Page 12 of Wish You Were Her
“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.
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 beencoerced 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 aperson. George’s family. You can’t just hang about and gawk at her. Enough.”
