Mandy Makes Her Mark by Ruby Laska Page A

makeup tent, Mandy learned how much the girls went through for the sake of beauty. The false eyelashes made her eyes feel heavy. The tweezing of a few spare eyebrow hairs hurt badly enough to make her squeak. Her hair was yanked and blown out and curled and straightened and twisted and pinned, until her scalp felt like little more than a pincushion. Throughout, Sylvie sat with her eyes closed and a Zen-like expression on her face, humming tunelessly.
    If Mandy survived this day, she would have some apologizing to do.
    â€œSo,” Sylvie said, as the assistants zipped them into emerald-green gowns with plunging wrap bodices. What seemed like an entire roll of tape had been used to strategically arrange Mandy’s breasts in the décolletage, and it tickled fiercely. “What’s with you and Tad?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Mandy demanded, faking confusion and wondering how the heck Sylvie had guessed.
    â€œYou two haven’t said one word to each other. You’re both pretending that the other one isn’t even here. Except every time you turn around, he can’t take his eyes off you.”
    â€œHe…can’t?” Surprise blossomed into hope inside Mandy.
    â€œYeah. Way I figure it, he’s afraid you’re going to shank him. Because of Luna.”
    â€œOh.” Mandy’s romantic fantasy withered and died. “There’s nothing to worry about. Luna’s a big girl, she can take care of her own love life.”
    â€œI just thought you’d take her side. You always do, even when she’s being a total hag.”
    â€œI don’t think she’s all that upset, actually,” Mandy said carefully.
    â€œMaybe not now, but I caught them arguing in the break room, didn’t know I was there. She accused him of seeing someone else, he denied it, she yelled, he did that stupid strong and silent act, you know…”
    They’d argued? Did Luna care more than she was letting on? “What exactly did she say?”
    â€œI think she was accusing him of seeing someone else. She was telling him to at least look like he still cared about her when they were in public.”
    â€œOh,” Mandy said slowly. What if there had been someone else? Maybe several someone elses? Which would make Tad a serial womanizer, and her…just another woman in a series.
    Mandy was shocked at how much the notion hurt. After all, she hadn’t exactly asked questions before kissing Tad on the beach, before allowing him to carry her to his room, to ravish her mere steps from the door. But what had she been thinking? That it was nothing more than a road-trip hookup, a couple of lonely people taking advantage of an opportunity?
    And now she’d not only jeopardized a working relationship, but she had endangered her relationship with Luna. Her priorities needed to shift, and fast. Any hopes Mandy’d had for an ongoing relationship with Tad—or even a do-over of the night before—splintered like shattered glass. Now she had to focus on damage control.
    â€œWell, I’m sure Luna’s over it,” she said breezily, turning away so that Sylvie wouldn’t notice the tremor in her voice. “And as for me and Tad, well, I’m just trying to focus on the task at hand, considering this is my first ever modeling gig. And he…he’s probably got enough names queued up in his phone to last him well into old age, even if he never dates the same woman twice.”
    Sylvie laughed. “That’s true. Women can’t get enough of him. It’s that scowling thing he does.”
    â€œDo you, um…have you…” Mandy fumbled, afraid to know the answer.
    â€œMe? Heck no, I have a policy against working that hard for a man. I prefer to be adored.”
    â€œ I adore you,” Deirdre said sweetly, stepping into the cabana. “But if we’re going to get through all these gowns, we need to hurry it up.”
    As Mandy