BECOMING THE FABULOUS MISS C
By Angel Sentier and Lady Parsley
Chapter Six
Chloe stared with Teri at Tessa's rapidly departing figure, practically running out of the restaurant.
"Teri?"
"Yes?"
"Why was Tessa eating a live cow?"
"I don't know."
Chloe poked at the remains of the dripping burger with the opposite end of her fork. "This is... gross. She shouldn't have liked eating this... Anything with flavor to it makes her gag."
"Hey, I understand it about as much as you do."
Jeff came out of the kitchen then, and Chloe straightened. "Ah!" She indicated Tessa's vacated chair with her fork. "You, sit down, now."
A bit uncertainly, he came over, but didn't sit. "Where's Tessa?"
"We'll be asking the questions here," said Teri.
"...okay."
"That's more like it. Now, let me tell you something, Jeff... Tessa has a track record with men." Teri raised an eyebrow at him, intimidating as a school principal reprimanding a wayward child. "You're not going to be following that track record, are you?"
His eyes were rather wide. "No, ma'am."
"Good answer," said Chloe. "Because we will not be held responsible for our actions if you do." More kindly, she added, "We don't want to see Tessa hurt again."
He looked each of them straight in the eye before he answered. "I promise the both of you, nothing will happen to Tessa while I am around. Now will you tell me where she is?"
"Oh, she ran out a couple of minutes ago," said Teri.
"What?"
"Yeah, she seemed upset."
Jeff turned and began rushing from the restaurant.
"Hey!" called Teri. "What about our check?"
He pulled it out of his apron pocket and tore it up. "On the house!" he said as he ran out the door.
The two women sat there for a moment.
"Chloe?"
"Yes?"
"What just happened?"
"I'm not sure. But we got a free lunch."
"Can't argue with that." Teri stabbed her fork into her French fries. "How about we talk about something else?"
"Like what?"
"Like you ditching me."
Chloe winced. She'd wondered when this would come up. "I'm sorry..."
Teri exploded like Chloe hadn't even said anything. "You said you were just going to the bathroom! Do you have any idea how crappy the movie I had to sit through was? And on top of that, you left me to deal with Ginger! NOT cool, Chloe!"
"I really am sorry, Teri! I did go to the bathroom, but then I met... a guy." She stopped herself just short of saying Philip's name.
"You met a guy in the bathroom?"
"No! Just outside."
"At least you didn't meet him at a bar..."
"Well... We went to a bar..."
"Oh, God, tell me he's not a waiter!"
"No, he's not a waiter." Though he's played one on TV.
"Fuck, everybody's getting some but me." Teri chomped a fry viciously. "This is NOT fair."
"Hey, I didn't say I 'got some.'"
"Well, did you?"
"No!"
"Then what the HELL did you ditch me for!"
Chloe paused. "He was cute, Teri."
"'Cute' does not make up for it."
"And... for a while, I totally forgot about Jason."
Teri groaned. "Aw, damn... Don't do that. That means I'm not allowed to be mad at you. And I really, really want to be mad at you right now!" She glanced at her friend's apologetic face and sighed. "Fuck..."
"I am sorry, Teri--"
"Yeah, yeah..." She devoured another forkful of fries. "All right, tell me about the guy you met."
Chloe hesitated. "Well... He was... pretty normal, actually. Aside from being hyper-cute."
"As hyper-cute as Philip Carter Grayson?"
She grinned. "I think... even cuter."
The next morning, Chloe was just stepping out of the shower when the theme from Titanic came tweeting from her purse.
Oh, God... she thought as she glanced at her clock which read 5:31am. There are only two reasons why they'd be calling me this early. Either they are going to the office early to do their own work for once, which is highly unlikely, or... they haven't gone to bed yet.
With reluctance, she picked up the pink phone. "Chloe Ashton."
"Chloe!" came Princess's high pitched voice that always seemed to end in an exclamation. "You need to come pick me up!"
"What? What about Tessa? Why the hell hasn't she picked you up already?"
"You think I haven't been trying to get a hold of her? She's not picking up her phone! Come on," she wheedled, making her voice, if possible, even whinier. "You do it for Staci! Come and pick me up! Oh, but don't pick me up in that piece of crap you drive, I hate that fucking car... Go down to the office and pick up a company car--"
"I'm already going to the office; I have to be there for work in a half hour! I don't have time to come pick you up." Chloe figured this was bullet-proof. Even Princess knew how Ginger was about her assistant being on time, she wouldn't dare--
"Oh, I'll make Ginger understand..." said Princess. "Now, shut up and come get me! I really don't want to be stuck here any longer than I have to--"
"Fine, fine!" said Chloe, really not wanting to argue with her anymore. "Where are you?" If she says she's at Jason's, I'm going to rip her larynx out...
