Page 12 of Wish You Were Her

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to: [email protected]

RE: Wish You Were Here

Dear Friend,

Sorry for morose last message. Please find attached The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, taken in one of the finest houses in Lake Pristine.

Wish you were here!

Your friend

Allegra met Grace and Kerrie at the lake before they walked around the perimeter to the collection of fine houses on the other side.

As they made their way through the woodland on the edge of the gleaming water, Allegra nodded at a large and impressive looking lakehouse, right on the shoreline, that stood solitary by the small pebble beach.

She had seen the house from the other side of the lake, when she and Grace had lounged on the hot sand and sipped cold beverages.

The vast house looked to be two or three stories high and the ground level overlooking the lake was almost utterly transparent, with glass from floor to ceiling.

It sat in isolation between the lake and the emerald wilderness of the woods, like a great, solitary keep.

Allegra found herself extremely drawn to it.

“Who lives there again?” she asked Grace, as the latter seemed to know everything that went on in Lake Pristine.

“The Montgomerys,” Grace reminded her, and there was a glow in her eyes as she said it. “Howard and Andrea Montgomery. They’re one of the oldest and most respected families in town. Their youngest daughter is going to marry my brother.”

“Oh, wow,” Allegra said warmly. “That’s so cool, is she nice?”

Both Kerrie and Grace let out well-natured laughs.

“Is Jasper Montgomery nice?” Kerrie broached the question, sharing a knowing glance with Grace. “No. She’s, like, way more than that. She’s the best. She’s the queen of this town.”

“Ah, okay, the famous Jasper I’ve heard so much about. Well, would she join us for a game night?” Allegra ventured. “We don’t have enough for a good go at Werewolf, according to his Lordship Jonah Thorne.”

“I’ll text her. My brother will probably want to come too,” Grace said, sounding giddy. “He hardly sees her now that she has a fancy job.”

When they reached Simon’s house, Allegra let out a low whistle.

It was a large, impressive brownstone. The first apartment she and her mother had lived in could have fitted inside three times over.

Kerrie let herself indoors with a confidence that told Allegra she visited regularly.

Grace was texting as she and Allegra followed.

Simon’s mother Tania welcomed them in the foyer and led them downstairs to the basement, which had been converted into a game room.

It had a soft, cream carpet and dark maroon walls with a small chandelier in the center of the ceiling, surrounded by smaller circular lights.

It was fancier than any basement Allegra had seen before, even in famous circles.

The furniture had been pushed to the side of the room and Simon was standing next to a dimmer switch on the wall.

A boy Allegra presumed was his little brother clumsily poured himself a soda, while Tania took requests from the girls.

Skye was sharing a leather chair with another girl and there were lots of people Allegra had yet to meet, all milling about.

The far wall was lined with tall brown bookshelves and Allegra squinted, recognizing one of the books facing outward.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

She smiled and checked her email surreptitiously.

The email that had pinged into her inbox fifteen minutes before her arrival, a missive she had read very quickly as she and the girls had made their way there, showed the exact book in that exact spot.

Wish you were here. It was how he signed off all his little book-spotting posts around town. She nodded at the book, making sure to look completely innocent. “That’s a good ’un.”

Simon glanced at it and smiled. “Sure is. Let me just put him back where he should be.”

“In the attic.”

Simon laughed at that and Allegra felt a triumphant flare of elation.

“Allegra Brooks, in my house,” Simon’s mother said proudly, while handing Allegra a lemonade. “Now you , I just have to talk to before everything gets hectic and they all start murdering each other.”

Allegra smiled meekly and thanked her for the drink. “Okay.”

“Can I take a picture?”

Allegra had been vehemently warned against general celebrity behavior while on holiday in Lake Pristine. Natalie had been extremely clear. However, she was too shy to deny the older woman her selfie. “Sure.”

“Just for the group chat,” Tania said, as if reading Allegra’s mind.

Allegra smiled in gratitude and then posed for the photo.

