smile,
Casey,” one of the photographers said, and I figured what the heck.
I stood still and smiled for maybe ten seconds, letting them take
as many snaps as they wanted.

Their tone changed pretty
quickly.

“
Thank you—”

“
Thanks Casey, you look
gorgeous.”

“
Turn to the side a
little? Ok, beautiful.”

That’s more like
it
, I thought to myself, feeling a grin
sweep across my face. Maybe Blake didn’t know the best way to deal
with paparazzi after all? They were a lot more pleasant when you
actually stood still.

Lauren
grinned like I was her kid and I’d just won a swim meet, and
then took my elbow and led me inside. “You’re such a natural,” she
said. “Are you hungry? Thirsty? I’m sure you want to see the room,
but I was hoping we could chat a little about the ways we can work
together. I know you’re probably inundated by now, but I have a few
clients you might really click with.”

I still basically had no idea what she
was talking about, but oh well. I played along.

“
Maybe I’ll get settled
in, and we can meet in an hour? Is there a Starbucks or something
nearby?”

Lauren looked like she was trying not
to laugh. “There’s a great restaurant in the hotel, how about
that?”

“
Perfect,” I agreed,
realizing suddenly that I was starving. “See you then.”

Chapter Thirty

I took the room key that the doorman
handed me and headed for the last bank of elevators. I had a
thousand questions, and if I didn’t want to seem totally in over my
head, I needed some answers. And fast.

The floor lit up automatically when I
touched my card to the keypad. There wasn’t a room number written
on the key, so I hoped the hallway was small enough that it’d be
clear which one was mine.

Sure enough, the elevator opened into
an entryway facing two doors. The door on the right had a ‘do not
disturb’ sign across the door handle, so I slipped my key into the
other one.

Stepping through the door, I tried not
to let my jaw physically drop. The entry room was four times the
size of our dorm room at Columbia, and there was a vase of fresh
flowers the size of my entire body greeting me just to the side of
the door. I quickly walked through the rest of the suite, taking in
the king size bed with pristine white sheets, a small box of
gold-foil chocolate sitting on the left side where the covers had
been folded back. A white marble bathroom bigger than my whole
bedroom at my parents’ house, with a Jacuzzi in the center that
could fit ten people.

I suppose
this
will do, I giggled
to myself. Maybe they’d gotten me mixed up with Miley Cyrus? There
was no way this was all for Casey Snow... unless it was.

Which was what I needed to figure out.
They couldn’t be expecting me to pay for this, could
they?

My first thought was to call Madison,
but I wondered how much she’d even know about anything like this.
She’d put the idea in my head, but hadn’t really gotten it much
further.

I dialed another number instead,
thinking very carefully about what I was going to say.

“
Snow,” Tanner’s voice
sounded surprised, but warm and happy to hear from me. “I thought
I’d never hear from you again,” he said, only half
joking.

“
Well, I still owe you a
coffee,” I said, trying to lighten my voice. Tanner didn’t know
about any of what happened with Blake, and if I had anything to do
with it, he wasn’t going to.

“
Let’s go,” I could hear
Tanner’s smile through the phone line. “Let the paparazzi have a
field day.”

“
Right,” I giggled.
“That’s just what I need.”

“
Is everything okay? With
Blake?” That was exactly the conversation I didn’t want to have —
but fortunately, I had an answer prepared.

“
It’s fine,” I breezed.
“He trusts me. Of all people, Blake knows how absurd the tabloid
stories are,” I kept my voice light and carefree, feeling the lie
glide through my lips. This was my only option — the last thing I
needed was Tanner, and by extension April, knowing what had really
happened.

“
Right.” There was
hesitation in Tanner’s voice, but I ignored it and kept
going.

“
The thing is, I started
getting these offers, or whatever, and I thought that maybe since
you were sort of famous, you’d give me your thoughts.”

I bit my lip, waiting for his
response. This was it — if not Tanner, I’d probably have to ask my
mom for help. Which would mean admitting that I was sitting in a
suite in a hotel in Hollywood, and not in my eighty square foot
dorm room on West 125th Street.

“
Of course,” he said,
without hesitation. “What do you need?”