Read Online Hollywood Nights by Sara Celi - Free Book Online Page B

Haberdash?”
    “Have you talked to Lana lately? What do you think about her new girlfriend?”
    “Any new roles on the horizon you want to talk about?”
    “Did you hear Variety voted The Flash Returns the worst action movie so far this year?”
    We hadn’t discussed it, but somehow Brynn knew what to do. She linked her arm with mine and leaned away in the perfect position, one tailor-made for the party photo spreads in magazines, gossip blog write-ups, and Pinterest boards of Hollywood gossip. After a few clicks, she turned and posed another way, one that put the camera’s attention back on me. She angled her head and looked up at me adoringly, as if she hadn’t met anyone more wonderful in her life. And when we were safely inside the restaurant a few moments later, she clasped my hand in hers.
    “Everyone here will get the message,” she said, when I regarded our entwined fingers. “Just go with it.”
    “How’d you know what to do?”
    “Reading tabloids isn’t all bad.” A smile pulled at her lips. “It’s not always about who is in them, but what they are doing.”
    A tuxedoed server handed us glasses of champagne, and we downed them in a few gulps before another server arrived with samples of the restaurant’s signature craft cocktail. Hollywood’s elite, wealthy, well connected and well preserved moved through the party like small schools of fish, sizing each other up over samples of expensive sushi and appetizers wrapped in flaky dough. Tomorrow, they’d rehash the party over mimosa-soaked lunches and gossip about the attendees during sessions with their personal trainers.
    I knew about ninety percent of the people in the room. To my left stood that supermodel , to my right, that director had his hand on the thigh of that actress . Across the room, those musicians flirted with that Playboy bunny while that producer looked on in jealousy. And so on, and so on…
    Typical Los Angeles. So many somebodies and no one who wanted to be a nobody. Names, faces, and projects blended together in the room. If I hadn’t been with Brynn, I’d be bored already.
    “So I’m thinking here—next scene, right? How all over you should I be?” Brynn said under her breath after we finished the second cocktail and moved onto the third. “Do you want me to turn it up a notch?”
    Good girl.
    “Not too much,” I said, and then looked down again at her hand, still wrapped with mine. Lana had never liked to hold hands. “Too sentimental,” Lana had always said whenever I’d tried. Not that I ever had much of a chance to hold her hand. At parties, Lana had never stuck by my side long enough. She liked to work a crowd, not observe one.
    “Let’s find a place to sit down,” I told Brynn. “I think I see some spots over there.” I led her to a large velvet booth on a platform slightly above the other tables. From there, the rest of the restaurant and the people at the party lay in full view. She slid into the seat and I followed, taking off my jacket as I did.
    “People are noticing,” she said. “I saw a couple of glances our way when we walked over here.”
    “Most of these people know me, but they don’t know me. One of those events.” I shrugged and waved a server over to our booth, then ordered another round of cocktails and a few items off Katsuna’s complementary grand opening menu. “Are you having a good time?” I said to Brynn, once we were alone again.
    “Haven’t been here long enough to know.”
    “I’m not talking about this party. I mean in general.” I glanced at the crowd to see if anyone paid attention to us. No one at that second. “With this—ahem—arrangement.”
    “So far. I had fun at Barneys today. Thank you for offering to pay for the outfit.”
    She leaned back in the booth and shifted her weight. When she did, I got a better view of her cleavage. She had real breasts; the cleavage line showed them off. Damn, it had been so long since a woman in my life had real