Page 52 of Wish You Were Her

She approached Jonah as if in a trance, and when he looked up, her own panic was suddenly evident on his face. He stared at her, his eyes raking up and down her body, as though seeing her for the very first time.

“Allegra?”

And Allegra Brooks, having learned to hide so well, was unable to give up this little piece of herself. It was just too hard. Vulnerability is the chip one has to play into the game if one wants the cards to come out right, but Allegra held her chips close and refused to bet.

She had disguised herself so well within the emails: some girl from out of town with a job in social media. She had been careful to cover her tracks.

She acted quickly.

“Are you here to meet some girl?” The words sounded ugly. She wished them undone as soon as they were said.

Jonah stared up at her. “Yes.”

“Well,” Allegra was good at improvising. Actors had to be. “We just got a call at the bookshop. Sounded like a young woman. Said she was meeting one of the booksellers at Pete’s Cafe. Or she was supposed to. She got stuck, out of town. Something to do with her job and a client. Asked me to apologize on her behalf, but she has to reschedule.”

She expected to see relief in Jonah’s face, she knew she was the last person he would want as his mystery girl, but he gave nothing away.

“Are you who she meant?” Allegra asked, her voice shaking but her gaze unblinking. “Or is that message for Simon?”

A part of her wondered if she had still somehow got it wrong. She hoped against hope that he was here by some strange accident.

“No, it’s for me.” He said it in his deep, hard-to-read voiceand they stared at one another. Allegra couldn’t even begin to identify her emotions.

She just knew it stung.

“So, you have an out-of-town girlfriend?”

He scowled. “No. More like… a pen-pal.”

“You’ve never met each other?” She made her face look casual as they stared each other down.

“No.” Jonah looked on edge as he answered her rapid-fire questions. “Tonight was… going to be the first time.”

“Why have you never mentioned her?”

It came out far more accusingly than she meant it to.

“Because we’re just two people who have been emailing. Why would I mention it? It’s not like you and I are friends, Allegra.”

Allegra knew this was the perfect moment to bow out, to wish him well and then head to the launch party without even an afterthought.

Instead, she sat down in the seat across from him.

Allegra looked like a goddess. A surprisingly angry one.

Jonah had been wondering what his mystery girl would sound like when the actress had walked through the cafe door. He had been too stunned by her appearance to be embarrassed by the fact that she had stumbled across his would-be date with a stranger. He was taking in her dress as she told him that his friend was unable to make it. Her long hair, the breeze of her perfume and the way the dress was cut. He had barely a moment to process what she was saying.

When she sat across from him, disorientation turned into familiar prickliness.

“You don’t need to keep me company,” he snapped.

“Oh, I know,” she snapped back. “I’m curious, though. How long have you been conversing with this… person?”

“A while,” he answered stonily. “Not that it’s your business.”

“So, that’s why you and Simon are so possessive of that ancient computer. Exchanging romantic correspondence with anonymous strangers.”

“Simon can’t draft our press releases, let alone love letters.”