Star Kissed

Chapter One

Author's Note: Star Kissed will be available in full on Wattpad through the end of October. Enjoy!

This book carries a rating of R due to adult content and language. This is intended for mature readers only.

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Chapter One

Mandy checked her boarding pass and watch. Somehow, she was always in the last zone called to board. Instead of stacking up with the rest of the passengers crowding the waiting area, she sipped the last of her mocha and reread the email from her agent.

… self-absorbed, selfish, vain … She ignored his drama, skipping ahead to the part where he told her when her last paycheck was coming.

His long email cutting her loose was expected after she’d been fired from what could’ve been the shoot that made her career. Well aware of how bad she’d screwed up, she just wished he waited until she was back in LA, instead of making her day worse.

She sighed and put her phone away, listening to the storm pelting the terminal. Only when the gate area was almost empty did she toss her drink and cross to the attendant.

“You guys really fly in this weather?” she asked, gaze on the steely clouds visible through the floor to ceiling windows. She saw no lightening, but rain splattered the windows hard.

“Yes, ma’am, it’s safe to fly.” The attendant said with a heavy New York accent. He didn’t bother looking at the storm.

Easy for you to say when you’re not flying, she answered silently. She took her ticket and walked down the long hallway to take her place at the end of the line waiting to get on the plane. Pounding rain drowned out the sounds of the chatty family in front of her. She checked her watch again.

“There’s not even a delay,” said the matronly woman in front of her.

“Kinda strange,” Mandy replied. “I’ve seen sprinkles derail flights out of LA for hours.”

“My husband was saying the same thing. He travels for work a lot.”

“So do I,” Mandy said. “So I did.” She sighed. “I mean, I used to.”

“Lose your job?” The woman turned sympathetic. “With this economy, people are losing their jobs right and left.”

“Yeah,” Mandy said. She wasn’t about to tell the kind woman she’d been fired because she overslept and missed her ride to the photo shoot with one of the most exclusive photographers in the world. It was only the most important morning of her life: the chance to be in a magazine featured in every checkout aisle of the grocery story and maybe even plastered across Times Square, which she’d seen the first time yesterday, after arriving to New York City from LA.

Or not. It was only a slim chance anyway. Did it matter that she overslept this morning? There were some big names after the contract; she’d lucked out just to be selected for the pre-shoot.

No one in their right mind was going to want her to model for them after she was fired by one of the biggest agencies in the business. She was heading home from the last gig ever, probably in her career. There’d be no more travel, just a boyfriend she’d outgrown and an apartment whose rent she wouldn’t be able to pay once her last paycheck reached her in a few weeks.

“Don’t worry, you’ll find something,” the woman said, catching her look of desolation. “You’re too pretty not to.”

“I’m sure,” Mandy said. Maybe pawnshop commercials on local TV channels. She tried to imagine herself selling gaudy gold rings and old cell phones to strangers. Conscious of the woman’s gaze, Mandy forced a smile and motioned her forward.