MISTAKEN - The Complete First Season (32 page)

I
texted
Mel and asked if she could meet me at a department store on her lunch break to help me pick out a dress for that night. I waited outside the store for her.

She came up behind me. I almost jumped out of my skin when I felt her throw her arms around my shoulders. “Are we okay?”

I turned around to return her embrace. “Of course.”

She pulled away. “Good. We should go in. It’s fucking hotter than hell out here.”

It was an unusually warm day, even for early July. Sweat had already started beading down my back, just from having stood outside for the few minutes I’d been waiting. We walked inside and went upstairs where the formal wear was located.

Mel turned to me, tilting her head to the side. “What are we looking for?”

I shrugged, my eyes searching the racks for the right dresses for the evening. “Formal dress. My dad wants me to go to some gala tonight with him.”

Her eyes widened and her mouth gaped open. “Not
the
Gala? Seriously?”

I nodded, lifting my shoulders in a small shrug. I didn’t know what the big deal was. A gala was a gala, as far as I was concerned. I hated all of them. Getting all prissy and having to wear an uncomfortable dress had never really been my thing.

Her mouth dropped farther and she turned to a tall rack of dresses. “You know that every celebrity worth being a celebrity shows up at that thing, right? Like
every
celebrity.”

I shrugged again, giving my eyes a little heavenward roll. I’d met a lot of celebrities in my time. I still didn’t see what the big deal was.

She shook her head. “Fuck, I always forget that you already
are
a celebrity. Of course you don’t care.”

I let out a long sigh before turning to her. “Can you just help me pick out something that won’t embarrass me? Nothing too revealing…”

She pulled two dresses from the rack. “Bullshit. I want every guy at that place checking out your rack.
Every
guy.” She flagged down a sales person who rushed over when she saw what we were shopping for. Melissa motioned toward me with her head. “My friend is going to The Gala tonight. She needs something stunning. Think you can help us?”

The woman nodded. “Of course. Let’s take the two you’ve already chosen to the dressing room. I’ll bring some other choices for you and you can start trying things on.” She turned to me with a smile. “We’ve got a fabulous alterations department that can make any adjustments you might need before tonight.”

I lifted a shoulder in a small shrug. I just wanted to pick something out that wasn’t hideous. My plan was to just stick with my father for the night. I didn’t need anything more than what would be appropriate to make myself as inconspicuous as possible. “Something plain is fine. Nothing too fancy.”

Mel shook her head and looked at the saleswoman. “Just start bringing things in. I’ll help her decide.”

The woman nodded and headed for another part of the store.

Melissa and I walked into the dressing room where she handed me the dresses and had me start trying them on. I came out a few minutes later in a red thing that was way too low cut. I stood in front of the mirror.

Mel had taken a seat near the mirror. She looked me up and down. “The cut is wrong.” She looked into my eyes through the mirror. “And not because I can see cleavage, either. It just doesn’t fit right.” She motioned me back to the door of the dressing area. “Next.”

I didn’t even say anything. I went back in and put on the other dress. I came out wearing the next one a few minutes later. This one was almost the same cut, only a dark, almost midnight blue.

She stood up and came over to get a closer look. “It’s almost right. I love the color with your skin and hair. Just not quite it.”

The sales woman came in with another handful of dresses, handing them to me. I took the half dozen gowns back into the dressing room with me and put on the next one, returning to the mirror outside a few minutes later.

Mel stood up immediately when I walked out, her mouth gaping open. “Oh my God, Jenna.”

The sales woman stood there, eyes widened, her mouth also agape. She just nodded like a bobble head, not speaking a word.

I walked to the mirror and stood in front of it. The dress was strapless, a dark gray color, but not quite black. I thought it revealed a little bit of cleavage, but not enough to be horribly embarrassing. I smoothed the silky fabric down and let out a deep breath, turning from side to side. I met Mel’s gaze through the mirror. “You think?”

Melissa came over next to me, looking at me through the mirror a second later. “Oh my God, Jenna.”

