Page 91 of Wish You Were Her

“What do you mean?”

“She doesn’t know how I feel. We never got to even talk about it. Her team put her in a car and took her away from me. Her dad wants me dead, her publicist, too, I reckon.”

“Her dad? George. You mean George. Since when is he anything but George to you?”

“Sure. George who just fired me.”

He took another drink as Grace stared at him in complete disbelief. “Are you kidding?”

“Nope.”

“Why?!”

“Fighting Simon. Almost having Allegra. Some other stuff he won’t tell me about.”

“He’s been weird with you all summer.”

“Agreed.”

“But I never thought he would…”

“Well, he did.”

They sat in silence and Jonah realized how restless and angry he was. Restless with Lake Pristine and its confines, angry with George for giving him a reason to leave. “I have to get out of Lake Pristine.”

“Jonah,” Grace said sternly. “Just drink your drink, okay? Feel sad, feel whatever you’re feeling, but don’t make any rash decisions.”

“It’s not rash, it’s overdue.”

“What’s overdue?”

“Leaving! Getting out. There isn’t anything for me here that’s worth staying for. Nothing that won’t be here when I come back to visit, that is.”

Grace, who he knew was also planning to leave, asked, “What will you do?”

He had barely got that far in his mind. Or perhaps he had always known, so he had never needed to think about it. “I want to write. So, I’ll write. I’ll sell books in the meantime, on the street with a wooden box if I have to. Earn pennies while I write and then earn possibly even less. It’s better than having a boss.”

“It’s normal to have a boss.”

“I’ve had one for years now, it’s overrated. And Allegra? Stuck at the whim of those studio bosses? No. I’ll make my own work, and then me and Allegra—”

He stopped speaking as Grace made a noise of surprise and pointed to the flatscreen above their heads. He glanced up and swore.

Allegra was onThe Late Show with Ellis Beckton. Ellis was sitting behind his large, mahogany desk on the right side of the screen. He had black hair with dignified streaks of silver and a suit that probably cost more than what Jonah used to earn in a year. The interview had clearly just begun, as Allegra settled herself into the guest chair on the left side of the screen.

She looked otherworldly. She wore a floor-length dress of lamé fabric in the Grecian style. It looked like molten gold, hugging her and shaping her. Modest but stunning. Her hair glinted in the bright studio lights and she smiled at Ellis Beckton as if they were old friends.

“Turn it up,” Jonah said, to no one in particular, before jumping up to adjust the volume himself.

“… back again, friend of the show, so it’s lovely to see you,” Ellis Beckton said, in his tone that was always brash and playing to the back row. “So! Allegra! How’s your summer been? Do anything interesting? Or anyone?”

Jonah frowned as the studio audience laughed uproariously at this pointed remark. “That’s not funny.”

“Shh,” Grace said.

Allegra merely smiled, in a way that completely beguiled her host. “I had a very relaxing summer, Ellis. How about you, how’s everything been here in the EBC building? I hear they don’t let you leave.”

The audience laughed and Ellis joined in. He cast a quick look into the crowd and then quipped, “Yep, I’m just stored in the back with a caffeinated IV.”