How to Date a Millionaire by Allison Rushby Page A

Seth’s ‘great guy’ league.
    ‘So you know them as well?’
    Marc snorts. ‘Sure. They’re a couple of buffoons.’
    Phew. So it’s not just me. ‘That’s what I thought too. What do you know about them?’
    ‘Oh, they just think they’re hot shots in the making. Asfar as I know, the only reason Seth hangs around with them is because of this screenplay they worked on together in a class in our first semester. It turned out quite well and now he can’t get rid of them. Not unless he wants to ditch the entire project. I think one studio actually had a bit of interest in it, so it’d be a waste to let it die because of the two other guys. Apparently they’ll try just about anything to get it up and running. Seth’s had a gutful of them, from what I hear.’
    Hmmm. So they’d try ‘just about anything’, huh? Something twigs in my head when I hear Marc’s words. That is, Marc’s words combined with all the boring ‘how to get our screenplay noticed’ talk that had been going on while we were out today. ‘Marc, they don’t know that we’re related to Holly, do they?’
    There’s a long pause on the end of the line. ‘I don’t think so. I try to keep it pretty quiet around here. People knowing would only make things harder for me. Why, do you think they do? Are they hassling you or something?’
    I shake my head, even though Marc can’t see me. ‘No, not really. It’s just that they never shut up about the screenplay. Jason and Connor, I mean.’
    ‘Yeah, that’s normal for them, unfortunately.’
    ‘Okay. Thanks for that. I just thought I’d ask.’
    ‘How’s everything else? Holly still doing all right? How’s your dad?’
    ‘She’s fine. Her blood pressure’s still the same. Dad’s scaring the tourists in his bathing attire.’
    ‘The usual, huh? What’d you get up to today?’
    ‘We just got back from eating some great Thai. And we went to Pearl Harbor. You would have liked it.’ Funnily enough, I edit out the bits about Seth, Jason and Connor coming along for the ride and also about me hurling myself on Seth. There are some things even fake big brothers really don’t need to know.
    ‘Sounds good. And Thai sounds even better. Tell me you didn’t have mee krob.’
    ‘Sorry, we had mee krob. And it was good too. It’d probably have to go in my top-five mee krob experiences, in fact. Maybe even in my top three.’
    Marc blows a whole heap of air down the phone. ‘You could have at least told me it was terrible.’
    ‘And where would the fun have been in that? Anyway, I’d better run and see if Alexa’s killed Nat while I’ve beenon the phone. She’s been itching to put her in one of those hotel kiddie-day-care programs the whole time we’ve been here. The girl is out of control.’
    ‘Really? You know, she sounds kind of like someone else I used to know. Someone else and her best friend, Marilyn Monroe.’
    I grin, thinking of Nat and her new love for all things MM. ‘You can’t possibly mean moi ?’
    ‘Er … of course not,’ Marc says, then laughs. ‘I meant someone else entirely. See you, Ness.’

‘Nessa?’ I awaken to someone shaking my shoulder just that little bit too hard (anything at all is a little bit too hard at 8 am when I’m on holidays). ‘Nessa! Wake up! You have to wake up!’ Nat’s voice gets more insistent.
    ‘Is there a fire?’ I roll over.
    ‘No. It’s the phone. And it’s for you.’
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘It’s Seth.’
    Okay. Now I’m awake. I sit up in bed. ‘Oh.’
    I get a smarty-pants smile from Nat. ‘I thought that might wake you up.’ She holds out the cordless phone to me and I see that she hasn’t even bothered holding her hand over the mouthpiece.
    Fantastic. So Seth has heard all of this. Well, isn’t thatjust dandy? I roll my eyes at her as I take the phone.
    ‘Thanks, Nat ,’ I say. She doesn’t move from her spot. ‘You can go now.’
    Another smarty-pants smile, the thumbs up and she’s gone.
    Oh,