“You already said that.” I turned to her, tilting my head to the side. “You really think so?”

She nodded her head. “Your eyes. My God. And the way it fits on you.” She shook her head and turned to the sales lady. “This really came off the rack?”

The woman nodded. “I’ve never seen anything like it, either.” She also made eye contact with me through the mirror. “It’s like it was made for you. It’s amazing.”

I looked at myself again in the mirror. I didn’t see whatever it was they were seeing, though the dress did fit well and I thought it was pretty. It hugged my body in the right places, but it was just a dress. I lifted my shoulders in a little shrug. “Fine. I’ll take it.”

Mel turned the price tag that was hanging from the zipper around. She took a step away from me, the color draining from her face. “Christ on a fucking cracker, Jenna. That thing costs more than I make in three months!”

I rolled my eyes a little and went back into the dressing room without responding to her. I changed quickly and handed the dress to the sales woman.

Melissa and I walked up to the register. I heard her muttering under her breath. “Remind me to be a trust fund baby when I grow up.”

I winced, turning to her, my eyes narrowed. “I’ve never, not even once, done anything to you to deserve that.”

She bit her inner cheek and I saw her wince as well. “You’re right, Jenna. I’m totally jealous right now. Seriously green with fucking envy.” Her mouth flattened into another wince. “I’m so sorry.” She turned her head away from me, pretending to look at something across the store.

I let out a huff of hair and finished paying for the dress. We waited while the sales woman went to get a garment bag to put the gown in.

Melissa turned back to me, her eyes clouded. “I’m really sorry, Jenna. I’ve been having a rough time. I spent the morning applying for every job on Craig’s List that I could find. After I got everyone’s coffee orders, of course.” She rolled her eyes, looking up at the ceiling as she spoke. “I’d die to be invited to that frickin’ party tonight.”

I nodded, my face softening. I wished I could do something to get her there. “I’d let you be my dad’s date. But under the circumstances…” I proceeded to tell her about the conversation my dad and I had had that morning.

Her jaw dropped to the floor, her eyes as wide as saucers. “You have to be kidding me.” She shook her head. “I mean, I’ve heard the rumors, but still.” She shook her head again. “What the hell is it with politicians?” She licked at her lips, her jaw tightening just a bit. “I only went to Georgetown because I thought D.C. would be so cool. I thought politics was the shit and I
so
wanted into that club.” She shook her head, more vehemently that time. “To think I could have avoided all this drama by just going to Berkeley or UCLA. Shit.” She rubbed at her temple.

“But then you wouldn’t have met me.” I grinned and jabbed her in the ribs with my elbow.

The sales lady returned with my bag and we went back down stairs, walking toward the door.

“Yeah, if I hadn’t met you, I wouldn’t be having so much fun right now.” She rolled her eyes and turned to me with a grin. “So what’s the next secret to be revealed? You think you have a love-child-sibling hiding somewhere?”

I rolled my eyes back at her. “Yeah. Probably in Zanzibar or something. I’m sure my father would have mentioned something like that.” At least I hoped he would have.

She opened the door for me. “Well, you never know. It might not even be in Zanzibar. Maybe it’s in Peru. Or in D.C.” She waggled her eyebrows at me.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. You watch too much TV.”

She shrugged again. “You have to admit, things have gotten pretty twisted up in your life. Fiancées returning from the dead and all that.”

“Not that twisted.” At least I hoped not.

M
y dad picked
me up that night in his limo. My security guard, Cade, rode up front with the driver. My dad’s security was in the back with him, as usual. I didn’t understand why they all had to come with us, but I’d learned by now to not question it. I only hoped that the whole security-guard-going-with-me-everywhere thing would end when my father withdrew from the presidential race. At least for the time being, anyway.

Dad kissed me on the cheek after I got into the car. “You’re lovely, Jenna. Absolutely lovely. Love the dress.” He gave me the proud smile that only a father could give his daughter.

