“I like to get lost,” said Demi, making them both think of that night, almost five years ago, driving around Vancouver with Leandra. Seemed like a million years ago.
Sophia finished her makeup. “I’m nervous.”
“Why? The show’s a hit, after only two episodes! You’re getting amazing ratings. And now we can upgrade and get a real house. It’s all good!”
Sophia had learned to be cautiously optimistic about success, even while keeping a positive attitude. “You’re right,” she said, smiling. “Ready.”
They headed east, toward the meeting in Hollywood. She’d been called to meet with the new publicity team. Now that the show was picked up and media calls were flooding in for the three stars of the show, the producers hired half a dozen publicists. Her image, her career, would be in their hands.
“Listen, Demi, what will happen if the show turns out to be huge, and I become really successful?”
“I don’t understand the question.”
“Meanwhile, the restaurant flops.”
“Okay, I get it,” said Demi. “You could ask the same thing in reverse. I’m a hit, and you’re a flop. It doesn’t matter which way it plays out. The issue is, what happens if we wind up moving in different directions?”
“Ideally, we’ll both move up,” said Sophia.
They stared at each other, imagining how big the friendship disparity would have to be to pull them apart. Ocean-size? Puddle-size?
“We won’t let that happen,” said Sophia. “Leandra was right about one thing.”
“That Jenna Jameson isn’t really a skank?”
“That whatever life throws at us, we’ll catch it together.”
Demi laughed. “Or get hit in the face with it!”
They drove along, and then Demi jammed on the brakes and pointed at a huge billboard over the highway. “Holy mother of fuck,” she said. “Did you know about this?”
Sophia had not been told that her face and cleavage, along with those of Cassie and Paula, were going to be put on a billboard on Hollywood Boulevard to promote the show. She’d never seen her face with such objectivity. “I look good,” she said.
Demi was flipping shit. “You look sensational!! Are you fucking kidding me? Look at you!”
A car horn blasted behind them, and they drove on. Demi went on about the billboard, and she dearly appreciated that, but it was such a strange feeling to see your image but not feel connected to it.
They pulled up at the studio in Hollywood, and Sophia got out. Demi would check in at the restaurant and pick her up later. A couple of girls on the street recognized Sophia, and took out their phones to snap a photo. Sophia felt a thrill, almost taking out her own phone to snap a photo of them taking her picture.
On that high, she sailed into the Silver Associates office and was immediately shown into a glass-paneled room to meet three elegantly dressed women and one nattily suited man. Sophia took a seat at the glass conference room table.
Introductions were made, but Sophia quickly realized she’d be talking to only one person, the man (which annoyed her; out of four people, why was the one man in charge?).
His name was Eric Silver, the firm’s founder, and he reminded her so much of Ari Gold from Entourage, she wondered if he fashioned himself after the character. “We have been looking forward to meeting you, Sophia,” he said. “We have huge plans for your career. It’s our job to make you look good.”
“Great,” she said, not sure what else to say.
“Great,” he repeated. “So. You really are gorgeous.”
“Thank you.”
He smiled. “We’re going to make you famous. Not just here in America. You’re going to be famous around the globe.”
“Gulp,” she said. They laughed. They were publicists, and would probably laugh at anything.
“So,” said Eric. “Before we talk about what we have planned for you, we need to do some troubleshooting.”
“Okay.”
“Is there anything in your past, anything at all, that could become a problem for us down the road?”
Immediately, she thought about the photos that might have been on Jared’s phone or, possibly, the cloud (whatever that was).
“What do you mean?”
“Any relationships that ended badly and could come to light? Any arrests, or questionable past careers? It wouldn’t be so good for the show or the network if you were, just as a wild example, an escort or a porn star, in a previous life.”
“No!” she said.
“Have you ever Snapchatted body parts to a boyfriend? I don’t care if you have. Snapchat has its value. But we need to know now so we can head it off in the future.”
Sophia just shook her head.
