And she’d just lost the best opportunity to do that that had come her way in years.
Marley texted Shayne as she left the store to make sure he was home. Then she ordered two deluxe chicken shawarma plates from her favorite Lebanese place for delivery. She was going to need some comfort food to make this decision.
Over fire-roasted chicken shawarma with hummus and fluffy pitas, Marley told Shayne all about her meeting with Jacqueline. Of course, Shayne still didn’t know who the VIP was. Or that Marley had left him naked in a downtown hotel room twelve hours earlier. She had told him she spent the night at Ruby’s.
“Holy shit. Itoldyou Jacqueline was a witch,” Shayne said. “I can’t even. She told you tocancelyour surgery?”
Marley nodded, chewing her garlicky chicken. After taking a big gulp of peppermint tea, she sighed. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime. I’ll have to cancel surgery if I want to move to personal shopping. Jacqueline was quite clear.”
“There must be a way you can work with this clientandhave surgery. Tell them you can style them in six weeks after you’re recovered.”
Marley shook her head. “His film starts shooting in six weeks. And they want me to go to LA for some appearances before that.”
Shayne raised a brow. “The VIP is amovie star? Shoot, girl, have you been styling Keanu Reeves? Why didn’t you tell me! I—”
“What? No! Why do you think it’s Keanu?”
“He’s in town. He was spotted eating a cupcake on the subway yesterday. So, who is it, then? And whatexactlydid you do to make this person so enamored with you that he’s insisting you come to all his appearances?”
Marley quickly dipped a potato in the vibrant-red hot sauce and popped it in her mouth. If she started blushing, then Shayne would know exactly what Marley did to please the client. “I can’t tell you. NDA.”
“This sounds like a rom-com. But I know you wouldn’t get involved with a client. Or a movie star. We went to an arts school—we know exactly howinsufferableactors are.”
Marley didn’t say anything. She still couldn’t believe Nikhil had done this to her. She may not have told Nikhil the truth about her leave, but heknewshe would be unavailable. He knew she was going through something hard. She’d been way more open than she usually was with anyone. And he’d betrayed her. Some friend. He really was insufferable.
“Wow, you’re turning bright red. That must have been some client.”
“I’m bright red because I am incredibly pissed off at him. Why would he sabotage my job like this?”
“You know this, Marley. Because actors are all self-absorbed divas. Except Keanu, of course. The rest are so wrapped up in their own shit that they don’t notice, or care, when they put someone out. This is why we stayed away from the theater kids at school. Did you tell him off?”
Marley snorted. “Of course not. He’s aclient.” Marley had considered calling him right after leaving Jacqueline’s office, but of course, she didn’t have his number. Only Lydia’s. And she wasn’t going to call her. “Ishouldtell him off. I know I was just his stylist, but…” She sighed. “It’s complicated. I can’t say why, but I trusted him.” Her voice cracked as she spoke.
“Maybe you should talk to him,” Shayne said after a few moments. “It might not be his fault. Sometimes these peoplehave no clue what their team does. He might be able to convince the studio to work with youafteryour recovery.”
Was that possible? Marley didn’t know if it was Nikhil or his team who’d insisted she work with him.
“I don’t have his phone number. Only his handler’s.” She stood, taking her now-empty plate to the kitchen. “But Idoknow exactly where to find him. I’m going now.”
Shayne excitedly got up, too. “Ooh, we’re going to tell off Keanu Reeves! Should I wear myMatrixjacket?”
Marley rolled her eyes. “It’s not Keanu. And you can’t come.”
“C’mon, Marley. I’m not letting you go alone to confront a movie star. For safety… I’m coming.”
Actually, maybe sheshouldbring Shayne. As her friend. And as Nikhil’s former friend, too. She wagged a finger at Shayne. “If I bring you, you’ll keep all of this to yourself. They’ll sue me for a million dollars if I break the NDA. This needs to be tighter in the vault than what happened on your twenty-fifth birthday. Okay?”
Shayne’s eyes went wide. He knew how secure the twenty-fifth-birthday vault was. “Deal. What happens in… wherever we’re going stays in wherever we’re going.”
Marley didn’t tell him who they were going to see, so Shayne was utterly shocked when she started driving north toward their hometown of Markham. He made a disparaging sound when Marley got off the highway. “Are we going to yourmother’shouse?”
“No.”
He made an even more disapproving sound as she kept driving. “Mymother’s?” Shayne was low contact with his parents. Grams was the only family he spoke to.
“Of course not.”
When Marley parked in front of a large redbrick house in a subdivision filled with large redbrick houses, Shayne was clearly very confused. Marley was surprised she remembered where Nikhil’s family’s house was. She’d been here only once to study for a chemistry test. But Shayne had never been here, as far as Marley knew.