I couldn’t help the smile that came to my lips. It was nice to see him looking like that at me again, so proud, so happy. “Thanks, dad.” Mel had helped me get my hair into a loose up-do that even I had to admit looked pretty good. And she hadn’t stopped gushing over the dress, so there was that, too. My “hot mess” had turned into “hot-ness,” according to her.

“So about tonight…” He turned to meet my gaze, his look suddenly much more serious.

“I know. I’ll behave myself. Best behavior.” I turned to look out the window, chewing on my upper lip. The thought that we’d never get past that—him seeing me as a little girl, determined to embarrass him, ran through my mind.

“Jenna, I was only going to tell you that I want you to try to enjoy yourself. There are going to be plenty of people your age, people you should get to know. People that can help your career.”

I turned back to face him, my eyebrow raised. “I don’t have a career.”

He tilted his head to the side. “We’ll see what we can do to rectify that tonight. It’s not just celebrities that are going to be there, you know. There’ll be a lot of business leaders.” He folded his hands together. “I’m quite proud of the work you’ve done for me. People will be lining up to have you work with them. I can promise you that.”

I wasn’t sure if that was true or not. I also didn’t know how much pull he’d have when his “news” came out about the affair. I wasn’t sure if he’d have any clout at all with the people we were going to be socializing with tonight. I knew it was debatable, for sure, but he seemed to be oblivious to the ramifications of what was about to happen. It didn’t occur to me until right then that his own political career could be over—that maybe he’d be forced to resign. Certainly, there had been many politicians that had survived scandalous affairs, but his seemed to be pretty serious. If there was also the allegation that he’d used my mother… I turned my head back to the window, trying to force the thought from my mind.

The limo stopped outside a swanky building in the financial district that I didn’t even know existed. We exited the limo, and I hurried my father around the red carpet area that was littered with celebrities. There was no way I was stopping there to have my photo taken or to answer any questions from the press. It was bad enough that I was there at all. I hated these huge events—they were exhausting and it seemed like I always did something to embarrass myself at them. I heard a few of the paparazzi call my name—they called out “Jenna” at least—but I didn’t turn to even acknowledge them. For all I knew, there was some other person named Jenna. A movie star, maybe.

We entered the enormous room and I hadn’t thought it possible, but it was even worse than the red carpet. There were celebrities everywhere, all of them A-list types. From TV stars, to movie stars, to every California politician ever elected, they were all there. I saw the guy that had been named “Most Beautiful Man” for the last two years in a row across the room and I felt my heart start to race a little. I was way out of my depth in this crowd.

I stuck to my father’s side for as long as I could. He introduced me to several politicians that I’d already met before. I smiled and nodded through the endless boring conversations about the current political climate and my father’s chances for the presidency. I wanted to scream from the rooftops that his chances were zero, at least this time, but I knew I couldn’t. All I really wanted to do was leave.

My father pulled me over to introduce me to another person, one I hadn’t met before.

He nodded at the man. “Oh, I’m glad we found you.” He motioned at me with his hand. “Ryan Agostino, this is my daughter, Jenna. Jenna, this is Ryan Agostino. He owns a venture capital firm in Palo Alto. He’s been a big supporter of the campaign.” His eyes darted between Ryan and I. “I was hoping I’d be able to introduce the two of you.” He motioned with his head toward me. “Jenna just finished her MBA at Georgetown last December.”

The man smiled over at me. He was young, probably only a few years older than me, with dark features that I figured must be Italian, given his last name. “What was your concentration, Jenna?”

I returned his smile. At least talking business wasn’t talking politics. I didn’t think I could take another second of talking politics that night. “Marketing.” A waiter passed by and offered a glass of champagne, which I gladly took. If I’d ever needed alcohol, it was that night.

My father excused himself and walked to another group of men, who I recognized as the governor and a few members of his cabinet.

Ryan grabbed a glass, too. He took a sip. “I’m actually looking for someone to help me with marketing. Not really me, but the companies I fund. So many of them have no idea about marketing.”

A small, blonde woman sidled up next to him, just a little too close. Her lip turned up into a small sneer and her eyes narrowed at me. “Who’s this?”