He said, “It’s essential that you tell us everything, Sophia. We need to know about every skeleton in your closet. Every bad boyfriend who might want his fifteen minutes by making up a story about you. Every time you used your charms to get a job. Any friend you treated badly who might leak pictures and stories to Perez Hilton. So is there anything you need to tell us? Anything at all?”
“I understand,” she said. “I can’t think of anything.”
“I’m going to ask you point-blank, Sophia. Are there nude photos of you floating around the Internet?”
“No,” she said.
“You’re sure.”
“Yes.”
“Then what are these?”
One of the women pushed a folder across the table toward Sophia. Her fingers trembling, she pulled it toward her. Terrified of what she’d find, she cringed when she opened it and found three prints, black and white.
“Oh, my god.” She looked at the pictures, and then up at the four faces across the table from her. “I can explain,” she said.
“Go right ahead,” he said.
Sophia studied the photos again, and tried to calm her racing heart. How did they find them? “These were shots I did with a photographer in Canada when I was in high school,” she said of the topless pics. Not completely topless. Her arms and hands covered most of the important bits. “They were for a local clothing store. After we did the bathing suits, he convinced me to do a few art shots. You can barely see anything.”
Eric nodded. “But we were able to find them in one day, without looking too hard. So I’m going to ask you one more time. Is there anything in your past we need to know about?”
In her head, she weighed the pros and cons of telling them about Jared. She and Demi destroyed his phone. Jared didn’t seem too tech savvy about storing any pictures he might’ve taken. It was just too awful to sit here and tell four strangers about that night. So she said, “Nothing at all.”
“Okay, then,” he said. “Let’s talk about your upcoming cover shoot for Elle Canada.”
“Really?” She used to read that mag in high school, and had put images from it on her vision board. And now she was going to be on the cover? Manifesting worked! All thoughts of Jared flew out of her head. Despite what Eric said, the past was the past. She only wanted to focus on the future, her bliss.
“Elle Canada, a Q and A in Esquire, a story in Entertainment Weekly—and so much more to come. This is just the beginning for you, Sophia.”
Just the beginning. “I love the sound of that,” she said.
about the authors
SHAY MITCHELL is a Canadian actress and star of the ABC family drama Pretty Little Liars. In addition to acting and running her lifestyle blog, amoreandvita.com, Shay works with the Free the Children Foundation, an organization that fights exploitation of children around the world; The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization; and the NOH8 Campaign for marriage and gender equality. You can sign up for email updates here.
MICHAELA BLANEY is an American and Canadian marketing professional. She is the cofounder of shaymitchell.com. You can sign up for email updates here.
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contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Disclaimer
Prologue
Four Years Later
1. That’s One Way to Beat Meat
2. Good for You, Now Shut the Fuck Up
3. You Have No Idea How Much I Love Monkeys
4. Only Serial Killers Don’t Like Pumpkin
Demi’s Pumpkin Spice Raisin and Walnut Muffins Recipe
5. Rock That Invisible Tiara!
6. Sometimes, Destination Kicks Journey’s Ass
7. What If I Pretend to Give a Shit?
8. How to Be Perky
9. My Brain Is a Dirty Sponge
10. The World’s Wimpiest Biker Gang
Demi’s Jerk Chicken Recipe
11. I’m Not Here to Make Friends
12. Nothing Looks Pretty on a Bitch
13. The Art of Pissing People Off
Demi’s Beef Bourguinon Recipe
14. I Run, You Chase
15. So Much Blood and Bleeding with the English
16. Love Is the Elixir of Life
Demi’s New York Sour Recipe
17. When the Wheel of Fortune Turns, It Rolls Right Over You
18. So Many Pints
19. Useless as a Bag of Smashed Asshole
Demi’s Fish Tacos Recipe
20. After the Bomb
21. A Whipped Cream Emergency
22. Shining the Knob
23. Karma Doesn’t Forget
24. So Go
Epilogue
About the Authors
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.
BLISS. Copyright © 2015 by Shay Mitchell and Michaela Blaney. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Kerri Resnick
Cover photographs and textures © Shutterstock
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-07568-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-8712-1 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466887121
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].
First Edition: October 2015
Bliss Page 27