Page 26 of Wish You Were Her
@johnbacon1
Hate you and your incessant need for attention. Die.
RE: Wish You Were Here!
Dear Friend!
Today’s book isHeartburnby Nora Ephron and I’ve left it in front of the pharmacy. Why, you ask? Because they sell neckcreams. If you’re a true connoisseur, you’ll get it, which I know you will be. It’s still stunning weather. The water has never looked more beautiful and it’s still nice and quiet. Not too many out-of-towners.
Still. Wish you were here.
Yours,
Bookseller friend
Chapter Eight
Allegra and Jonah were like two embittered old rivals as they worked alongside each other in the bookshop. If Allegra made a pyramid display of certain titles, Jonah was there five seconds later to redo it in a manner he found appropriate. If Jonah was on his ten-minute break, Allegra was flying through as many sales as she physically could so that she could beat his position on the system as highest seller.
If anyone had asked why the two of them didn’t like each other, they would have snapped. Allegra resented his lack of apology for their first meeting and Jonah was frustrated by how easy everything seemed for the young screen goddess. Their resentment had bubbled over into their working relationship and the bookshop had become a battleground for a cold war that was ever heating up. The two would occasionally blame the boiling sun over Lake Pristine for their testiness, but no one believed them.
A customer was examining a book over by Allegra’s new romance table when Jonah approached.
“I can find you a better edition of that novel,” he told the woman who was browsing. “You’ll have to forgive my colleague. She put out the copies with the film tie-in cover, not the classic jacket. Quite tacky. I’ll find you a better option.”
The customer looked up at him in surprise but Allegra had already flown across the room from the cash desk.
“And what of it?” she demanded of Jonah, as the would-be buyer stood in between the two glowering booksellers. “It’s the same story, the same text, under that cover, Jonah. So, what of it? Maybe she likes the movie.”
“I do like the film,” the customer said quietly. “It’s what made me want to read the book.”
Allegra gave her a warm, dazzling smile while Jonah made a noise of disgust. “And that’s exactly what’s wrong with consumerism right now. People only feel inclined to dip into the classics because they like some actor who was in the adaptation.”
“That’s not—” the woman tried to defend herself, but Allegra was already there.
“You are an outrageous snob, do you know that? Now, I never knew Jane Austen—”
“Obviously, Allegra.”
“—but I bet she would havelovedfor her novels to live on through moving pictures. The Brontës, too. So, there’s no point getting all high and mighty about defending their art from wicked adaptations, because there’s nothing wrong with bringing great stories to wider audiences.”
“Austen, maybe,” snapped Jonah. “But not the Brontës. Oh, no, they were radical to the bone; they would have hated movie tie-in covers.”
“Sentences I never thought I would have to listen to for one hundred—”
“I might just get it online,” the woman mumbled.
“No!” both Jonah and Allegra shouted at her, before turning back to each other.
“Reading is supposed to be an act of pleasure,” Allegra saidsilkily. She sidled up to Jonah until he was backed up against a bay of books. “Fun? Enjoyment? Pleasure! Do these words mean anything to you?”
She was already walking away before he could catch his breath and fire back an answer. Instead, he resorted to snatching a book from the fantasy table and held it up for the whole shop to see.
“What do you think of this tie-in cover?”
