*Meanwhile*
Lance sat up in the penthouse suite, waiting for someone to come back. Justin looked at him just sitting on the edge of the bed, "Where'd Mandie go?"
"What do you mean?" Lance asked in partial shock, "I thought you saw her!"
"She left and no one knows where she went," Justin said quietly as they heard a cell phone ring.
They searched the bedroom and found the phone, "Yellow?" Justin answered.
"Where are you?" he heard Johnny's voice.
"Paris," he said as if he were innocent.
"What are you doing there... you're supposed to be at rehearsal!"
"For god's sakes, Lance's girlfriend almost got killed last night!" Justin exclaimed into the phone.
"Girlfriend? Since when does he have a girlfriend?"
"Since yesterday, okay? And hear this, they're in love and SO AM I!" he yelled.
"Are you okay, Justin?" Lance and Johnny both asked at the same time.
"I will be, as soon as Cass knows how I feel," Justin sighed into the phone.
"Cass? As in Cass Blake? Justin, you can't be seen with her, what would people say?"
"I don't give a shit what people say...I'm in love with her."
"I understand...Justin, could you put Lance on the phone?" Johnny said calmly.
"He wants to talk to you," Justin handed him the phone.
"Yeah?" Lance said in the phone.
"Girlfriend, huh?" Johnny said irritated.
"Yep," Lance replied, smiling.
"Yeah, do you know what this'll look like to the press?" Johnny pressured, "I mean, Justin and Cass will look worse than you and Mandie Monroe, because she already has a name for herself."
"What are you trying to say, Johnny?" Lance said harsher into the phone than he actually meant to be.
"Tell Justin if he ever wants Miss Cass Blake to get a real career to fall out of love with her and FAST!"
"Why should he Johnny? If he loves her then he should go for it."
"He's ruining her career."
"I think you're more fuckin worried about his career...and why don't you think I should be dating Mandie?" he asked Johnny harshly.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with you and a model dating, but he's already made a mistake by dating a singer, I just don't want to see him do it again."
"Johnny, why don't you just tell him that yourself? Because if you see them together, you'll definitely think differently."
"Well I better go...I want both of you back in 2 days...I'll give the guys days off."
"Yah, yah," Lance hung up the phone and heard the door slam. They walked out of the bedroom and there stood Mandie with a big smile on her face.
"Mandie! You're back!" Lance ran up to her and hugged her tightly.
"I'm glad to see you too," Mandie smiled into his embrace and gave him a deep kiss.
"Wait! What the fuck is this?" Justin looked at the door and a note was taped to it.
Justin pulled the white piece of paper and began reading it and a smile formed on his face, "Mandie it's a message from Milan, Italy."
"What?" Mandie ran to Justin.
"Yah, it says they want you in 3 to 4 weeks to model."
"Oh my god..." Mandie gave Justin a long hug.
"I'm so proud of you, so are you going to do it?" Justin asked her.
"Yeah, definitely, I've always wanted to go to Italy, even more than Paris!" Mandie was crying tears of happiness.
"I'm taking a fucking stroll on the boulevard, don't follow me, any of you," Cass looked at the happy moment and shattered it. Justin quickly followed her as Lance let Mandie fall into his arms.
"What crawled up her ass?" Mandie asked irritated from Cass ruining what had happened to Mandie, "Shit Lance...what if she heard me when I said I would take the job?"
"She has to live with it...this is your dream and you have a good chance at achieving it," Lance smiled at her.
"Don't do that."
"Do what?" he asked still doing what he was.
"Your eyes... stop making them watery...it drives me crazy."
"Why? She always manages to ruin a good moment between us," Lance replied, holding onto her tightly.
"But she's my best friend, I can't really get along as well as I do without her," Mandie replied, starting to let tears out.
"Please don't cry baby, it hurts me so much," Lance buried her deep into his arms, kissing the top of her head.
"I'm sorry Lance�I just...she is one of the only people that actually respects me...and well face it my parents hate that I have achieved my goal...I mean their main thrill in life was to tell me I wouldn't make it...that I was too ugly to be a model," Mandie felt more emotional tears pour out, "Now that I have achieved my goal they always tell me someone beautiful should of got it and not me�Lance, they called me the ugly duckling," she cried out.
"Honey, your friends think totally differently," Lance told her gently, "It shouldn't matter what your parents think, if you're happy doing what you're doing, then that should be it."
"Lance, why are you so nice to me?" Mandie looked up through her clouded eyes.
"Because I love you, silly," he leaned down and gently kissed her, dissolving all her doubts about herself.
"I knew that," she smiled as she pulled away.
"So are you going to take the Milan job?" he asked her as he pulled her chin up.