Page 11 of Wish You Were Her

Allegra and Jonah were like two embittered old rivals as they worked alongside each other in the bookshop.

If Allegra made a pyramid display of certain titles, Jonah was there five seconds later to redo it in a manner he found appropriate.

If Jonah was on his ten-minute break, Allegra was flying through as many sales as she physically could so that she could beat his position on the system as highest seller.

If anyone had asked why the two of them didn’t like each other, they would have snapped.

Allegra resented his lack of apology for their first meeting and Jonah was frustrated by how easy everything seemed for the young screen goddess.

Their resentment had bubbled over into their working relationship and the bookshop had become a battleground for a cold war that was ever heating up.

The two would occasionally blame the boiling sun over Lake Pristine for their testiness, but no one believed them.

A customer was examining a book over by Allegra’s new romance table when Jonah approached.

“I can find you a better edition of that novel,” he told the woman who was browsing. “You’ll have to forgive my colleague. She put out the copies with the film tie-in cover, not the classic jacket. Quite tacky. I’ll find you a better option.”

The customer looked up at him in surprise but Allegra had already flown across the room from the cash desk.

“And what of it?” she demanded of Jonah, as the would-be buyer stood in between the two glowering booksellers. “It’s the same story, the same text, under that cover, Jonah. So, what of it? Maybe she likes the movie.”

“I do like the film,” the customer said quietly. “It’s what made me want to read the book.”

Allegra gave her a warm, dazzling smile while Jonah made a noise of disgust. “And that’s exactly what’s wrong with consumerism right now. People only feel inclined to dip into the classics because they like some actor who was in the adaptation.”

“That’s not—” the woman tried to defend herself, but Allegra was already there.

“You are an outrageous snob, do you know that? Now, I never knew Jane Austen—”

“Obviously, Allegra.”

“—but I bet she would have loved for her novels to live on through moving pictures. The Brontes, too. So, there’s no point getting all high and mighty about defending their art from wicked adaptations, because there’s nothing wrong with bringing great stories to wider audiences.”

“Austen, maybe,” snapped Jonah. “But not the Brontes. Oh, no, they were radical to the bone; they would have hated movie tie-in covers.”

“Sentences I never thought I would have to listen to for one hundred—”

“I might just get it online,” the woman mumbled.

“No!” both Jonah and Allegra shouted at her, before turning back to each other.

“Reading is supposed to be an act of pleasure,” Allegra said silkily. She sidled up to Jonah until he was backed up against a bay of books. “Fun? Enjoyment? Pleasure! Do these words mean anything to you?”

She was already walking away before he could catch his breath and fire back an answer. Instead, he resorted to snatching a book from the fantasy table and held it up for the whole shop to see.

“What do you think of this tie-in cover?”

It was Court of Bystanders: Volume One by Pamela H. J. Wilcox. Allegra scowled at him. She was one of the actors on the jacket of the book.

“I think it looks like it was author approved,” she said sharply.

“As if,” Jonah replied. “Wilcox is a recluse, she hates the entire world. She’s been writing volume six for ten years. There is no way she endorsed this hideous cover.”

“She likes it, you jackass.”

“There is no way you’ve met Pamela H. J. Wilcox.”

“Met her? I’ve had dinner with her! Who do you think had the final say over whether I got to play Clera or not?”

The customer had scuttled out of the bookshop, her potential purchase now abandoned on the table. Jonah threw the book he had been brandishing onto its former spot and glared at Allegra.

“Leave the hand-selling to the booksellers,” he snarled. “You’ve scared away a sale.”

“Oh, I scared her away? You don’t think maybe it was you acting like a lunatic and shaming her for watching a decent adaptation of a book?”

“It’s not a decent adaptation. No one said the word ‘ex’ in a romantic context during the eighteenth century, that’s an unforgivable anachronism.”

“I am going to the computer,” Allegra said slowly, in a deeply threatening voice. “And if I find one single reference to the term ‘ex’ being used in the eighteenth century, you are done. You hand over all the best jobs with this festival to me.”

“I’ll take that wager, because you won’t find any evidence. Because that is a deranged use of language and the screenwriter should be arrested.”

Simon entered the shop with some lunch for everyone while Allegra was at the computer. Jonah watched him glance around, seeming to pick up on the frosty atmosphere despite the sweltering heat outside.

“Everything okay?”

Jonah and Allegra ignored him.

“Ha!” shouted the latter, from her place by the computer. “First documented use was 1827.”

Jonah stormed toward the cash desk and slammed his hands down on the counter. “That’s the nineteenth century!”

“Everyone knows language is used liberally and regularly among the masses before it’s documented.”

