Page 59 of Wish You Were Her

He waited for at least ninety seconds before getting up and doing the same.

Allegra couldn’t move. She didn’t release her breath until Jonah had left the room. There was a beat of silence once he was gone and then Grace sat up.

“Fuck.”

“Yeah,” Allegra whispered, her voice hoarse. “That was a ride.”

“What happened in Pete’s Cafe?” Grace asked with urgency. “What on earth went down between you two? Obviously enough to make him groan out your name when another girl is kissing him.”

Allegra suddenly felt like crying. She smacked her hand to her lips, as they trembled and her jaw grew painfully tight.

“I was really mean to him,” she said. Grace’s sympathetic silence gave her room to breathe out all of her regret. “It wasn’tlike me. I was so mad about getting it all completely wrong… But I wasn’t mad that he wasn’t Simon.”

“Mm-hmm,” Grace said softly, a touch of something mischievous entering her voice.

“Should we find Kerrie?”

“I’ll do it,” Grace said. “The sight of you might be a bit raw for her right now.”

While Allegra knew it was true, she couldn’t help but feel dejected, as though she had done something wrong. She would hate for Kerrie to feel as if this was all some sort of cruel joke.

So she said to Grace, “We were never here.”

“Yup,” her friend said, with a tone of complete and utter concurrence.

“Grace?” Allegra sat up and Grace mirrored her.

“Yeah?”

“I didn’t tell Jonah the truth. About me. He still thinks he was stood up.”

Grace didn’t say anything for a moment then sighed. “So, I’m still keeping that secret?”

“Please.”

“You owe me.”

“Sure do.”

Allegra made a hasty exit, leaving the party without saying goodbye to Simon. He was in full host-mode and Allegra always felt acutely different from her peers when it came to goodbyes. She liked slipping away without a word. She was also worried that he would spot her unease and ask about it.

The night air was a cool stroke of the cheek to Allegra, as she slipped out of Simon’s little mansion. She made for town, scrolling through her mess of messages (completely ignoringher email inbox) only to find a text from her father, informing her via his new (and first) mobile phone that he would be late at the festival site with some authors. He asked if she had her keys.

She confirmed that she did, just as she reached Main Street, with Brooks Books ahead and in her sights.

She missed walking. She didn’t get to do much of it in the city, she was ferried from location to car to location to plane to hotel or apartment. She was never allowed to spend more than a few seconds on the pavement at a time.

Natalie and Allegra’s agent were worried about her being in Lake Pristine without a security detail; both convinced that her new location would be leaked. Her father’s speech from earlier in the night had left Allegra with a bad taste in her mouth. The daughter in her was thrilled but the actor was afraid. Allegra had assured her team that the town was discreet, and that most of its population did not understand social media, let alone partake in it. That service wasn’t great. That town gossip was considered as ubiquitous as groceries, but most residents had very little interest in communicating with the outside world.

She let herself into Brooks Books, turning on a couple of lights but making sure to check that the “Closed” sign was facing out toward the street. She moved over to the front desk, hoisting herself up onto it and opening her inbox.

There were countless emails, most of them chains that ended in Natalie saying, “Leave it with me, kid!” in her adorably harried fashion. There were people reaching out for meetings and self-tapes. There were lunch invitations.

Then she saw one, sent recently, and it stopped her breath and her heart.

[email protected]

to: [email protected]