Chapter 1 – Hello, New Life

“Would you quit being such a baby?”

Stephanie sat a cup of coffee down in front of Lance at the kitchen table.

“You'll get used to it,” she said, one hand on her waist. “Eventually.”

“You haven't given me much of a choice,” he responded.

“And that's why it's so enjoyable,” she said with a smile.

“I love how you get so much entertainment out of my personal suffering.”

“Poor Lancey,” she mocked with pouting lips. “Should I get your lovey? Or maybe a pacifier to soothe your hurt feelings?”

“You're a bitch.”

She laughed as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

“That's why you love me, my darling, and you don't want to see me leave.”

She sat down at the table next to him and watched his discerned face. She watched his lips form into a slight pout and laughed, running her fingers through his hair.

“You'll be okay,” she said. “I promise. I think this is what you need.”

“This girl,” he said. “She's good at her job?”

“Adeline is one of the best that I know. She's thrives on organization and she keeps things running smoothly. She does well under pressure and she takes her job seriously. Disorganization drives her nuts – she's a freak of nature and I love her to death. I know you will too if you give her a chance.”

“She's not you,” he said.

“Of course she's not me. I'm one-of-a-kind.” She smiled at him. “But Lance, you know it's time for me to move on with my life. This new job pays more and I'll be closer to my sister. That's important to me.”

“I know – but what will I do without you?”

“The exact same thing you always do – bitch and moan and pout about everything while someone else handles it,” she said. “Only now it will be Adeline. I'm getting her set up in her apartment later today and then I'll spend the evening going over every detail of your life and career that I can think of. You don't have to worry about what you're going to do.”

“I don't mean the work. I mean you – you're my friend.”

“I wish you could put up with yourself all day long,” she said, taking a sip of coffee. “Then we'd see if you called yourself a friend.”

She watched his wounded facial expression.

“I'm kidding!” she said. “I'm still your friend, honey. I'll always be your friend. I just can't be your assistant and your friend anymore.”

“I know, and that's the part that sucks,” he said.

“You'll get used to it,” she said, and patted him on the arm. Then she pulled her tote bag over to her and started unzipping it. “I hate to end this little chat, but we need to go over your schedule for the day. I have a busy day and so do you. You'll have to do without me for the day since I'm helping her. Remember that we're taking her out to dinner tonight, so dress nice – and promise me you'll be nice. I want you on your best behavior.”

He sighed and took a drink of coffee. He didn't feel like being nice – it was going to be a long day.

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“No, no, no! That box needs to go over there. It says 'kitchen,' it should go with the kitchen things.”

“Yes, ma'am,” the moving man said politely but with a roll of his eyes. He picked the box back up and begrudgingly carried it over to the other boxes labeled “kitchen” that they had placed near the island counter top.

“Just keep everything together, please,” she said to the two men carrying in the few boxes and pieces of furniture she had. “I work a lot and I won't have a lot of time to unpack, I'd like to make it easier on myself.”

The men nodded and smiled politely, but Adeline knew they were upset and at least one thing would still be out of place by the time they left.

She looked around the apartment at the stacks of boxes and small pieces of furniture all over. Her flight had been long and rough, an all-nighter with a connection in Dallas in the early morning. She hadn't gotten much sleep on the plane because she had so many things to think and stress about. Now that she was finally in New York, it was time to get all her things settled into her apartment, and even that was a time for her to stress.

And it wasn't going to end from here. She had dinner tonight – with him. Stephanie would be there as well, but Adeline had a feeling that wouldn't make much of a difference.

Adeline was about to yell at the moving guy again for putting a bedroom box next to a living room box when Stephanie burst through the door with her hands full of bags in her usual cheerful manner.

“Hello darlings! Sorry I'm late, traffic was a nightmare straight from hell. Did you find the place okay, love?”

“I didn't have to, my limo driver did all the finding,” Adeline said with a smile. “I think you went a little overboard with that, Steph.”

