Page 80 of Wish You Were Her
“Is this about Simon?” Allegra asked, glancing at her silent father. “He kissed me. I didn’t want it, so I left.”
“Okay, hon,” Natalie said, trying to sound soothing. “Well, some amateur pap got a photo of it.”
“Okay,” said Allegra, feeling her body starting to relax. “But, that’s okay. It’ll blow over. Or we explain. I didn’t want it.”
“Well. Then there were follow-up amateur shots of you and,” Natalie suddenly looked to Jonah, “that young man.”
“Jonah,” Allegra said. Her voice sounded different in her ears. “His name is Jonah.”
Natalie sighed. “Well. Honey…”
Allegra watched her publicist fall silent. She watched as the agency assistant looked down at her lap. She watched her father’s face, filled with rage, as he wouldn’t meet her eyes. “What? What is it? What’s happening?”
Natalie looked like she wanted to cry, and that scared Allegra more than anything. “Someone… somescumbag…got shots of you and Jonah tonight.”
Allegra shook her head, feeling slow. “On the street? We were being mobbed.”
“No, sweetheart,” Natalie said. She sounded maternal. Sad. “In the house by the lake.”
Allegra’s whole world stopped. “What?”
“Some parasite with a long lens, maybe,” Natalie said.
“Fuck,” Jonah said softly. “Allegra. It wasn’t a deer.”
Allegra squeezed his hand. “Natalie. Do you—you have the pictures? They’re up already?”
“Yes,” Natalie said. She pulled up the first one. It was Simon and Allegra, the unwanted kiss caught by a bystander. It was obvious, even to a person who had no context, that she did not return his attentions. In the picture, her arms were crossed and she was leaning as far away from him as possible.
“This one went up much earlier tonight. Someone on social media, as I said. It didn’t worry me so much,” Natalie said, as if they were discussing rehearsed answers for a television appearance and not captured moments of Allegra’s actual life. “But these ones…”
She shared three professionally taken images and they made Allegra’s knees give out. She released a noise of distress as she stared at the screen. She could feel Jonah’s arms around her, trying to help her stand but she couldn’t move, rendered immobile by the images she was looking at and the knowledge of what they would do to her reputation now that they were public.
The pictures had been taken by someone lurking on the beach by Lake Pristine. The den of the house was an almost transparent room, so it was like she and Jonah were in a goldfishbowl. The first image was him standing behind her, his face buried in her neck with his hands brushing the top of her underwear. Allegra’s front was facing out toward the lake and, unbeknownst to her, the photographer. It was impossible for someone to believe the images showed a platonic pair.
The second image was Allegra with her back against the long glass window, legs wrapped around Jonah while they kissed passionately.
The third was the two of them kissing. It was, perhaps, the tamer of the three images and yet it was strikingly intimate. He was holding her head in his hands and her arms were draped over his shoulders, their bodies fused together.
A beautiful moment, tarnished. Turned to ash.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Allegra breathed.
“So, by the by, the editor had Simon confirm his identity from the first photograph and he was only too happy to identify Jonah as well. Once they established everyone was over eighteen, they published,” Natalie reported, rubbing her eyes and taking a quick sip of something that did not look like coffee or tea.
“I’ll kill him,” Allegra heard Jonah say quietly.
“Okay, look,” Natalie spoke, sounding so weary. “If you were my client, Jonah, this would be the easiest fix in the world. In fact, it wouldn’t need fixing. The world would throw you a parade. But, Allegra, we need to get detoxing. The anti-sex crowd will want your contracts dropped. So, we need—”
“Wait a second,” Jonah said, and he sounded far away to Allegra’s ears even though his arms were still around her. “Why is everyone acting like Allegra’s done something wrong? We’ve done nothing wrong. Don’t talk to her like she’s been caught drink-driving or hurting an animal—she’s got nothing to apologize for!”
“Logically, of course that’s true,” Natalie said, exhaling heavily. “Give me some credit, I’m not a schoolmarm! Most people aren’t. Most people are going to be completely indifferent or neutral to these pictures. That’s what any normal person would feel. But the people who hate women being happy or sexual or visibly enlightened are going to beloud, Jonah. They’re going to come after her. In bad faith! We have to get our skates on now.”
“You shouldn’t even be here,” George said quietly.
Allegra and Jonah looked at him.
“What?” Jonah said.
