Wish You Were Her(72)

“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 on The 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.”

“And then they wheel you out every night at ten-thirty?”

“Wheel me out?! Wait, why are you clapping, don’t turn on me!”

The audience roared as Ellis cartoonishly chastised them and Allegra smiled in victory. It was extraordinary. She had quickly moved the conversation away from the elephant in the room. Her long legs, her sparkling Jimmy Choos and her knowing smile—it was still Allegra, but it was like Allegra with an extra gear. She was a supernova.

“She’s … so good at this,” Grace remarked, her voice almost inaudible. They both stared up at the screen in amazement.

“So, you’ve got a new movie coming out in a couple of weeks,” the late-night host said, continuing with the interview after the audience quietened. “It’s called Maybe in Waiting and it’s—well, you tell them what it’s about.”

“Sure,” Allegra glowed as she crossed one leg over the other. “So, it’s directed by Diego Charlotte—”

“Who just won the Academy Award for Best Director.”

“Yes, sure did—”

“For Time in Tinseltown—”

“—for Time in Tinseltown, yes. Anyway, so yeah, he’s directing and it’s about this cafe in Paris and like a lot of his work, his incredible work, it’s very old Hollywood. And it’s about this guy, played by the amazing—”

“Auden Bishop.”

“Yes, he’s unbelievable. He plays this guy stuck in this Parisian cafe while it’s raining and me, and the rest of the ensemble cast, are the, sort of, colorful characters he meets as they all wait for the downpour to stop.”

“Sounds great, here’s a clip!”

As the show started playing a scene from Maybe in Waiting, Grace turned to Jonah. “This is the one she’s taking us to. The premiere.”

Jonah swallowed, as he watched this apparently amazing male actor and Allegra as they moved about the screen in the clip from their film. “If she still wants us to go.”

“She will, Jonah, she’s not mad at you. She just had to get out of this town.”

“I’m just,” Jonah stared up at her face, the face he had held in his hands, the face that had haunted him for weeks. “I’ve never been good at knowing what to do or say in social situations, let alone unusual situations…”