Crazy Hot (The Au Pairs 4)

"Not this year," Midas said. "I'll be working on a documentary actually."

"Something fashion related?" Eliza asked, idly playing with her cell phone and wondering what Jeremy was doing right then. Did he even miss her?

"Nope. The fashion world's just a stepping-stone. I want to be a real artist, maybe pull a David LaChapelle," he confessed, suddenly looking a bit shy.

"Really?" David LaChapelle had started out shooting fashion spreads for avant-garde magazines like The Face and Black Book, then pervy-cool portraits of Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton for Vanity Fair, and had recently directed a well-received documentary on inner-city kids. "So what's your film about?"

"Carnies," he said with a grin. "After Paris, Marcus and I are traveling around the world documenting the carnival underground. It's wild."

"That does sound wild." Eliza smiled. It seemed strange to trade in the fun, fabulous world of fashion for a chance to hang out with circus freaks, but she understood Midas's desire to branch out into something different and acquire a bit of art-world credibility. Though she knew with Midas it wasn't about anything snobby--it was about trying something new and being his own boss rather than having to pander to the fashion world's finicky tastes.

But wait. Did he say he and Marcus were traveling together after Paris? Where did that leave Jacqui? "You and your brother

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are so close," Eliza observed, hoping to get more information out of him.

"He's a good mate," Midas said simply. "Although he can be a bit of a wolf with the girls." He grabbed one of his fries and dipped it in ketchup, wolfing down the bite as if to emphasize his point.

"Really," Eliza drawled. She hated to be right about things like this.

"Like a cat around the birds, that one." Midas took a sip of his drink. "I hope your friend can take care of herself."

"She's a big girl," Eliza said, though she wasn't so sure. Even though they were fighting, she wanted to look out for her friend. Especially if Jacqui was ready to throw everything away for the chance to live in Paris with a guy who would be out the do

or in a month.

"And you? Are you a big girl too?" Midas teased.

He was smiling at her over his steak frites, and Eliza couldn't help but smile back. Midas was so unbelievably charming. With his piercing blue eyes and messy, tousled, David Beckham--like hair (not to mention his toned David Beckham-like bod), he was by far the best-looking guy in the restaurant--everyone had turned to look at them when they'd entered. As they well should--they looked great together. And now she was free to date him. So why didn't she feel more excited?

Looking around her, Eliza realized with a hollow thud that she was sitting on the very same patio where she and Jeremy had had

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that awkward date earlier in the summer, that fateful night when neither of them had the chance to say what they were really thinking and feeling about their relationship.

If only they had really talked about what the ring meant when he put it on her finger. If only she had told him then what she had been truly feeling instead of being too scared to hurt him. Maybe if she'd just laughed and told him he was being silly, he would have put the ring away and they would have waited to talk about marriage again when they were ready, years down the line. Instead, she'd hurt him in the deepest way possible.

Lucky Yap chanced by and, seeing Eliza and Midas together, promptly snapped a photo. "It'll be in Hamptons next week," he told them gaily. "Elidas" he added to himself with a grin.

Eliza flashed a smile at Midas but shuddered to think what Jeremy would feel when the picture was published, seeing her on a date with someone else so soon after they had broken up. It hurt just to think about it.

Gotcha.

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"CHICK LIT" IS NOT A FOUR-LETTER WORD

LATE AUGUST IN NEW YORK CITY MEANT HEAT

compounded by sweltering humidity, but the day Mara and David returned to Manhattan was one of the rare, extremely pleasant late-summer days. A breeze blew across the Central Park trees, the air was cool and refreshing, and everyone on the street was in a good mood, from the Wall Street types with their folded-up sleeves, to the girls in billowy white sundresses and flip-flops who hurried between shops, to the hot dog vendors and the falafel guys.

They spent a wonderful day together, stopping at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the new Rembrandt exhibit, watching Shakespeare in the Park in the afternoon, and grabbing coffee at David's favorite bookstore on Madison Avenue. Mara's head was dizzy from all the cultural activities and deep conversations. After a summer spent changing diapers and stopping by the occasional Hamptons glitz fest, she'd forgotten what a day with David in New York was like--stimulating and full.

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His childhood bedroom at the Dakota was wall-to-wall bookshelves, and she was gratified to see that they owned a lot of the same books. She fixed her makeup in the tiny mirror on his desk, making sure not to get lipstick on her teeth. They had fifteen minutes before they had to meet his mother at Daniel.