Seeing Stars (The Celebrity 1)

She knew I was obsessed with headpieces. Anything that reminded me of Roman goddesses, the Roaring Twenties, or exotic kingdoms in faraway lands, and I was all over it. What can I say; I’m a romantic. She bought me the crystal one because she knew I’d never spend that kind of money on myself, claiming that my face lit up when I saw a similar one during an opening gala party we’d attended together in Beverly Hills.

I placed the headband across my head and over my newly wavy hair, which I mussed up a little so it looked fuller and the thick waves bounced in every direction.

When I headed out of the bathroom and into our living room, I saw that Keri had transformed herself into a goddess. A slinky black dress clung to every curve, and her waist-length chestnut hair fell all around her.

“Holy shit, you look gorgeous.” I pursed my lips, admiring her ridiculous body. “I hope Walker doesn’t see you tonight. He might not be able to sing.”

She tossed her head back and laughed. “Gross. You know all those things they say about him are true, right? I mean, the tabloid stories are usually so far-fetched and out of touch with reality, but with Walker Rhodes? They’re unfortunately spot-on. Such a waste.”

I frowned and gave a little shudder. “I’m so glad he’s not one of our clients.”

“He’d be a complete pain in the ass, that’s for sure. But at least he shows up for work on time and does his job. It’s just all the after-hours stuff that gets him into trouble.”

I nodded, agreeing with her assessment. “Hey, how’d you get the tickets anyway?”

She waggled her eyebrows playfully. “My dad. Someone at the studio gave them to him. They actually wanted him to go to the show and see how Walker performed live. I think they’re going to pitch a movie with him as the lead.”

Keri’s dad was an executive at a movie studio. He was also her boss, since she worked for him as a production assistant. Not wanting to be accused of riding Daddy’s coattails, she’d insisted on paying her dues like everyone else, but paying them under her dad’s watchful eye. It garnered her respect from her coworkers that she wasn’t using her daddy’s name to get ahead in the business. And she worked hard, which was something we had in common.

I groaned out loud. “Not another one of those singers turned actors. Can’t they just stick with one thing?” I rolled my eyes at the ceiling. “So, do you have to give a full report back to your dad?”

She nodded, waving her iPhone at me before tucking it into her purse. “Yep. I have to film parts of the show with my phone and e-mail them to him.”

“You could have told me this was for work. I’ll always agree to go with you to events when they’re work-based.”

Keri put on a serious face. “Madison, I really need you to go to Walker Rhodes’s concert with me so we can stare at his beautiful face and pretend he’s singing every love song to us and forget all about what a gross man-whoring pig he really is. Because it’s for work.” She narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice dramatically. “For work, Mads. And I need you.”

I choked back a laugh as the doorbell rang, alerting us that our driver had arrived. “You’re so…” I stopped myself as I searched for the right word.

“Lovable? Adorable? Amazing? I know.” She shrugged her shoulders and disappeared out the front door as I followed close behind, trying not to laugh as her hair swished from side to side the same way her ass did.

• • •

I followed Keri’s lead as she weaved through the slow-moving crowd. Clutching my ticket in my hand, I stopped for a moment as we passed through the double doors and entered the arena. Craning my neck to look all around, I took in the sheer number of people filing in and smiled. What an awesome feeling it must be to know that all these people were here for you.

“Madison, keep up!” Keri shouted in my direction.

“Sorry,” I yelled back and rushed toward her.

“What were you doing?” Her voice was drowned out by the hum of hundreds of people chatting around us, and I didn’t respond.

“Hey, Madison! Hey, Keri! You girls look great.” A tall, good-looking guy with brown hair rushed up to Keri and me. I tried not to frown as I struggled to place him, since this guy obviously knew who we were, but I would swear on my life that I didn’t know him. If there was one thing I’ve always been incredibly crappy at, it was recognizing faces.

Having grown up in Los Angeles my entire life, I’ve met tons of people throughout high school, college, my internships, and now my latest job where celebrities of all types pass by my desk all day long. As a result, faces have almost become blurred to me. When you run into the people that you’ve watched on the television for years at places like the grocery store, the mall, and the beach, it really starts to mess with your ability to place people’s faces correctly.

There have been many times I’ve thought that people looked familiar, but I had no idea where I knew them from. I actually walked up to a gorgeous girl at my local market one afternoon and asked her if we went to high school together because she looked so familiar. Turned out she was one of the leads in a vampire TV show that I didn’t watch, but I obviously knew her face from her celebrity status. Oh, the embarrassment.

“How are you? Haven’t seen you two since we graduated!” The guy beamed, his smile so wide I could see nearly every one of his teeth.

We went to college with him! The idea of narrowing down how we knew him excited me, but I still couldn’t place him. “So good to see you, babe,” I said as I returned his hug, and Keri stifled a laugh. She knew the second I addressed anyone as “babe” that I had no clue who they were, or where we knew them from. And most importantly, I didn’t know their name, hence the “babe.”

“You look fantastic, Jim,” Keri responded, emphasizing his name for my reference, which made me want to both kiss her smug face, then give it a smack of a different sort. “We really have to go, though. It was great to see you.” Keri tugged on my arm, and I stumbled to keep up.

Poor Jim stood there dumbfounded. “Uh, okay. We should hook up sometime! Call me!” he shouted as we walked away.

Keri waved him off with a smile as she continued to walk in the opposite direction.

“You’re so bad,” I called out at her back, her arm still tugging at mine.