The Fame Game, Starstruck, Infamous: 3 book Collection

“Next week?” Gaby looked authentically disappointed. Either she’d been working on her acting or she’d forgotten the very next shoot, in which she would ask the same question and Kate would say yes. “Well, all right,” Gaby said. “See you later, I guess.” She teetered out to the sidewalk and stood for a moment in the sun.

The camera trailed behind Kate as she headed to the kitchen to clock out. Then there was a ten-minute break while Gaby changed into different clothes, and Kate braided her hair back and changed her earrings.

She took her place behind the bar, this time only pretending to watch the clock for the end of her shift as she did some sidework. Might as well help out whoever’s on the next shift, she thought as she folded cloth napkins into perfect triangles.

She worked for another few minutes before Gaby entered again, this time in a pale yellow tank dress that clung to her thin body.

“Hey, girl,” Gaby said, “are you getting off soon? Let’s go get drinks!”

Kate acted as if this was a wonderful proposal, and one she hadn’t just turned down. “Totally,” she said, wiping her brow dramatically. “I could seriously use a cocktail.”

As her filming schedule noted, she and Gaby would be heading to Wood & Vine for happy hour. Laurel had told Gaby to ask Kate about her latest song, and Kate had been instructed to ask Gaby about her Buzz! News gig. The producers weren’t writing their words for them. They were simply suggesting a subject. And a location. And an activity. The producers, Kate had discovered, had a lot of suggestions.

Once again the camera followed Kate as she clocked out. It filmed her as she brushed her hair out and applied a bit of makeup to brighten her rather tired eyes. Like an obedient puppy, it trailed Kate as she made her way out into the seating area to get Gaby.

Gaby held out a pair of dangly gold earrings. “I brought you these,” she said.

Kate was surprised. They were lovely, with cascading tiny golden leaves. “Really? What for?”

Gaby grinned with slight embarrassment. “I bought two pairs by mistake,” she said.

Kate raised her eyebrows. Was Gaby so mentally challenged that she would buy the same pair of earrings twice? “How come?” she asked.

“Well, I thought I lost them,” Gaby explained. “And they were my favorite, so I bought a new pair. And then I found the old pair in my jewelry box.”

“Such a strange place for a pair of earrings,” Kate remarked.

“I know, right?” Gaby said, without any apparent irony.

Kate swapped her earrings once more. “I love them,” she said sincerely. “Thank you.”

“No sweat,” Gaby said. She stood and linked her arm through Kate’s. “Now let’s go get drinks and find cute guys.”

Kate and Gaby sat at the bar at Wood & Vine. Kate had ordered a French 75, and after a few sips she already felt it was going to her head, so she asked for a cheese plate, thinking that it’d help soak up some of the Champagne.

“A cheese plate?” Gaby said, after the bartender had taken the order. “You live dangerously.”

“What do you mean?” Kate asked. “What’s dangerous about cheese?” She thought of Jack, one of her coworkers at Stecco, who’d just come back from a two-week illness after eating strawberries tainted with E. coli. Had there been some cheese-related outbreak of salmonella or botulism or something?

“The saturated fat,” Gaby whispered. “That’s what’s dangerous.”

Kate couldn’t help it; she burst out laughing. “God, Gaby, I thought you were talking about a food-borne illness.”

Gaby’s expression was still serious. “Obesity is a food-borne illness, Kate.” She took a sip of her cocktail and then a sip of ice water. Drinking a pint of ice water, she’d told Kate, burned fifteen calories.

Wow, Kate thought. Just wow.

Come to think of it, she couldn’t remember ever seeing Gaby eat. Certainly not at their “impromptu” dinner party for the benefit of the PopTV cameras, but not any other time, either. When the rest of the girls sat around eating popcorn or chips and salsa, Gaby drank ice water and chewed gum. No wonder she was so thin. And with those fake breasts? She looked like a twig with two cantaloupes attached to it.

Now you sound like Madison, Kate chided herself. Be nice.

“I don’t think a bite of Brie will make you—or anyone—obese,” Kate pointed out.

Gaby looked unconvinced. “I’ll stick to drinking my calories,” she said.

“Suit yourself.” Kate smeared a slab of a goat’s milk double cream onto a cracker and took a delicious, rich bite. She knew Trevor would love it if she confronted Gaby about her eating habits on-camera, but she wasn’t up for it. For one thing, it was possible Gaby ate when no one was around because she couldn’t help chewing with her mouth open or something; also, it was private business. And Kate was sensitive to that aspect of the matter, since she was involved in some private business of her own with Luke Kelly.

“So,” Gaby said, “how is that new song of yours coming? The one you played for us the other week?”

Kate had already given some thought to how she’d answer. Would she play the role of the inspired and hopeful singer-songwriter, the TV-ready Next Big Thing? Or should she confess that she’d been so turned upside down by her new life that she was having a hard time writing about anything? She hadn’t decided. Honesty came naturally to her, but in this case she was pretty sure that Trevor would prefer the fiction. (Another strike against “reality” in reality TV.)

She took a sip of her drink to buy herself a moment. Pause. “It’s coming along really well,” she heard herself say.

“I can’t wait to hear it,” Gaby said. “What’s it called again?”

“‘Lonely Doll,’” Kate said. “I think.”

“It’s just so cool what you do,” Gaby said. “I mean, I couldn’t write a song to save my life.”

No, thought Kate (not without affection), you probably couldn’t.

Her phone buzzed to life on the bar, and when she picked it up she saw that there was a message from Carmen.

WHERE ARE YOU? HAVE NEWS AND WANT TO SEE YOU. Carmen knew where she was, of course, but hey—pretending she didn’t was all part of the game.

She texted back and then told Gaby that Carmen would be joining them.

“Oh goody,” Gaby said. “It’ll be like a real party.”

“What, I’m not enough excitement for you?” Kate pretended to pout.

“More guys come up to us when Carmen’s around,” Gaby said. When she saw the look on Kate’s face she added, “Not because you’re not totally hot. It’s just that she’s—you know, famous?”

“Yeah, I know, I know,” Kate said. “I’m just a girl from Columbus, Ohio.”

“Not for much longer,” Gaby said, seemingly sincerely. She adjusted the thin straps of her dress. “Do you think this dress works? It’s a Mario Nuñez, but I kind of think it looks a little Forever 21.”

Kate laughed. It did look like it was from Forever 21, but could you say that about a nine-hundred-dollar dress? Luckily Carmen came racing up just then and planted giant kisses on both of their cheeks. Her own cheeks were flushed and her dark eyes were glittering.

“Wow,” Kate exclaimed. “You look over the moon. Did you just fall in love or something?”

Carmen settled herself onto a stool next to them. “Better,” she said. “You guys aren’t going to believe this, but . . .” She paused, biting her lip and smiling hugely at the same time.

“But you’ve finally taken my advice and booked your first Restylane treatment,” Gaby said. “I’m telling you, it’s going to change your life. Say good-bye to nasolabial folds!”

Carmen looked at Gaby as if she’d lost her mind. “What? No!” She was all but bouncing up and down on her stool. “I got the part in The End of Love.”

Kate flung her arms around her friend. “Oh my God! I knew you could do it! Congratulations!”