“Okay, so they start saying it in 1825 and someone writes it down in 1827. Ten years after Jane drops dead at the age of forty-one. Probably from total abject fear as she realizes that her work is going to be fundamentally misunderstood and appropriated for the next three hundred years!”

Allegra’s eyes narrowed. “Simon, where’s the stapler?”

“Okay, okay.” Simon stepped between his two colleagues and held his hands up. “Let’s cool off, it’s the heat that’s making the two of you fight, I’m guessing.”

“Sure, the humidity goes right to my lady brain,” Allegra said stiffly.

“No,” Jonah retorted. “I hate movie tie-in covers during all seasons, three hundred and sixty-five days a year.”

Simon laughed under his breath, but Allegra was already braced to retaliate. “Is there anything you don’t hate?”

The question threw Jonah as he stared at Allegra.

He was rarely able to look directly at her.

He found eye contact fine when he was listening to another person, but less easy when he was speaking, and it was sometimes hard to stare at Allegra Brooks because she looked the way she did.

She looked like the kind of girl he would dream up in his head.

“I don’t hate Pamela H. J. Wilcox. Not her books anyway.”

He meant it to be pointed but it came out far more cruelly than he intended. It was harsh and nasty and he didn’t like himself for saying it. He opened his mouth to say as much but Allegra’s face silenced him. She was regarding him with disappointment and a heavy sadness.

“You’ve been mean since I got here,” she said, matter-of-factly.

There was something about the word “mean.” It felt so personal. He recalled his mother’s words, about nervousness making him mean, and Allegra’s words were at odds with how he saw himself. He wasn’t a hateful person. He just had very finite tastes.

But Allegra made him so nervous. He was unable to name the reaction he had to her, but he knew it got twisted during the journey from his brain to his heart and it came out all wrong.

He didn’t intend to be so coarse and harsh with her; more often than not, he felt completely out of control whenever they conversed.

“Hey, Allegra,” Simon pounced when Jonah was unable to respond. “We’re having a game night at my house tonight. Werewolf.” When she looked slightly unsure, he clarified. “Social deduction game. Loads of us will be there and you can be the guest of honor.”

“Only if Grace and Kerrie are invited.”

Simon placed a hand over his heart and smiled charmingly. “Of course.”

“Then sure.”

As she moved away to eat lunch with Simon, Jonah took her place at the computer.

He felt awkward and embarrassed. He quickly closed her search window and went to the bookshop inbox.

He had always been better about his feelings when they were written down, he always liked himself more through the written word.

So, he started drafting to the only person who seemed to have any patience for him anymore.

A person he didn’t even know.

[email protected]

to: [email protected]

RE: Messing Things Up

Hey,

You first got in touch to ask about the festival dates and I just want to say, if you’re near Lake Pristine or intending to come here soon, please pay me a visit in the bookshop because I’m losing friends left and right.

I’ve been an asshole. I keep saying and doing the wrong thing. Nothing really new there.

Sorry for rambling.

A remorseful bookseller x

Allegra was still hot with annoyance as she ate with Simon. She ignored Jonah with intense determination, only looking up when she heard him go into the back office. She exhaled and shook her head slightly, furious with him and with herself for continually letting him goad her into a fight.

“You okay?” Simon asked softly.

She was touched by the seriousness in his usually buoyant voice. “Yeah. He just gets to me a bit.”

Simon glanced at the closed office door, his brow slightly furrowed and his eyes colored with concern. “He doesn’t mean to. Trust me. He’s a good guy.”

“Just not with me.”

“He just loves the festival. And your dad, too. George has been such a big deal to Jonah, giving him a job, responsibility and stuff, you know. He might be a bit threatened by you and he just can’t get on top of it.

Honestly. I’m usually the super immature one between the two of us, he’s always been the good example. ”

Allegra offered up a wry smile.

“Sorry, by the way,” Simon added, still speaking softly and with a grown-up tone Allegra really liked hearing him use. “I sometimes say stupid shit. Just to get your attention. It’s cringy and childish and I know I need to stop.”

She handed him a napkin and gestured to a tiny drop of sauce on the corner of his mouth. She was glad to hear an apology. His immaturity had been a dampener on her mood and she was starting to grow tired of giving him the benefit of the doubt. “That’s okay, Simon. You’re all good.”

He smiled appreciatively, wiping away the speck of red. “Think you can extend that compassion to Jonah? He’s genuinely a good person. I swear.”

Allegra said nothing for a moment, crumpling up the paper sandwich wrapper.

“I’ll see how Werewolf goes.”

Simon chuckled and helped her to stand. “Ominous last words.”