Magic Mansion, Jordan Price [best mobile ebook reader TXT] 📗

“I couldn’t stand the thought of her fawning over you—because you are all she ever talks about these days. She eats, sleeps, lives and breathes Ricardo the Magnificent.” Krista glared at him while he scrambled to figure out what she expected him to say, and then she turned away and whispered, “Just like I did.”

“Krista….”

She was stiff when he gathered her into his arms, but eventually she relented, and allowed herself to sag against him. “I told myself I wouldn’t cry.”

“Seriously, don’t. The cameramen can sense it a mile away.” Ricardo waited while she took a few deep breaths to try to stave off the tears, and then he whispered, “I really am sorry about the way it all turned out. You were my best friend. The last thing I wanted was to hurt you.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling myself all these years. That you couldn’t help it. That you didn’t know. That you never intended to hurt me.” She did look up and meet Ricardo’s eyes, then, and fresh tears glittered on her lashes. “And now, here you are, doing the same exact thing to Sue.”

“Hold on—Sue? This is about Sue? Krista, she knows I’m gay—and as far as Gold Team’s concerned, I’m one of ‘the girls.’ I’m crazy about Sue—she’s my best friend in the mansion. But that’s all she is.”

“Then why are you going along with this whole ladies-man persona? Are they paying you? Did you sign some kind of contract? I figured you’d finally be in touch with who you are—but now you’ll need to keep playing it straight to appease all your…your… fans.”

A handheld wandered in when Ricardo was trying to comfort Krista, and Ricardo snapped, “Just give us a minute.” An assistant followed, and told him he needed to get to the lobby for autographs. It was hard to say whether any amount of explanation would make Krista believe he’d had no idea he was being butched up in post-production. Or, for that matter, whether anyone else would believe it…or they’d simply presume Ricardo didn’t have the integrity to be as open about his true self as John.

“C’mere, Krista,” Ricardo said. “Look up.” He fixed her eye makeup with a few dabs of concealer. Her face had matured, but her eyes were still the same. “I haven’t even seen the show. I hadn’t realized anyone was putting a spin on me. And now that I know, I’m putting an end to it.”

The autograph session wouldn’t have been nearly as uncomfortable if Ricardo hadn’t known about Krista’s fourteen-year-old. But now when a dozen high school girls mobbed Ricardo in the lobby, he found himself baffled by the intensity of their adoration. Unlike Ricardo’s fans, Bev’s came in all ages, from children to retirees. Jia attracted mostly Asian girls dressed like her, and leering men of every race…who would be nearly as happy to pick up a Jia-lookalike as they would be to score with The Scarlet Dragon (as she was now being called) herself. Sue’s fans were mostly twenty-somethings, both men and women, and Kevin’s fans were mostly overweight males, and a couple of girls with boob jobs and too much makeup. John had the fewest fans gathered around him…although the ones who approached him were in tears.

The staff had told the small crowd to get their posters signed and move along, but the teenagers had plenty of practice at being devious by hiding whatever it is they did from their parents. A cluster of girls in gold-sparkle hoodies positioned themselves so that they were blocking the view of Ricardo from the nearest assistant, and the one in front whipped out a shiny pink scrapbook and said, “Can you autograph this instead?”

“Sure.” Ricardo hoped he didn’t screw it up. It looked like a lot of work had gone into it.

The girl fanned it open…and Ricardo saw it was full of photos. Photos of him. Every publicity shot from his website had been printed on glossy photo paper, pasted in, and surrounded with glittery dove and star stickers. The bachelorette party shot where his silk shirt was open to his navel was featured…on at least half the pages.

He hadn’t realized how creepy the adulation of a group of teenage girls might actually feel.

“There’s a good spot,” he said, and signed it quickly so she could get it out of his sight.

Then her girlfriend said, “Can you sign my arm?” and all of them giggled.

Ricardo glanced up at Kevin Kazan. The women flanking him were more the “sign my tits” type. The thought of these kids shedding their acne and awkwardness and braces, and growing into that sort of fan, made it difficult for Ricardo to write his own name. He suggested signing the backs of their hands—which they thought was a stellar idea—and then posed for a photo with his arms around all of them holding up their autographed hands proudly like glittery pink-nailed gang-signals.

It was barely three by the time the Magicians were loaded back into the limo, but Ricardo felt worn out and used up, as if he’d just done back-to-back matinees. The other contestants looked just as beat. Although the handheld had stayed behind and the players were all alone, no one spoke until they pulled into the Mansion’s circular drive. And then, just before the limo door opened, Jia turned to Kevin and said, “So, genius, you still think the Professor’s sticking it to Marlene?”

Chapter 30

AFTERMATH

Marlene scrolled through the latest script, gearing up for the next elimination. As the weeks went on, emotions flared high as the audiences’ favorites started getting knocked out of the competition. Still, the fewer contestants she had to deal with, the easier it was to divide the face-time between each of them.

The trailer door banged open, killing her concentration. “What is it,” she asked Iain, “here to gloat about the look on Ricardo’s face when you paraded his old girlfriend out?”

“So that’s what the two of you do in here.” Definitely not Iain, given the