The flash went off and, as it cleared, Allegra spotted Jonah and the woman who was probably his mother on the other side of the large room. The former rolled his eyes at the scene but the latter broke into a broad grin at the sight of Allegra and stepped forward with a refined hand outstretched.

“Allegra?”

Allegra kept the social mask firmly in place as she greeted the ballerina-like woman before her, who was frail and wearing lounge clothes made of soft fabric. “Hello.”

“I’m Vivienne,” she said. “You are just so like all of your pictures. Oh, my word, you are just so exciting .”

“Thank you,” Allegra said, deeply uncomfortable. She had learned to just say “thank you,” no matter what people said. It was pointless to try and return the compliment, they would only burst into another flattering remark and nobody appreciated it when she denied their praise.

“I’ve been watching everything you’ve ever done since hearing about your arrival in town,” Vivienne said and Allegra watched her tall son flinch at her words.

He probably thought so little of Allegra, imagining that she would hold disdain for his mother and her enthusiastic fawning.

Whatever version of Allegra that existed in his head, it was someone she probably did not want to be.

“Did you watch the terrible sci-fi I did right after A Little Princess ?” Allegra asked in her most self-deprecating voice. “I thought I had managed to get all copies destroyed.”

Vivienne laughed a little too loudly, as did a few other people in close proximity. When you were famous, every public meal, every party and every conversation would have a little bubble of people around it, all listening in and waiting for their chance to jump in.

“Jonah, isn’t she just a delight?” Vivienne asked, hauling her son to stand next to her.

Allegra looked up and his dark eyes were staring down at her. A deeply uncomfortable pause fell between the two of them and Allegra could not stand it.

“I haven’t quite mastered Jonah’s system of bookselling yet, Vivienne,” she said, forcing her tone to be light and playful. “So, I don’t think I’m his favorite person.”

She wondered why a part of her secretly wanted him to agree with his mother’s assessment.

But as Jonah opened his mouth to say something, Simon suddenly clapped his hands and the bustling room fell silent.

“All right, players. We’re waiting on a few stragglers and then the game will begin. Does anyone not know how to play?”

Allegra hesitantly raised one hand. “I’ve got an idea but I’ve never played.”

“They don’t play games in your trailer between scenes?” Skye asked, and the girl beside her spluttered out a laugh which she quickly suppressed.

“That’s not funny,” snapped Grace Lancaster.

“I agree,” Vivienne said shortly and Allegra felt grateful for both of them.

“Okay, it’s super simple,” Simon said, maneuvering his way around people so he could reach Allegra.

“I’m hosting, so I don’t play. I just moderate and narrate what’s happening.

Everyone else picks a card and they don’t show anyone what they have.

We have a bunch of ‘villagers’ and usually a couple of werewolves.

You can have a doctor but we’ve given up on that. ”

Simon began to shuffle a special deck of cards as he spoke.

“Once everyone has their part and their card, the game starts,” he went on.

“We’ll have our first night phase. This is when I turn off the lights and the werewolves make their first kill.

Everyone has to close their eyes, while the wolf or wolves pick their target.

I will put the lights back up and narrate the night phase.

The victim is out and the rest get to vote on who they think is a werewolf.

We keep playing until everyone is caught, or the werewolves are discovered. ”

“Got it,” Allegra said confidently and people made noises of appreciative anticipation.

“This is just one way to play, but it works for us,” Theo, Simon’s little brother, said with the cheerful authority of his twelve years and it made Allegra smile.

“All right, everyone find your spot in the room and I will start handing out the cards!” Simon decreed.

This charmed Allegra. She liked how social he seemed. How unapologetically keen he was to engage the whole group in a shared bit of fun.

She sat on the floor by Grace and Kerrie, and her hands felt full of electricity.

The only social gatherings she had attended over the last couple of years had been wrap parties, and she had always been chaperoned.

Everyone else had solidly been an adult.

She had done ten-hour days on set, disappearing occasionally to be tutored.

People her own age were strange, exotic creatures that she had always watched from afar.

Now she was in the scene, and very worried about getting her lines wrong.