A/N: Sorry for the lateness of this update! Lots of things came up, but I finally managed to sit down and write the next chapter for this story.

Also, since I'm doing BeNoWriMo (basically a belated NaNoWriMo) this month and focusing on another story, Idiot For Hire will be put on hold for this month. I'll return to it next month. 

Anyways. Yeah. That's it. Enjoy! 

***

Idiot For Hire

Chapter 12: I Look Like a Peruvian Puff Pepper

“You want me to make you a face mask?” Nathan asked, a wary expression crossing his face. “Me. With my own two hands.”

“It’s not rocket science,” I said, rolling my eyes. “The recipe is on that sheet of paper I gave you. All you have to do is follow instructions and mix together a few ingredients. I think even you can manage that.”

“Yeah, but—wouldn’t it be better if you bought one that was already prepared? That sounds easier. And safer.”

“Store-bought ones make me break out. That recipe makes my favorite face mask, and it does wonders for my skin. I’m not budging on this, Nathan.”

He let out a loud sigh and dejectedly looked down at the sheet of paper I’d given him. “Alright, fine. I’ll be back in a little.”

With that, he trudged out of my room and headed downstairs. My guess was that he was running straight to Trish for help. Like I said, it wasn’t rocket science, but this was Nathan we were talking about, after all, and he’d proved time and time again that he wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box. Trish wasn’t much better, but she’d made my face mask before and hadn’t screwed it up, so I figured it would be fine. Trish would be there to stop a disaster from occurring if Nathan made a mistake.

I started surfing the web on my phone as I waited for Nathan to come back, cringing at the press I’d been receiving lately. The latest article written about me didn’t surprise me, but it didn’t make me happy, either.

Did Adriana Martella Cheat on Boyfriend Mitch Evans?

The sound of jaws dropping could be heard throughout the fashion world last Friday. After an unfortunate outfit mishap backstage, 17 year-old model Adriana Martella found herself without an escort for Lawrence Gallagher’s prom centerpiece. And who better to step up than Adriana’s uber-cute and uber-loyal new assistant, 21 year-old Nathan Byers?

The former USC point guard surprised Adriana onstage and saved her from having to walk down that runway alone—but that’s not all he did. While the duo stopped to pose at the end of the runway, Nathan took Adriana into his arms and twirled her around. It felt like our senior prom all over again!

“I was sitting front row when it all happened,” an anonymous source gushed to Hollywood Tonight after the show. “It was so sweet. He pulled her closer and said, ‘You’ll never be alone. Not if I can help it.’ I thought I was gonna pass out! It was so cute.”

We’re starting to see why Adriana hired this guy!

As if we weren’t already swooning over this guy’s sweetness, he decided to take things to the next level—he dipped Adriana and kissed her right on the lips. It felt like a moment right out of a movie.

Excuse us while we continue to swoon!

But cute movie-moments don’t come without rumors, and Adriana’s facing a lot of them right now. We bet her hottie movie-star boyfriend, Mitch Evans, isn’t too happy with what he’s hearing, and we’re sure he’s definitely not happy with what he saw on that runway!

We were waiting for Adriana to make a statement at Mitch’s movie premiere on Friday night, and we were shocked when she was a no-show. Mitch showed up to his own movie premiere without his glamorous girlfriend by his side—we’re starting to sense trouble in paradise. We were waiting for Adriana to make a fashionably late appearance, but she never did.

Too busy recreating that cute movie-moment back at the Martella mansion, maybe? Adriana’s reps say she was ill at home, but after the stunt her hottie assistant pulled, we’re not so sure anymore.

Do you think Adriana is cheating on Mitch with Nathan? Sound off in the comments below!

I groaned out loud. “We watched Family Guy and played video games,” I exclaimed, throwing my phone down on my bed. I wanted to explain what really happened that night, but there was no way to do that without making myself look really bad. I mean, I understood where the press was coming from. My new assistant just so happened to be a young, ridiculously attractive guy. Models simply didn’t hire cute private assistants—at least not of the opposite sex. But I did, and people were obviously interested. At least, that’s what my friends kept telling me.

