Wish You Were Her(10)
“Oh, don’t worry about Jonah,” Simon said, edging his chair closer to Allegra. “He’s only ever all about books. He’s actually pretty great, you’ll warm to him. Now, I have a million questions about filming Court of Bystanders!” He stopped as he read the changing expression on Allegra’s face, her sudden withdrawal at the mention of her job. He changed tactics. “But you’re here for a break, so I’m going to be totally respectful of that. So, Allegra Brooks, totally average teenager in Lake Pristine, what’s your favorite book?”
* * *
As Jonah reopened the shop he tried to focus on anything other than his visceral embarrassment. He was used to saying the wrong things to the wrong people, but this was one of his worst offenses yet. It had been almost too unbearable, sitting there with everyone who had witnessed it.
Allegra, more than anyone.
At the table he had found his acute embarrassment morphing into complete rudeness. He’d found it difficult to look at her, and it didn’t help to watch Simon turn on his customer service mask. Allegra and her mother were already halfway-charmed.
He busied himself with Simon’s abandoned window display and when a familiar face tapped on the glass with a smile, he gestured for them to come inside.
“Hey, Grace.”
Grace Lancaster, his former classmate and friend from Lake Pristine High. She had recently celebrated her eighteenth birthday and had, after getting a little tipsy on her older brother’s beer, forced Jonah to do karaoke with her. He laughed fondly whenever he heard Stevie Nicks and remembered their terrible duet of “Blue Denim.” She peeked round the door with a hat over her dark curls and a denim jacket covering her dance leotard, and Jonah knew exactly why she had come.
“Is she here yet?” Grace asked. She smiled at Jonah knowingly. He knew she could read his irritation over all of the fuss.
“Who?” Jonah said, playing the fool. “The big movie star?”
“Of course the big movie star,” Grace chastised him, as she fanned herself in the shade of the bookshop. “Is she here? Is she beautiful?”
“She’s having lunch with Simon and her parents in the back,” Jonah said, moving to the computer.
“And you were made to stay here?” asked Grace, a laugh in her voice.
“No, I … I offered. She’s not my kind of book.”
It helped Jonah to think of other people as books. Sometimes they came in genres, just like novels.
The beautiful, romantic kind. The history-obsessed. The zany and particular. The pretentious and dull.
Sometimes they were recommended to you by other people. Their covers didn’t always match the contents, and the ones with plenty of praise thrown their way were often the ones Jonah had the most trouble reading. He had the disquieting sense that Allegra Brooks was the kind of book everyone raved about and adored and that fact alone made him want to avoid picking it up.
So, he wouldn’t read her. She clearly had enough people turning her pages, she didn’t need another.
He opened up the shopfloor email. He smiled in spite of himself as he noticed a reply from the anonymous pen-pal. He was on the keyboard in an instant, pouring out the frustration he was enduring after such a weird afternoon.
[email protected]
to: [email protected]
RE: New Arrival
Dear Friend,
I think I can call you that now, strange person who only wanted to know about festival dates. You have now been coerced through your own politeness into being my pen-pal. Sorry.
There’s a glamorous new arrival in Lake Pristine and I just made a complete fool of myself in front of her—
Jonah paused, his fingers hovering over the keys. He deleted the sentence and started again.
–and my colleague just made a complete fool of himself in front of her, so I’m dying of secondhand embarrassment for him. Nice to see our fearless leader so happy, though.
He didn’t want to be uncharitable to Simon, but his friend was far too enchanted by fame and it irked Jonah. Surely even Allegra could see through the boy’s flattering and toadying, even if Simon himself was oblivious to the fact that he was doing it.
Stay tuned to see how else my co-worker can make a spectacle of himself.
Kindest and fondest regards,
Bookseller
Before he could send it, Grace’s voice pierced his concentration.
“Hey, Simon.”
Jonah glanced up to see his colleague jogging into the shop, looking all lit up. He ignored Grace’s greeting. “I need the computer.”
“Why?” Jonah felt the urge to wrap himself around the old thing.
“I want to memorize her IMDb page and look at all her socials.”
“Oh, Simon,” said Jonah, looking at him with distaste. “Don’t be that guy.”
“Sorry.” Simon tried to elbow Jonah away from the computer, which prompted the latter to press “send” quickly on his email. “That’s the girl I’m going to marry.”
Grace snorted and Jonah finally relented and gave up the computer to his friend. “Do you need anything, Grace, or are you just here to stare at her?”
“I’m just here to stare at her, and don’t make it sound so sordid, this is the most exciting thing to happen here in a while.”
“This is not a zoo,” Jonah heard himself say, eyeing the pair of them with stern disapproval. “This is a person. George’s family. You can’t just hang about and gawk at her. Enough.”