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.What she lacked in natural assets she made up for with a push-up bra.I hated her already.I wanted to walk up to Joe and say hello so I could see the bimbo up close and he’d be forced to introduce me.That would be interesting.I could even make his life really difficult by offering to return his sweatshirt.which I was still wearing.But then Joe would see me at Century City alone on a Saturday night.That would be humiliating.I was still concealing myself behind my magazine when Kaitlyn interrupted.“Why are you holding the magazine over your face? I only knew it was you because George Clooney was on the cover.”“Sit down and be quiet,” I whispered.“I’m trying to hide.”“From who?” she asked in her normal loud speaking voice.I yanked her down into a chair and shushed her.“From Joe.He’s here with a woman who’s definitely not his sister.”“Where?” she said and stood up.I pulled her down again and described what both of them were wearing.She sat up in her chair and scanned the crowd on the terrace until she found them.“She’s definitely a date,” Kaitlyn said.“Thanks a lot.”“Why do you care? You don’t want him.”“That doesn’t mean I don’t want him to want me.Besides, we had a really good time today.I was actually reconsidering the whole wannabe thing.”“Did you tell him that?”“No, and I’m glad I didn’t since he’s obviously dating someone else.”“You’re hopeless,” she said and stood up.“I’m going to find Steve.Why don’t you go to the restaurant and check on our status and we’ll meet you over there.”I waited until I saw Joe and his date move inside before I went back to Houston’s.The hostess told me there were still five parties ahead of us.I was walking back to the bookstore to tell Kaitlyn and Steve that they didn’t need to rush, when I saw Joe and his date walking towards me.There was nowhere to hide.And there was no point.Joe had already seen me.“I didn’t expect to see you tonight,” he said.“Me neither,” I replied.It could’ve been worse.At least he didn’t have his arm around her.Joe introduced me to the bimbo, whose name was Barbara.“But everyone calls me Barbie,” she said.I didn’t need to wonder why.Although all of my Barbie Dolls had been natural blondes.This one was overdue for a touch-up.“So you decided to see the movie tonight after all.”He didn’t say “by yourself,” but I knew that was the implication.I didn’t look like I was on a date.Besides being alone, I was still wearing my jeans and his sweatshirt.But that didn’t stop me from lying.“I told you I’d rustle up a date.”“I never doubted you,” he said.“He’s in the bookstore,” I added before Joe could ask.“I was checking on dinner.You know what the wait at Houston’s is like on a Saturday night.It’s always an hour no matter what they say.”“That’s where we’re headed,” Barbie said.She was either oblivious to the tension or chose to ignore it.“If the wait’s not too long,” Joe chimed in.“But it looks like it is.So maybe we should try someplace else.”“That would probably be best.” I spotted Steve and Kaitlyn leaving the bookstore and added, “There’s my date.I should go.”Joe turned and followed my gaze.“Isn’t that your friend Kaitlyn?”I couldn’t believe he remembered her.“Yeah, she tagged along with us tonight.” I waived to Kaitlyn, who waved back and whispered something to Steve.When they reached the three of us, Steve put his arm around my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.“Hi, honey,” Steve said.“Did you miss me?”“More than you could imagine,” I replied.At that moment I could’ve kissed him and Kaitlyn.When I arrived home Saturday night I had a message from Marty.He said he was back from his ski trip and was wondering if we could get together that night.If only I’d checked my messages earlier in the day.Chapter 60The Beginning of the EndI played phone tag with Marty for the next three days.When we finally spoke he said he wanted to tell me all about his ski trip over dinner.He promised that both he and his stories would be much more entertaining over a bottle of wine.I suspected he was right.We made plans for Saturday night.Since he was a good friend of Todd’s, I thought it was safe to have him pick me up at my house.Besides, I wanted to ride in the Porsche.Even if we only lasted one date, at least I’d have that.* * *The next afternoon I was in Simone’s office discussing a fraud case we were both working on when my assistant Lucy stuck her head in the door.“Your mother’s on the phone.She didn’t want to leave a message.”If my mother was calling me at the office in the middle of the week then there had to be a problem.I just hoped it wasn’t serious.I went back to my office, closed the door, and picked up the receiver.“What’s wrong?” I asked.“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you joined a dating service,” my mother said.“What?”“And you might’ve mentioned when I spoke to you on Sunday that you were going to be on TV.I’m your mother, Julia, didn’t you think I’d want to know?”“Mom, what are you talking about?”“What am I talking about? Your interview on Hollywood Tonight!”This was not happening.Someone please tell me this was not happening.It had to be a bad dream.Kaitlyn swore Hollywood Tonight wouldn’t run the story.That there was no story to run.I’d even recorded the show for a few days, just in case.But it had been over a week.I thought I was in the clear.I noticed that my mother was still talking and heard my sister’s name.“You mean Deborah saw it too?”“Yes, Julia.I just told you, she’s the one that saw it first and called your father and I.You know we don’t watch those celebrity gossip shows.”“Tell me exactly what they said in the story.”“I don’t know about the rest of it.We only caught the last few minutes.”“Then just tell me what they said in the last few minutes.”“Don’t yell at me, Julia.I’m still your mother and I don’t appreciate your tone.”I took a deep breath and counted to five, backwards.“Okay Mom, I’m sorry.You just caught me by surprise here.”“You mean you didn’t know you were going to be on TV?”Duh! “No Mom, I didn’t.”“Can they do that?”“Apparently they can [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]