My publicist made a statement on Saturday assuring people that there was nothing going on between Nathan and me and that I really was just sick at home on Friday night, but this article had conveniently left that first part out. I’d figured the rumors would subside with that statement, but I guess not.

The comments weren’t much better than the articles themselves, although some of them made me glad not everyone was fooled by Mitch’s lies. A few of the highlights:

“Have you seen Nathan Byers? If she doesn’t want him, I’ll take him off her hands.”

“I like how you’re conveniently forgetting Mitch Evans happens to be a cheating whore… how many times are you gonna cover for him? I hate this website.”

“This article really pisses me off. Who the fuck are you to sit there and judge people like that? Adriana didn’t cheat on Mitch. You have no proof, just a kiss that for all you know, is completely staged. Models are performers. Adriana and Nathan were PERFORMING. You’re pretty much accusing her of cheating on Mitch when in reality, it’s the other way around. There’s been so much proof that Mitch has cheated MULTIPLE TIMES but you never focus on that, do you? I’m thinking his reps have paid you to keep your mouths shut about his cheating and it’s disgusting. That boy is manipulative, and because he’s hot and looks innocent, people ignore his shitty behavior. I’m so done with bloggers siding with Mitch and trying to make Adriana look bad. You, my friends, are fucking idiots.”

I wanted to hug the person that wrote that last comment. While I wasn’t sure Nathan was just “performing” like they said, the rest of it was spot on.

“Your face mask,” Nathan announced, startling me out of my thoughts as he barged into my room holding a bright yellow bowl.

“See? Was that really so hard?” I asked, surreptitiously putting my phone under my pillow. He’d probably already seen the articles that were circling the web, but that didn’t mean I wanted him to bring them up. Talk about awkward.

“You don’t even know,” he said, shaking his head. He held the bowl out, and I grabbed it, quickly heading towards the bathroom.

***

After taking off my face mask, it took only one look in the mirror for me to scream in absolute horror at the top of my lungs. “Nathan!”

I heard a crash coming from room, followed by, “Shit!”

“Nathan!” I shrieked angrily.

“Coming!” There was another crash—I didn’t even want to know—and then Nathan’s head appeared in the doorway. “What’s wrong? What ha—Jesus Christ.”

“What have you done to my face?” I angrily pointed to my face, ignoring the look on his face. He looked torn between horror and amusement. If any more amusement made itself evident in his facial expression, I was going to murder him.

“Uh…”

“What did you put in this face mask?”

“I-I don’t know, I just followed the directions and mixed shit in.”

“Mixed shit in?” I repeated incredulously. “That’s not what I want to hear! Did you even look at what you were throwing in that bowl?”

“Of course I did,” he said. “I just followed Trish’s directions and the paper you gave me.”

“Then why do I look like a Peruvian puff pepper?”

His lips twitched upwards, and it took all of the self-control I had not to smack the smile off of his lips. “Maybe something was mislabeled?”

I shook my head. I didn’t even know what to think. The only thing I did know was that this was this idiot’s fault, and now I had to try to fix it. “Go get me some aloe.”

“Aloe? Isn’t that lube?”

I gave him a look. “Of course you would think of it that way. It’s got a wide variety of uses, not just… that. Right now, it’s going to soothe the irritation you just caused.”

He let out a nervous chuckle. “Right. I’m on it. Where is it?”

“The bathroom downstairs.”

“Which one? You have a million bathrooms.”

“The one by my parents’ room,” I said.

He wrinkled his nose. “You do realize—”

“Do not say it.”

“But—”

“Nathan, I am this close to severely injuring you. Quit pushing your luck and go get the damn aloe vera.”

He didn’t say anything; he just nodded and ran downstairs. To say I was surprised when he came back with my mother in tow would be an understatement. I didn’t even have time to hide. She’d caught me completely off guard.

“What are you doing here?”

