“No story involving Seth and I is a good one,” I reply bitterly. “If you write that he is in New York because of me, you wouldn’t be printing the truth. I am here- by myself- working on my makeup line…” I just feel the need to remind her that this isn’t the time or place to be discussing Seth. “Also, if you put out a story like that, I will get backlash for wrecking his career, and making him move. Then not only will I be too ugly for him, but also, I’ll be ruining his life as well. I don’t need that, not when things are going so well for me.”
The look in her eyes transforms to sympathy. I guess she really must be new to the career if she has any human emotion left. She takes a little step backwards and darts her eyes around eagerly searching for someone else. “Well, I will leave you to it then. Sorry, I just wanted to get to know where Seth is, that’s all.”
As she practically runs away, I feel like I’m shuddering from head to my toe, wondering what the hell is going on here. Seth can’t be missing, can he? Admittedly, I am not exactly up to date on my entertainment news because I don’t want to know what’s going on with him, but this seems huge. I mean, why would that journalist lie about Winter doing all of the promo by herself? That would be a weird lie.
So, where is Seth? Why isn’t he with Winter? What the hell is he doing? Is he actually in New York?
All of a sudden, my eyes are everywhere, hot blood rushing violently around my body. It’s too much for me. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to be in the same city as Seth, never mind in the same room. I’m supposed to be far away from him, he can’t contact me here, he doesn’t have my new cell phone number, only a few choice people do… but now that journalist has me imagining all kinds of crazy things. I’m actually pretty dizzy with it all. I lean on to the table to keep myself standing as I try to calm myself down. I mean, this isn’t something that I need to get all worked up about, is it? If I really think about it, it’s fine. It wasn’t a confirmed sighting of Seth in New York City, I’m sure that I would have heard about it if it was. And even if he was or is here, it’s a massive place where everyone can be anonymous.
He isn’t going to find me, I convince myself. At least I seriously try to anyway. It’s fine, I’m fine.
I suck in a few deep breaths and do what I can to get myself to normal. Or as normal as I can be, now that damn woman has knocked me off my feet. I really hope that she doesn’t end up writing anything about me…
“Darcy?” Oh God, now I’m imagining his voice. This is really bad. I’m going crazy. “Is that you?”
I spin slowly, unsure of what I am going to find myself looking at, but as I find him looking back at me, my knees practically give way. Either that journalist has put me in such a place that I am now hallucinating, or Seth Bishop is here. Standing in front of my makeup desk, looking proud.
“S… Seth?” I stammer. “What… what are you doing here?”
“I’m here to talk to you.” He shrugs and smiles. “At last, I found you.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Seth
February 8th
I can’t believe it, this is like a dream, I finally found Darcy. I have been hunting nonstop ever since I set foot in this city, exploring every fashion based expo or beauty even that I could find, until finally I have stumbled across her at long last. Darcy might look shocked, but I can tell that she is happy as well. In fact, the sweet look on her face makes all of the missed calls and angry voice mails from Sierra, all the missed movie promo with Winter, all of the opportunities that I haven’t taken- worth it.
“Are you okay?” She seems to stumble a little, but I grab her elbow to stop her from losing her footing. Thankfully, she doesn’t immediately snatch away from me. “Sorry, I know that this must be a
bit of a shock…”
“Yes,” she rasps, unable to gather herself back up. “This is a shock. What the hell are you doing here?”
“I…” Before I can get the story out, the speech that I have been planning on the whole way out here, a girl that I recognize from an award show that I was at late last year, grabs Darcy’s attention and takes her to one side to talk to her about her makeup line. I am completely ignored, which never happens. Someone wants to know Darcy instead of me, which is strange in a good way, and makes me really proud of her.
She lights up as well. As I see Darcy show this lady what she has created all by herself, she shines like a star which makes me swell with happiness. I always wondered why she couldn’t make it happen in LA, why she wasn’t selling her make up to the stars like crazy, but now I can see it. It’s obvious. It just wasn’t the right place for her. It wasn’t the environment that she needed to be in. But this is.
God, I’m a little emotional actually. This is the sort of joy that I wanted to bring out in Darcy, but I can see now that I wasn’t enough. She should have other things in her life to make her shine like this. The people here love her, they are warming up to her, and I can’t blame them.
“Oh my God, did she post a picture with you online?” I gasp happily as Darcy is finally back to me. “Because you do understand that is huge, right? That will really help you with what you want to achieve.”
“She isn’t the first one.” Darcy pulls out her cell phone, a different one to what she had before, which explains just why I haven’t been able to get through to her, and she shows me the buzz on her social media accounts.
“Oh wow, you are kicking ass.” I throw an arm naturally around her shoulder to congratulate her, before realizing that she might not want me to. Another good sign. “I can’t believe it. I am so proud of you. This is all that you have ever wanted, and you are finally making it happen.”
Her smile stretches from ear to ear and she nods with excitement before quickly checking her watch. “You know, it’s about time for my lunch break if you wanted to go somewhere a little quieter.”
“Of course.” I feel amazing, there is a heat from my head to my toes. “That sounds great.”
She gets out a little ‘Be Right Back’ sign, then takes my hand and pulls me outside the building into an alley way behind, which is clearly there for people to take a time out. There are even benches but luckily right now, we are the only people out here. Thank God, because we need this time alone more than anything in the world.
“So, you are here,” Darcy giggles a little awkwardly. “I can’t believe it. I didn’t even know that you were missing until a few moments before you turned up, so this is a real shock for me.”
“I’m sorry, I did try to get in touch with you first, but obviously that wasn’t possible.”
“Yes.” Her head hangs low. “I left my cell phone back at Ivy’s house. It ran out of battery as soon as I got home and after the drama with my mother… we fell out big time, by the way.” I guess she feels the need to explain because she doesn’t know that I had a run in with her as well. “So, when me and Ivy came here, for a vacation, not for me to stay, I didn’t bring it with me. I had to get myself a new one.”