Page 69 of One Happy Summer

“I’ll have Leslie watch it and make sure it’s what she wanted, and then I’ll post it on your socials,” she says.

“Thank you,” I reply, sitting on my white couch, my legs curled up under me as I hug a white (ugh) throw pillow.

I placed a massive order for new colorful things for my house and it will be here next week. I can’t wait. I’m no longer the Presley who likes things bright and white and pristine. I want colors and disorder. No, actually, I don’t want that. I’ll keep bright and pristine but get rid of most of the white.

“There’s also the matter of the pictures on the island,” Kara says, tapping the end of a pen to her chin.

“What about them?”

“They’re getting a lot of buzz. I think people like seeing you with someone who’s not in the business.”

“Oh,” I say, not really wanting to talk about this.

“It could be a good spin. Would the man you were seen with—what was his name?”

“Briggs,” I say. I don’t think I’ve said his name out loud since I got home, and it makes my heart speed up and my stomach drop at the same time. Briggs Ebenezer Dalton. I was prepared to use that name next, but never got the chance. And now I guess I’ll never know. It would be weird to text him out of the blue and ask him, right? He did say he would tell me before I left, but I’m sure that was the last thing on his mind when we said goodbye.

“Yes, Briggs,” Kara says. “Do you think he’d be willing to take some better pictures with you? The ones posted were pretty grainy. Leslie thinks it will help things after the backlash from the apology once it’s posted.”

Ah, yes, it’s a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t type of thing. As soon as my apology goes up on social media, there will be an initial round ofwe don’t accept your apologyonline, with stitches on TikTok of people breaking down my words. But then that will settle and hopefully we can all move on.

“No,” I say, answering her question. That won’t happen. Because I won’t subject him to that, and also because the world doesn’t deserve him. And more importantly, Briggs doesn’t deserve to be some kind of publicity pawn. Even if things had worked out with him and we were trying to figure it out and see where things might go with us, I wouldn’t put him through that.Although, knowing Briggs, he’d do it for me—or at least he would have, before I accused his family of betraying me.

Good hell. I will never get over him if I keep reminding myself how amazing he is. Not that I’m actually trying to get over him. I think it will take a long time to do that, and also, I don’t want to. I don’t want to get over him.

“That’s not going to happen,” I say to Kara, and she gives me one single nod. “Any other ideas?”

She taps the pen again, but this time on the pad of paper in front of her. I kind of love that Kara still uses pen and paper and isn’t looking down at her phone, typing it into the Notes app like the rest of us.

“I guess we could have you seen with Declan again,” Kara says.

I close my eyes and bury my face into the stupid white pillow I’ve been holding in my lap. I look back up at her. “You know he’s dating my mom, right?”

She keeps her eyes on the pad of paper in front of her. “I’d heard.”

I let out a breath. “I guess if you think it’ll take any attention from Briggs, then fine.”

I want to laugh, or cry, or both. Didn’t I just tell Briggs the other night on the beach that I wanted to do things differently this time? Didn’t I say I wasn’t going to play all the games, that I wanted to be real? And here I am, doing planned apologies andscheduling appearances with Declan. Why can’t this job be just about the acting and nothing else? It’s so frustrating.

Kara jots something down, her pen scratching along the paper as she writes. “The apology video should do most of that, but a couple of sightings with Declan would probably seal the deal. I’ll get that set up.”

“Great,” I say, the word coming out resigned. I am feeling resigned right now. To a life I both love and hate simultaneously.

Kara leaves after making me put a few other obligations in the phone calendar that I share with Shani, and I’m left alone in my starkly white living room.

Mindlessly, I turn on the television and flick through the channels until I stop on one showingNotting Hill, just at the beginning when Julia Roberts’s character, Anna Scott, first walks into the travel bookshop.

Because I like to punish myself, to kick myself when I’m down, I watch the whole thing while I cry.

Briggs

The Fourth of Julyis a big celebration on Sunset Harbor. It’s an all-day event. First there’s the pancake breakfast, and then the parade, then everyone plays games on the beach, and then at night there’s music and dancing with a live band, and once the sun has gone down, there are fireworks, of course. You can’t celebrate the holiday without those.

I’ve missed most of the day, choosing to work at the bookshop so my mom and Scout can enjoy the festivities. We tend to be fairly busy on this holiday, since we get a lot of tourists on the island for the celebration. But things are slowing down at the shop now that the bonfires and dancing are about to start. So, I’ll close up the shop and go to some of the evening activities.

Maybe. I’m not really feeling it. I promised Scout I’d go for at least the dance part, but honestly, I’d like to hole up in my apartment and feel sorry for myself like I have been for the last six days sincePresley left.

It’s not a glamorous life, but it’s mine.

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