“You needed a grand welcome.” She sat the bags on top of some boxes stacked in the living room and walked over to Adeline, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “I come bearing gifts – pastries from the best shop this side of the river. Are you hungry boys?”

She turned to the movers who were bringing in two more boxes and smiled.

“Take a break and have at it – I can't even imagine what Addy here has put you through, needing everything in its perfect place.”

Adeline smiled and rolled her eyes, but she was glad Stephanie was here to smooth things over.

“So how do you like the city so far?” she asked with a bright smile.

Adeline chuckled – Stephanie was always too cheerful for someone who had to put up with what she did.

“I haven't gotten to see much of it,” she responded. “If LaGuardia is any indication, I don't think I like it much.”

“How was your flight?”

“All things considered, it was okay, but too long. It's been a long time since I've been on an airplane.”

“Aren't you on planes all the time?” she asked as she started unpacking a living room box. “You married a famous movie director, after all. You don't go to all those film festivals, walk the red carpet in your sparkly dress and stuff?”

“Not at all,” Adeline said with a laugh. “I'm a behind the scenes person. I let him do all the traveling and schmoozing and I stay home where there's no cameras and blinding flashes.”

“How is Marc taking the move, anyway?”

“Surprisingly...well,” Adeline said, thinking back on the fight she had with him the night before her flight. The thought of it gave her a headache. “I think he's going to miss me.”

“Maybe that's what you both need,” Stephanie said. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Or maybe it's what you need to realize that the relationship is not going to work out.”

Adeline hoped for the former. She had met Marcus Sutton right before she graduated college, before he became a huge Hollywood director. They married months after his first film took off, when they were both young and thought their lives were perfect. Five years later, her move to New York was the last resort she had before filing for divorce papers.

“Yeah, maybe,” she said.

“Addy...”

Stephanie and Adeline hadn't spoken in years, but they had recently reconnected, and Adeline knew that she didn't have good feelings towards Marc. Since they had started talking again, Stephanie had been trying to convince her to end the relationship for good. She had a feeling a part of the sudden relocation to New York was another scheme of hers to separate them for good.

“We need a break, that's all,” Addy said as she started unpacking a box full of picture frames and decorations. The first picture on top of the pile was her favorite photo from her wedding. “We'll figure it out. We have to.”

Stephanie sighed. She knew that was Adeline's way of telling her to drop the subject.

“So are you ever going to tell me who I'm going to be working with?” Adeline said.

“Not until all your crap is unpacked and you're so over moving that you don't want to bother repacking it all,” she responded. “Maybe then you won't run screaming.”

“All this bad stuff you tell me about him – what's his deal anyway? Why is he like this?”

“He was okay up until about a year ago. He was still a bit of a pain in the ass but that's because of his personality. Then his fiancee told him she was canceling the wedding to run off to Germany.”

“Ouch,” Adeline said, and placed a couple pictures on an end table.

“He thought she was postponing it, which he was fine with – but then she handed over the engagement ring and packed all her things and left without a goodbye. It hurt him pretty bad.”

“Well that's rough, but this is the Hollywood life. That happens all the time. One girl breaks his heart and he becomes the big, bad wolf?”

“You don't understand,” she said. “This relationship was the real deal. He really loved Mackenzie.”

Adeline stopped in her tracks.

“Mackenzie? As in Mackenzie Montgomery, the actress?”

“Yeah,” Stephanie said. “You know her?”

“Yeah, she's read for a couple of Marc's movies. She was engaged to that singer, Lance Bass, one of the biggest pains in the industry. Stephanie...”

“Oh crap,” Stephanie mumbled.

“Stephanie Dawn Andrews, you did not just trick me into sticking myself with that jerk!”

“I didn't totally trick you,” Stephanie said. “Do you hate me?”

“Hate is a word too soft for what I feel for you right now,” Adeline said. She unpacked more picture frames and tossed them on a chair. She was too angry to even begin to deal with them right now.