"Um... I really don't know."
"WHAT? What the fuck does that mean?"
"I'll find out! God, Chloe, there's no need to be such a bitch!"
As Princess went to get directions from whomever she had spent the night with, Chloe took a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut, and tried to maintain. She really didn't want to lose her voice again by screaming 'bitch' into the phone.
It was nearing six in the morning, the time Chloe was supposed to be at her desk, when she picked Princess up from the townhouse of some guy who, fortunately for Princess, Chloe didn't know. She hadn't had time to put on a stitch of make-up or dry her hair, let alone style it. How Princess managed to look so perfect even though she'd probably not had much sleep, Chloe had no fucking clue.
The stick-thin petite blond stretched out in the back seat with a contented smile, not bothering to thank Chloe for picking her up. No, don't worry about it, she thought, sarcastically. And don't bother with a seatbelt either, I'll make sure to drive really safely... As she looked in the rear-view mirror at her passenger, she noticed that the light on Princess's vibrantly purple cell phone was blinking.
"I think your phone's got a message, Princess," she said.
In response, Princess threw the phone in the front seat, narrowly missing Chloe's head.
"You're the secretary, you answer it."
Resisting the urge to chuck the phone right back her, Chloe grit her teeth and pressed the 'missed calls' feature.
Tessa's voice came through the speaker. "Princess, this is Tessa. Tell the boss I'm going to be out a little longer. I'm going up to Nana's house for a while." Click.
Chloe furrowed her brow. Nana's house? Wasn't that in upstate New York? She looked at the little screen; the call was made early this morning. Pretty sudden decision... I wonder what's going on?
"Well?" asked Princess.
"Uh, it was Tessa," said Chloe. "She says she's going up to your grandmother's house for a while."
Princess made a rude noise through her nose. "So, that's where she's disappeared to."
"Don't you wonder what she's gone up there for?"
"No, and I don't care. She should have thought about what we were doing before just taking off like that. That was so rude of her!" Princess raised her head slightly and lifted an eyebrow at the back of Chloe's head. "Aren't you mad at her? I mean, I wouldn't have had to call you if she had been home, you know..."
Chloe recognized a Princess baiting tactic and instantly denied it. "No, I'm sure she had a good reason." She would never give Princess any ammunition to use against her friendship with Tessa.
After she'd dropped Princess off at her condo, to change and get some sleep and throw up her breakfast, it was after six-thirty. She returned the company car and started toward the building. If it had been any other reason but Princess as to why she was late, she could have pulled in some favors, had everyone lie for her, and say she was on time. But since Princess would be sure and tell Ginger, the redhead would take great pleasure in making Chloe work an extra thirty minutes tonight.
She usually does that anyway, but when she feels she's justified, I can't bitch about it, thought Chloe, bitterly.
A crumpled figure at the entrance stopped her in her tracks. Oh, no, she thought, thinking that some bums must have had a fight last night. The poor guy looked in really bad shape; he was still bleeding in some places. She hurried over, getting out a cell phone to call an ambulance.
"Hey, mister, are you oka-- JEFF?" Sure enough, their favorite goofy waiter was sitting by the doors, bruised and bleeding. "What the hell happened to you?" she asked as she helped him gingerly to his feet.
"Um... I fell." It looked like it was painful for him to even speak.
"Into what? A vat of knives?"
"No, I fell... at work. Some dishes fell on me."
"And they beat you up for that?"
"No!" He coughed rather violently. "Look, it doesn't matter... I need to find Tessa."
"You don't know where she is? Wasn't she with you last night?"
"Yeah. Do you know where she went?"
Chloe hesitated. She was getting the feeling that she probably shouldn't tell Jeff where Tessa was. She knew that Tessa hadn't been up to Nana's place since she'd died, she'd been with Jeff last night and now he had no idea where she was, and Tessa had probably decided to go to Nana's right after leaving Jeff. Only one solution made sense: Tessa was hiding. And she was hiding in the one place she found really safe.
"Chloe," Jeff said, urgency rising in his voice. "Do you know where Tessa is?"
"Um... I don't think Tessa really wants to see you right now, Jeff," she said.
"Probably not," he agreed. "But it is really important that I tell her something. If you know where she went, please, Chloe, you have to tell me."
Her eyes went wide. "You didn't give her... you know... an STD, did you?" Her eyes then narrowed. "Because if you have, so help me--"
"It's nothing like you're thinking," he said, though he didn't quite meet her eyes. He took her hands in his cut up ones and looked up at her, desperation plain to see. "Please, Chloe. Please. I love her."