Ryan let out a small, uncomfortable laugh. “Amanda, this is Jenna Davis. Senator Davis’ daughter.” He glanced over at me. “Jenna, this is my sister, Amanda Agostino.”

I extended my hand to the woman, who made a point not to take it, rolling her eyes and flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder as though she was too good to even acknowledge me. She turned and took a glass of champagne from another waiter. I pulled my hand back when it was clear she wasn’t going to shake it.

She took a drink from her glass. “If you’re going to work for us, you’ll be working as my assistant.”

“Oh.” I forced a small smile to my face before taking a sip from my champagne flute and glancing around the room. I didn’t know who she was, but she wasn’t anyone I wanted to get to know better, either.

Ryan forced out another chuckle. “Yes, my sister has proved she can be… difficult to work with. What are we up to now, Mandy? Five people you’ve fired?”

“Six as of this afternoon.” She glared over at me. “So if you want to work for us, you might as well start now. I need a few calls made tonight. I wore this shit to this thing and had my pictures taken on the red carpet. They damned well better pony up some free stuff for me.”

I was a little taken aback; I’m sure the confusion was apparent on my face. My lips turned down into a frown of uncertainty. “Um, tonight? Don’t you want to wait until the pictures are published somewhere? You might have more leverage…”

She interrupted, holding up her hand to stop me from speaking. “Do you want to work for me or not? Here.” She looked down, pulling out a piece of paper from her bag. “I made a list of what I wore and the phone numbers of the companies. There’s only four, so it’s not like it will take you that long. Call them tonight.” She looked back up and shoved the paper into my hand.

She couldn’t be real. This had to be some kind of joke. “Uh, I don’t think there was any offer…”

She interrupted again, holding up the same hand to stop me. “If you even want to be
considered
, you’ll make those calls for me. Tonight.”

I furrowed my brow. “Well, no offense, really, but I doubt that any of these companies will be open this late. And I think you’d have better luck getting what you want…”

Her mouth dropped open, her eyes widening. “Why are you arguing with me? Do you know who I am?” Her mouth remained agape, waiting for my response.

Her brother found this incredibly amusing, his eyes darting between the two of us. He bit his upper lip to contain his grin. “I’m sorry, Jenna. My sister can be a bit… pushy. This isn’t really the place or time, Mandy. Okay?”

She glared at me. “You’ll do it tonight or we won’t be talking about any jobs or anything else with you.” She turned on her heel, walking away.

I looked down at the paper in my hand. There really were the names of four designers written out neatly on the paper with the phone numbers listed beneath them. My first thought was that if she had the time to look this stuff up, she had time to do it herself. I just shook my head and shoved the paper into my bag. I forced a smile to my face and extended my hand to Ryan. “It was nice to meet you.”

He winced a little, his grin now gone. “I’m sorry about my sister. It’s a long story.”

I nodded and gave him a little wave as I walked away from where he was standing. If those were the kinds of marketing jobs that were out there, I would have rather just stayed unemployed.

I made polite small talk with a few other people, but really just wanted to get out of there. I looked for my father, but he had disappeared into the huge crowd. Even though the room we were in was massive, big enough to hold at least a thousand people, the walls were closing in on me. I was hot and it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. The tight dress was definitely not helping.

I made my way through the crowd to a hallway that looked like it might have a restroom. I walked through a set of double doors into another, much more brightly lit hallway that was completely devoid of people. My shoulders dropped and I could finally breathe again. I let out a sigh through my pursed lips. It looked like I’d found the office space behind the ballrooms, probably where the business of running the space was done. I knew it was probably someplace that I shouldn’t have been, but it was so nice to be away from the crowd that I didn’t want to go back. At least not yet.

I thought I spied a restroom against the far wall of the very long hallway, and began making my way there, my heels clicking on the tile floor, echoing through the corridor.

It was a restroom. I could see it clearly as I made my way there. I breathed a small sigh of relief.

I had just passed the last darkened hallway when the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. Someone was watching me. Before I even had time to process the thought, I felt a hand cover my mouth, stifling my scream.