Every Girl Does It(26)

Preston leans over close to my chair. “Are you offering?”

I meet his gaze, yet all I can think is how he’s the most handsome man I’ve ever seen up close.

“Did you have plastic surgery? Because you know you can only do so much to the outside, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.” Wow, if that isn’t me channeling Grandma Ned. I feel like a Sunday school teacher.

“Aw, you’re too sweet. You mean you’d like me just based on my personality?”

“No!” I yell a little too loud. “Your personality is narcissistic and selfish.” I shake my head and wonder when this guy will get a clue.

He grabs my hand and begins caressing the top of it. I tell my body to pull my hand away, but instead it just stays there; even my own body is a traitor. “Challenge—”

“If you say accepted, I’m throwing you in the pool,” I snap.

“Okay.” He shrugs.

Leaning back in my chair, I close my eyes then I feel the sun being blocked from my body. As I pull off my sunglasses, I see Preston hovering over me like a lion does to a zebra before it pounces.

He leans in too close for comfort and whispers, “Accepted.”

I throw down my magazine and lunge for him. Unfortunately, I’m quite small, and compared to him, I never stood a chance. But being the good sport he is, he decides to jump in after he pushes me into the pool. Then I notice a few cameras go off, and to my ultimate embarrassment, I realize people still think we’re stupid celebrities. Please, Lord, help this not make the papers.

Bringing myself back to reality, I grab a towel before lying down again. “Exactly what,” I ask as I towel dry my hair, “have you accepted as a challenge?”

“To woo you.” Preston answers without looking in my direction.

“Woo me?” I repeat. This ought to be good.

“Yes woo, as in I’m going to knock you off your feet. I can tell this whole witty banter thing going on between us isn’t enough for you. My, my, you are needy. So I’ll also woo you. You’ll be begging for me to kiss you by the end of this trip.”

“Overconfident?” I laugh.

“Not at all.” He smiles.

“There you guys are!” A female voice exclaims.

I look up to see Brad and Kristin approaching. Giving them a weak wave, I take off my sunglasses to fully glare at my best friend. She owes me coffee for life, then again I do get to stare at Mr. December for the rest of the week, so it won’t be too bad. Except he infuriates me and makes me want to cut off parts of him and feed them to Mrs. Butterworth. At least I didn’t say that out loud.

Kristin mouths a “Sorry” my way before sitting next to me. “You’ll never believe what we heard.” Her voice is high pitched and airy, it’s obviously good news.

“What?” I ask equally excited.

“Get this!” Her hands are in front of my face as she tries to show me with her body just how big of a deal this news is. “Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are staying at our hotel.” She puts her hands over her mouth in shock as my eyes widen in something entirely different.

Preston is the first to break the silence. “You don’t say? How do you know?” He’s now looking directly at me with a smugness that is so irritating I need to push him in the pool, again.

“Well,” Brad interrupts. “We heard they were out here just a bit ago signing autographs. Some teenage girl is running around the hotel showing everyone. I think she might've even called the local news, I can’t be sure though. She was talking way too fast.”

Almost choking on my spit, I try to digest the information. “So, reporters might be coming?” I croak out as I glare at Preston again. He shrugs his shoulders as if to say “no big deal.”

“Yeah, but I mean, I’m sure they are going to hear about it and switch hotels. We just thought we could catch a glimpse of them before they took off.” Brad puts his hand on Kristin’s knee and smiles.

“Hey.” he looks back toward us. “You guys didn’t happen to see them, did you?”

Just as I open my mouth to reply, Preston covers it with his hand.

“Nope,” Preston lies. “I did hear they were going to make an appearance at the same restaurant as us tonight though.”

My breathing becomes rapid as the understanding of what he’s saying becomes painfully clear. We aren’t going to dinner as Preston and Amanda. We’re going as Brad and Angelina.

Kristin and Brad exchange shocked looks as I mumble under my breath, “Challenge accepted.” And to my surprise I see Preston’s face light up into the most gorgeous smile I’ve ever seen. Maybe this isn’t such a bad idea after all.



Chapter Eleven



No way, I’m not wearing that! This I’m thinking to myself as my hand trails down the rough fabric of the dress. Preston had gone shopping earlier, and unbeknownst to me bought an Angelina lookalike dress. He did a pretty good job. The black leather dress somehow looks classy, and the neckline isn’t too low, but the slit up the side isn’t as modest. People could almost see up my dress.

“You ready yet?” Preston calls as he knocks on my bedroom door. My heart is pounding out of my chest. We lied to Kristin and Brad. We told them we were too tired to go to dinner, and they were more than excited to have a dinner date on their own. The plan is to wear sunglasses throughout the night so nobody suspects anything different. It should work, considering we’re eating so early.