Page 104 of Wish You Were Her

“Yes. Former work colleagues, now friends.”

“I don’t have pictures of me and my friends like the ones that leech took of the two of you.”

“Low blow, bringing up the pap.”

“Then don’t lie to me, kid. Friends? Please.”

“We are.”

“Allegra,” Jasper said her name with exasperation, and it made the actress laugh. It was fun. It felt like being in a scene from a sweet movie, where the emotional stakes were high but there were no nasty plot twists. It was the kind of movie she wished her life could be.

She kept laughing, enjoying their play. “We are, Jasper.”

“That boy cooked for you. He looked ready to yell at me if I didn’t tell you that he wanted to see you. He almost killed Simon because of what he told that editor. Never mind that kiss.”

Allegra’s smile faded and she winced. “Yeah, that’s…”

“He is in love with you, Allegra.”

Allegra blinked, “Don’t be silly.”

“He is. I’ve watched enough old movies to know.”

Allegra was momentarily distracted. She smiled. “You like old movies? Me, too.”

“My new favorite isShop Around the Corner. Jimmy Stewart. What a mensch.”

“I’ll have to watch it,” Allegra said.

“You should. But yes. He is hopelessly in love with you, girlie.”

Allegra shook her head and tried to be composed. “He is not!”

“No, he is. Jonah Thorne has always been a beautiful loner, who tolerates other people. But you, he more than tolerates.”

“We’re friends. All of yesterday and last night, he was a good friend, nothing more.”

“Exactly what kind of person would make advances on someone who has a chest infection, made worse by the threat of an autistic shutdown?”

Allegra made a noise of derision but she was smiling. “Okay, a bad friend would do that. So he was being a good friend. Like I said.”

Allegra didn’t know why she was denying anything. It was obvious she and Jonah were on a pathway that did not lead to friendship as a final destination. She just needed to bide time until it was her, the real her, he really liked and not some imaginary girl on the computer or film screen.

“Like I said.” Jasper turned the music up and sped the car into a long, easy sprint down the country road leading to her small hometown. “No pictures of me and my friends like the ones of you and him.”

“I think the whole aftermath scared him off.”

Jasper’s lips twitched but she kept her eyes ahead. “I’m not so sure.”

They drove in comfortable silence as Mandy Patinkin sang. When Jasper spoke, it was with a musing tone.

“Lake Pristine is a funny place. It sort of freezes in time, when you leave it. You can go for, like, ten hours, ten days. Ten years, even. And when you get back, everything is almost exactly as you left it. People haven’t moved on. They haven’t forgotten theversion of you that they knew when you left. They’re not interested in who you’ve become while you’ve been away.”

Allegra glanced at Jasper. “She says with experience?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe that’s why my dad is so weird.”