He cut her off. “Christ, Taylor, everyone here knows you’re the Mystery Woman. The paparazzi have been going nuts, trying to get a shot of you and Jason together.”

Taylor started to speak, then caught something Scott had just said.

“Paparazzi? I thought you said those were just ‘industry photographers.’ ”

“Yeah, well . . . whatever. The point is, they think you’re here with Jason, not me.”

Taylor again tried to make amends. “Like I said, I’m sorry. We were just dancing.”

Scott scoffed sarcastically at this. “Oh well, if that’s all it was, don’t let me get in the way. Perhaps you should go back and find him. Although I should warn you—Jason Andrews’s dance card is usually pretty full. He doesn’t normally make it around to the same girl twice.”

Suddenly tired with the whole scenario, Taylor decided it wasn’t worth the effort to respond. “You know, I think I’m going to call it an evening,” she said. “I’ll just call a cab to pick me up.”

Scott appeared surprised by this. Then his expression softened.

“You don’t need to call a cab, Taylor” he said, his voice full of concern.

Mocking concern, as she learned with his next snide words.

“After all, I’m sure your ‘friend’ Jason would be happy to give you a ride home,” he said. “At least one of us should get to f**k you for getting you into this party.”

Taylor nodded. Okay . . . so that’s how it had to be. At least now there was nothing more to be said between them.

“Thank you for making this so much easier. Good-bye, Scott.”

He seemed surprised when he saw she was actually leaving, and blocked her way.

“Wait—are you serious? You’re really going to leave, just like that?”

“Yep, just like that.”

He grabbed Taylor by her arm. Apparently, she had struck quite a nerve.

“You think you’re so smart,” he hissed. “But do you know how many women would kill just to get one look from me? Who the hell are you, you f**king nobody? You’d walk away, just because of one dance with Jason Andrews? You think that’s worth it?”

Taylor peered up at Scott’s furious face. There really was only one thing she had to say in response to that.

“Absofuckinglutely.”

Finished there, Taylor pried Scott’s fingers from her arm and slid by. She cut through the garden on her way out, being careful to avoid the paparazzi.

And just as suddenly as she had appeared, the Mystery Woman left the party.

AFTER HEARING TAYLOR’S story, Kate and Val were silent on their ends of the line.

“What? Say something,” Taylor demanded anxiously.

Kate responded first. “You know, ending your date with an A-list movie star with an ‘absofuckinglutely’ really is so played these days.” She laughed. “Seriously, Taylor—where do you come up with this stuff?”

Taylor noticed that her other friend had been uncharacteristically silent. “Val, you’re awfully quiet.”

Valerie spoke slowly. “I just want to be sure I have this straight. You manage to score a ticket to the best party of the year with one of the biggest celebrities in town. But then you dance with another guy—who just so happens to be, like, the hottest man in the world—then you ditch your date and run out of the party like an obscene Cinderella, never to be heard from again.”

Taylor squirmed uneasily in her chair. “Well, it really was just the one obscenity—”

Valerie cut her off sternly. “Taylor Donovan.”

Then her tone changed. To one of pride.

“You are a friggin’ genius!” Val shrieked. “Everyone’s going to be talking about you! You are so going to be on the cover of Us Weekly this week!”

Taylor tried to control her friend’s excitement. “Don’t hold your breath, Val. They didn’t get any pictures of me.”

“That’s what you celebs always think. But then you end up topless on the cover of the Enquirer and you suddenly think, hmm . . . maybe it wasn’t such a smart idea to sunbathe nude in Cabo after all, maybe that was a camera stashed underneath the towels that pool boy was carrying . . .”

“So what are you going to do about Jason?” Kate interrupted, getting back to the business at hand.

“Nothing. There’s nothing else to do,” Taylor said. “I wanted to tell him that I’d been wrong about him because I thought it was something I needed to say. That’s all.” She paused. Then she lowered her voice, even though there wasn’t a single other person in the office that Sunday morning.

“Why? Do you think I should do something else?” she whispered.

“You know I can’t say that,” Kate told her.

“I can say it,” Val volunteered.

Taylor spun around in her chair, frustrated. “What am I doing? Seriously—I’ve got way too much work to do. I can’t be worrying about this right now.”

“If all you worry about is work,” Val lectured, “then one day you’ll come home and realize that it’s the only thing you’ve got.”

“It’s better than coming home one night and finding Jason f**king some supermodel on our dining-room table.”

The phone went silent.

Wow—that had flown out of her mouth before she’d even thought about it.

“You’re right, Taylor,” Val said quietly. “If you really think that might happen, then I think you did the right thing in walking away from Jason.”