She blinked. "Jeff... You've known each other for, what... a few days?"
"I know, I know. It sounds stupid, but it's true, I swear on my life. When you know it, then you know it, right? And I have to tell her. Even if she never wants to see me again, I have to tell her."
Her resolve was wavering. No! You don't want to believe that men are sweet! Jeff may be nice, but he's still a guy. And sure, Philip Grayson may be nice and sweet and cute--Stop it! He's a guy! And you can't trust any of them as far as you can throw them! But she as looked at Jeff, quite obviously in a great deal of pain, and only thinking of Tessa, not himself, she wasn't sure how much longer that argument would hold out. Don't look at the puppy eyes, don't look at the puppy eyes... Oh, fuck... I'm going to pay for this...
"All right," she said, relenting. "Tessa called her sister really early this morning and said she was going to their grandmother's house in upstate New York. If she got her tickets online, she might be on a flight anytime between an hour ago and this evening. Because the tickets were last minute, she'll probably have to switch planes at least three, if not, four times. But because it's Sunday, I doubt you'll be able to find any tickets this late until tomorrow..."
At his defeated expression, she sighed and pulled a pen out of her purse, along with some leftover clearance papers from checking out the car this morning. She hastily scribbled on one of them. "I could get in a lot of trouble because of this... Take this next door. It will give you clearance to use the company jet. Flying non-stop, you should get there before her. It's a one-way thing," she explained hastily. "They will drop you off, only. Is that okay?"
He nodded, his face strangely resigned. "Perfect." He reached for the paper, but she held it away, eyes narrowing again.
"If you hurt her, I will hunt you down and kill you."
He gave her a sad smile. "If I hurt her, and I'm still alive, I will hand you the gun myself."
Satisfied with that, she handed over the paper and watched him limp away.
"I can't believe you let him borrow the company jet."
Chloe twirled her home phone cord between her fingers and sighed. "Teri, it's been a month since that happened. Can you please stop brow beating me about it?"
"It took balls, that's all," she said. "Either that, or somebody ate her paint chips that morning. You're lucky no one else had to use the jet that day."
"My stupid romantic sensibility is entirely to blame. I wasn't going to do it, I swear. But you should have seen those huge brown puppy eyes... They could have stopped a train."
"Are you sure Tessa didn't say when she'd be back?"
"Nope. She just said 'a while.' She made it sound like Jeff was with her, though." She paused. "I hope they're all right."
"Don't worry, hon. When Tessa's ready to come back, she'll be back."
"You're probably right." She looked at the clock. "Well, I have to go. Work."
"Yeah, it's about that time. I'm meeting someone today who was a client of Ginger's." Chloe could hear the mile-wide grin in Teri's voice. "They were apparently dissatisfied with her work. Eeeheehee!" She composed herself before continuing. "So, I have to go in early to make sure all the proposals are in order."
"You mean you check your own proposals? Gasp!"
"One of these days, I will get my own budget for an assistant and then you will come and work for me!"
"Yeah, one of these days. Talk to you later, Teri."
"Bye, hon."
Philip was one of those celebrities who prided himself on being able to drive, rather than rely on a chauffer. Besides, there was something definitely emasculating about not driving your own car. He cranked the stereo playing Aerosmith as he drove down the streets, headed for his meeting with his agent and publicist.
He wasn't particularly looking forward to it, because this meeting actually wasn't for the promotion of his crappy-ass movie, though he really wouldn't have relished a meeting for that purpose, either. He'd made the mistake of telling his agent he wanted to try dating someone 'real' this time, thinking that the man would understand. Allen took 'real' to mean 'non-actress,' and in his infinite wisdom, he chose Ginger Carlyle, their publicist, as the best candidate.
"She's beautiful and knows how to fit in to the circles you travel in," Allen had told him last night. "She'll look absolutely stunning with you and you know her already. She's perfect!"
How could Philip say that 'perfect' was precisely what he didn't want?
He pulled into the lot of one of the many Starbucks coffee houses that lined the street and donned a baseball hat and jacket in addition to his dark sunglasses. He stopped in front of the door and turned to lock the car with his clicker, but when he turned back around to go inside, someone coming out and carrying an armful of to-go cups crashed right into him. The hot coffee missed him completely, and instead splashed all over the woman's tennis shoes.
"Crap!" she exclaimed. "She'll have my head!"
She looked up, probably about to soundly tell him off, but instead her green eyes widened and the pissed off expression melted to one of surprise. Behind the dark glasses, his eyes were probably just as large, as he stared at the person whose words had echoed in his head ever since that night at the bar.
"Philip!" she exclaimed.
"You!" he said.
To be continued...