That man was known to assistants like her. All-around, he was a good guy – he paid his assistants well, didn't overwork them and they had great benefits with him. He actually gave vacation time and he didn't expect you to get his coffee and pick up his dry cleaning because he was the star. His mouth was what he was really known for. He was sarcastic, rude, and not afraid to tell you what he thought about you – and it was never nice.

“You never would have taken the job if I had told you!” Stephanie defended. When Adeline shot her a dirty look, she grimaced. “I'm sorry?”

“You're so damn lucky that I absolutely need this job right now,” Adeline said. “And that all my sharp kitchen utensils are still packed away in boxes – I'm in a stabbing mood.”

“At least give dinner tonight a chance. I told him that he's to be on his best behavior. If he's not, you'll have a knife on the ready and you can stab him. Deal?”

“Fine,” Adeline said, and started walking away. “I'm going to unpack the bedroom because I have a headache and I can't even be in the same room with you right now.”

“Make sure to unpack your stuff for tonight!” she yelled after her friend. After Adeline disappeared into the bedroom, she sighed to herself. “She'll never forgive me, I'm so screwed.”

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“You want to do this, Adeline. You need this job. It won't be that bad, it won't be that bad, it won't be that bad...”

As she walked to the restaurant a few blocks away from her apartment, Adeline mumbled motivational sayings to try to convince herself not to turn around and run as far away as she could. The urge to run all the way to the Canadian border hit her as she took another step and she wrapped her coat tightly around her body to keep the late-September chill out.

“Maybe he's not that bad,” she said to herself. “Maybe it's all Hollywood rumors. Steph seems to like him, so he can't be that bad. How big of a jerk can he be? God, how far away from here is Canada?”

She stopped on the sidewalk, and as she heard her heels stop clicking on the ground she considered turning and forgetting the whole thing.

“No, Adeline,” she said to herself, forcing her legs to keep moving. “You have to do this. You need this job. You want to do this.”

“Hey,” she heard from behind her, and she turned on her heels. Stephanie smiled back at her. “You know, here in New York, if people see you talking to yourself on the streets they think you're crazy.”

“I'm taking this job,” Adeline responded. “I must be.”

That's when she saw him, walking up behind Stephanie in a waist-length navy blue pea coat with his hands in his pockets. He was looking off towards the other side of the street, seeming every bit as disinterested in this as she was. Seeing him in person, he was as cute as he was in pictures.

If only she didn't have to talk to him.

“Adeline, this is Lance,” Stephanie said as he finally caught up to the two of them. “Lance, this is Adeline James Sutton, your new assistant as of bright and early tomorrow morning.”

He held out his hand to her, but didn't smile.

“Nice to meet you, Adeline,” he said.

She grabbed his hand to shake it, but couldn't bring herself to smile either.

“You too, Lance.”

Stephanie smiled. “You two spoke without killing each other. Hurdle crossed – now let's go eat, I'm starving.”

They walked another block before they reached the restaurant. He walked a couple feet ahead of them the whole time, while Adeline scowled and occasionally gave Stephanie dirty looks.

When they reached the restaurant, he was the first to open the door. Adeline was next and as she reached the door, expecting it to be open, he let it close behind him. She barely had time to stop before she ran into it.

Stephanie stepped up next to her as she grabbed the door handle to open it herself.

“What a gentleman,” she said. “Chivalry is dead and he may be by the end of the night.”

It didn't take long for them to be seated even though the restaurant was full of couples and families eating dinner. They ordered their drinks, and Stephanie watched them avoid looking directly at each other for several minutes. He cleared his throat and she sighed until the waiter delivered their drinks.

“How about them Yankees?” she asked with a smile. “Come on guys, you can at least talk to each other.”

“I have nothing to say,” Lance responded.

“You promised me,” she said sternly.

“I promised to be on my best behavior,” he said. “This is the best behavior I can give you tonight.”

“This is probably the truth,” Stephanie said to Adeline with a roll of her eyes. She lifted her wine glass. “Let's toast to the hope that we make it to dessert before you put the knife to good use.”