Page 45 of Claim to Fame

“We’ll take two bowls,” he said.

The woman tapped their order into the register. “Anything else?”

Ethan looked to Hannah expectantly. Her eyes had fixed on a plate of magic bars in the pastry case, the curls of coconut on top seeming to beckon her closer. She scanned the offerings, assessing the lemon squares and shortbread cookies the way her therapist had taught her to. She could have any of them—all of them, really, if she wanted to. The point was to make an intentional choice, a decision about what she wanted, not what her off-kilter sense of stability was whispering for her to have.

Did she want anything else?

“Hannah?” Ethan asked.

“I’ll take a magic bar,” she said, an unexpected burst of pride blooming in her chest and making her stand up straighter.

“Make that two,” Ethan said, oblivious to the years of mental gymnastics that had gone into Hannah’s ability to place that simple order.

“That’ll be right up,” the woman said, handing Ethan a small plastic zebra figurine.

“What’s that for?” Hannah asked as he led her to the outdoor seating area.

He held up the zebra. “It’s their own way of signaling to the servers which table is which. Some restaurants use numbers. This place uses plastic zoo animals.”

Hannah shook her head. “And they say city people are weird. Small towns are wild.”

Ethan barked out a laugh and took her hand again, guiding her to a black metal dining set at the edge of the covered patio, away from the couple with the three dogs at their feet. Once they were seated, the zebra prominently placed in the center of the table next to the bottles of ketchup and malt vinegar, Ethan asked, “Have you always lived in a city?”

“For the most part. I grew up in Philadelphia, but I couldn’t wait to move to New York.”

He scrunched up his nose. “Why?”

“I always wanted to be involved with making live theatre, so I’m sure that was part of it. There are only so many cities where a girl can make a living in live theater.”

“There’s live theater all over. We have a few professional companies across the state.”

“But there’s only one Broadway,” she countered.

He seemed to consider this for a moment. “Was it just about Broadway?”

Hannah shrugged. “Mostly. I mean, there is something magical about being able to order take out at any hour of the day or night, and there’s always something to do. You never have to be bored.”

“Being bored can be a good thing sometimes. How else do you hear yourself think?”

Hannah adjusted the placement of the zebra, moving it slightly closer to the malt vinegar, as she considered this. “I guess you don’t,” she said at last. “That might have been part of the appeal.”

He looked like he wanted to ask more, and she knew she would tell him. Anything he asked. He’d laid himself bare to her in the museum and she was surprised to find she was ready to do the same. Eager, even, to have him understand this part of her, the part so few people knew.

“Oh my God! Are you her?”

Hannah whipped around to find the source of the high-pitched voice. Ethan was already on his feet, moving between Hannah and the dark-haired young woman, her phone held out in front of her.

“You are, aren’t you?” she continued. “Jackson Hayes’ ex-girlfriend!”

“She has a name,” Ethan growled.

“Ethan! Why didn’t you tell me you knew Jackson Hayes’ ex-girlfriend?”

Hannah winced at the rapid-fire electronic shutter sound of the woman’s phone and turned away, hoping she would get the hint and leave her alone. Why had she allowed herself to get so comfortable that she forgot someone here might recognize her? She’d been so preoccupied with escaping the paparazzi, she hadn’t paused to consider there might be other people—regular, everyday people who consumed celebrity gossip like candy—who would want to catch her off guard and take her picture.

“Tisha,” Ethan said with the kind of calm that contradicted the tense set of his jaw and the stiffness in his shoulders, “we’re having a low-key lunch, yeah?”

“Totally,” Tisha said to Ethan over the sound of a few more photos being taken. “I can’t believe we have a real-life celebrity in Aster Bay. Cool shit like this never happens here.”

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