She looked like she was about to yell, but when she saw my face, she backtracked. “Adriana, what on earth happened to your face?”

I was about to answer, but Nathan interrupted. “That was, uh, my bad. I messed up her face mask, and she broke out in a rash.”

“What did I tell you?” she asked, but she didn’t give me enough time to reply. “I told you you’d regret hiring this boy. Just look at you. You look awful. That rash is awful. You won’t be able to go out for days if this doesn’t completely clear up.”

“That’s what the aloe vera is for. It’ll calm the irritation,” I said, unable to conceal the annoyance in my voice.

“Oh. I thought—you know what? Never mind.” She sounded relieved, and I let out an exasperated sigh. Okay, seriously? Was everyone’s mind stuck in the gutter lately?

“Just give me the aloe,” I said to Nathan, taking it from his outstretched hand.

My mother followed me into the bathroom. “I assume you’re finally going to fire this idiot.”

For some reason, I was really offended by this. I always called Nathan an idiot, sure, but when my mom did, it just sounded vindictive and insulting. Maybe it sounded that way when I said it, too, but I just thought it sounded worse coming from her mouth.

“You assume wrong,” I said. “I’m not firing him.”

 I was pissed off, sure, but it was one mistake. He hadn’t meant to screw up my face. I just hoped this aloe would calm the irritation and stop the itch.

“Even after he made you break out all over your face?”

“He didn’t mean to. It’ll get better in a few days.”

It wasn’t just that I didn’t want to give my mother the satisfaction of seeing Nathan walk out the door. It was more than that. I didn’t really want to let go of him, anyway. I liked having him around, and I liked having him as an assistant, even if he was potentially the worst assistant I’d ever had.

“I cannot believe you.” She shook her head. “You need to understand that he’s a lost cause. How many excuses are you going to make for this boy?”

“I don’t know. How many excuses are you going to make for Mitch?” I almost regretted the words that came out of my mouth, but I have to say, the look on her face made it worth it.

After a good thirty seconds, she finally spoke. “Fine. You’re obviously not in a very complacent disposition right now. I’m going back downstairs.”

Like she was ever in a complacent disposition. Did she not realize who I got that from? “Fine,” I said, turning around and opening the jar of aloe vera. I was still slathering it on my face when she finally walked away and Nathan walked into the bathroom.

“Don’t even start,” I said, assuming he was going to laugh at me. I looked absolutely ridiculous. I didn’t want him to see me like this, but it wasn’t like I had much of a choice. The damage had already been done.

“What?”

“You’re trying not to laugh.”

He looked rather offended. “I am not. I’m not that mean.”

“Yes, you are.”

“Maybe. But I’m not mean enough to do this on purpose. Your mom seems pretty sure I did, though,” he said.

I didn’t reply immediately. Finally, I just shrugged. “It was an accident.”

“Why do you keep defending me?”

I looked over at him, tearing my gaze away from the monster in the mirror. “It’s not like you did it on purpose. Why are you questioning this?”

“My sister brought you the wrong latte. I messed up your face mask and made you break out in a rash. Yet I’m still here, and she’s not.”

I didn’t say anything. What was I supposed to say? I hated her, but I like you? You’re cute so it’s okay, but she’s not so it’s not okay? There was no acceptable answer to that question.

“Realistically, you should have fired me a long time ago, and I’ve only been here for a week and a half, so that’s saying something. So why am I still here?”

“I don’t know. What do you want to hear? That you’re a special little snowflake?”

Half of his mouth turned upwards into a smile. “I don’t know. I’m just wondering why, I guess. Is that a crime now?”

“Yes.”

I tried to leave it at that, but his staring was starting to make me uncomfortable. It probably would have made me uncomfortable even if I’d looked cute, but I just so happened to look like a pepper, and that made it one hundred times worse.

I sighed. “I honestly don’t know, okay? If you figure it out, let me know, because I have no idea.” Except that was kind of a lie. Really, it was because it made no sense, and because the answer I had in mind was one I didn’t want to say out loud.