Best Served Fake

twenty-eight // lena montez

Madeleine have me one last pleased smile, before she flounced over to greet a table of newcomers with her patented beautiful smile.

I wondered if Lena Montez would look anything like me. Sydney certainly didn't.

My question was almost immediately answered when a girl walked through the front door. She looked absolutely nothing like me.

Madeleine gave me a sad look and went to greet the unfairly beautiful girl that my ex-boyfriend was going to date. Lena Montez was the kind of pretty that belonged on a catwalk. It wasn't conventional beauty; she was too tall for that, too pale, her features almost aristocratic. She looked a little bit like Isabelle; if someone had desaturated her a little bit, bumped up the shadows, and then given Isabelle a course at finishing school and imparted upon her elegance and class. Lena's hair was a dark spill of ink-black curls, falling impossibly long to match her impossibly long legs. She might even be taller than Tommy. Her features were sharp; hard jawline that somehow managed to look feminine on her, high cheekbones, willowy figure that was all elegant lines and long, sweeping curves. The arch of her eyebrow was so perfectly shaped I was almost jealous, and the curve of her smile seemed deliberately confident and self-assured. She looked both intimidatingly pretty and slightly arrogant, and yet somehow, I liked her immediately. She reminded me a little bit of Sydney, instantly magnetic, and maybe Tommy did have a type and I was the deviation. But her expression was frank and open in a way that Sydney's had never been.

I had wanted to hate her a little bit, even if she was Cole's platonic soulmate forever and ever, or whatever other nonsense he had proclaimed to me and Madi over a glass of ice water. But when Madeline greeted her, her answering smile was both polite and sweet.

You agreed to this idea, Valerie.

But I would have marginally preferred Cole's friend to be ugly. Just a little bit.

And her dress looked as if it cost ten months worth of my wages, and she looked really really good in it. It was black and classy and little bit flirty, and if Tommy decided he didn't like her, I promptly decided I would set her up with Jameson. Except that, you know, she was apparently in love with some other super hot guy already. Small details.

Madeleine had a brief exchange with the girl, who responded with a small confused frown, before leading Lena to her table. Reserved under, gag, Aster. Madeleine made a face at me, nodding her head toward Lena as if to say "oh my god, Tommy is going to go on a date with her" to which I widened my eyes, telling her, "oh my god, stop terrifying the very nice girl".

Madeline left the girl with a menu in what was almost a stomp. Lena looked confused, but hid it by checking her phone.

And then Tommy walked in.

Despite everything he'd done, it didn't take away from the fact that Tommy Aster was startlingly good-looking. I'd always found him cute, with his dark curly hair and easy smile, but dressed for a place like this, which was all cultured arrogance and rich narcissism, Tommy was so very handsome that for the first time since I'd seen him naked over my best friend, I missed being his girlfriend.

But then I saw his eyes quickly fall on Lena, noticing her looks and her attitude and the confidence she exuded, and I saw him smile. And I mostly hated him again.

But when his gaze turned to me, I saw a flash of panic. Good. He didn't realise I was going to be here, and regretted it sorely. I gave him a small pinky wave. His jaw set.

Madeleine, doing her duty, greeted him at the door, but her smile was vaguely murderous, and while I didn't like Tommy very much, I was slightly concerned that he would walk out of this restaurant with a lighter wallet and a few missing limbs. When she walked him to the table, she shot me a glance that confirmed that delimbing Tommy was part of her plans for the near-future.