Untouchable ~ A Jared Leto/MARS Fanfiction

Chapter Nineteen

Once home, I find I'm inexplicably nervous. What if Jared isn't as impressed by this makeover of mine as Flora thinks he'll be? What if he looks at me and regrets the money he spent? Should I put on the dress and heels? Or something else?

"Not the dress," Flora advises. "You don't want to show him all the goods at once. Save that for a date night or something, and surprise him with it then."

"What date night?" I shake my head as I carry my things to my bedroom. Finally, my closet will have something to put in it.

"Oh, there'll be one," Flora replies as she sets an armload of bags on my bed. "After Jared's out of the cast, and I'll bet it'll be very soon after."

"Huh. Not if he's 'dating' Katia Valkov," I point out, curling my fingers into quotation marks.

"He won't be. And if he is stupid enough to do that, I'll make it my personal mission to kick his ass. Now, what should you wear?" Flora takes my new clothes out of the bags. I watch as she holds tops up against pants, frowning thoughtfully as she studies each combination. Finally, she nods. "This off-the-shoulder black top would be cute with those acid wash skinny low-rise jeans and the gold sandals."

"Okay." I take the items into the bathroom and change, careful not to screw up my hair or my makeup. I'm surprised either have lasted this long as it is, with my nervous habits of playing with my hair or rubbing my eyes. Once dressed in the new clothes, I study myself in the full-length mirror. Not bad, actually. Still enough of me remains so that I'm not totally uncomfortable. The look is casual, but of course a whole lot more stylish than I'm used to.

"Perfect," Flora announces. "I hope he likes the new you as much as the old you. I'm pretty sure he will. Now, I better get going. If you see Magda, remind him I have a late dinner meeting with George and Amal tonight." She grins. "By the way, what I said about actors and musicians? Scratch that about George Clooney. He's a sweetheart, and their twins are so adorable. They just bought a new house and we're going over plans for the boys' nursery." She steps up to me and gives me a careful hug. "I had a great time today, Lanie. I hope you did, too."

"I did," I murmur truthfully as I return the hug. "Thank you for lunch and for everything."

"Remember the Brazilian wax aftercare stuff," she reminds me. "Very important, or you'll be miserable. Trust me, I found out the hard way." She winces at the memory. "Rashes are very uncomfortable, and very unsexy."

I don't bother telling Flora that no one's going to be seeing anything down there, sexy or otherwise. "I'll remember."

"We'll talk soon, Lanie. And—" her dark eyes soften— "I'm sorry again about what happened to your home. I hope they catch the bastard soon, and you'll never have to worry about him again."

***

Shannon's the first to notice me as I enter the soundstage area. He looks up from his drumkit and his eyes grow round. "Whoa...holy shit... Lanie?"

Behind the keyboard, Stevie looks up and over at me. "Damn!" he exclaims and wolf-whistles. This alerts Tomo, who is across the room studying something on a computer screen. His reaction is the same as his bandmates, along with a wide grin and a raised-eyebrow look over at the other boys.

Meanwhile, Jared's sitting with a white electric guitar in his lap, headphones on, eyes closed, his fingers flying over the strings. He's somewhere else entirely. Shannon comes out from behind the drums and gives his brother's shoulder a nudge.

"Goddamn it!" Jared complains as he opens his eyes and glares up at Shannon. "What'd you do that for? I've been working on this bridge for two hours and I almost fucking had it!"