I hand the girl back her phone, then turn around, making abeeline for the edge of the store block. I take a sharp ninety-degree turn. My phone rings again: Will. I don’t answer. As much as I’d love to hear his voice, the knowledge that he read that article—written by his former lover, who unknowingly eviscerated his brand-new girlfriend—ismortifyingto me.
I run to the back entrance of the store. Start knocking on the metal door. I can already feel my breath coming short. My body feels like an overripe grapefruit, the pulp inside of me withered and sour.
Camila answers. She’s dressed in Revenant clothing, her makeup perfect, her hair in big, tousled waves. The expression on her face is familiar. Down-turned mouth, jumpy eyes.
It’s the same face she made anytime she had to leave campus to take care of a crisis for one of her family members.
She grabs me by the shoulders and pulls me into the back room of the store. “You know it’s not true,” she says. “AndIknow it’s not true. You’re my best friend. That has never changed, and it’s not going to.” Her words are blunt but soft.
“Why would Margaret say we had a falling-out?”
“I don’t know.” She shakes her head. “Ineversaid anything evencloseto what she claimed in that article.” Cami shifts, dropping her hands. “I did… Ididtell her I was planning to resign this fall. I regretted it as soon as I made the decision to let her go, but, like, I’ve never been good at keeping secrets! Itkilledme. I had to tell someone.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I say. “I just need to make sure you aren’t… I didn’t drive you away, did I?”
“No.” Cami pulls me into a hug. “Listen to me, Josephine. Leaving Revenant is the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make, and all my reasons tostaywere because of how much I love you. You’re the first family member I ever got to choose. I swear to you.”
I squeeze her tight, her words skimming over me like warm sunshine. “I believe you.”
“And before you go spiraling about the whole office hating you, that’s a load of crap.”
I pull away, wincing. “Unfortunately, Cami, if someonedidhave a problem with me, I think you might be the last person they’d tell.”
She groans. “I want this reporter’s fucking receipts.”
“Let’s just—” I take a deep breath. “Focus on the store opening first.”
Footsteps head in our direction. We both turn to see Pam, the new director. She shoots me a look I can’t parse. “It’s 11:02, and people are bailing on the line.”
“Let them in,” I say. Music is already playing throughout the front half of the store. The refreshments and macarons we got for opening day are probably staged by now.
Pam nods, turning back around. I make to follow her, but Cami grabs my elbow. “Maybe you shouldn’t,” she says. “Be here.”
I shoot her a confused look. “Won’t it look bad if I’m not? We should be together in public right now, shouldn’t we?”
“It’s just that Iknowthe internet,” Cami says. “Better than you do these days, and I think everyone’s going to find it performative if we act like best friends today. It might be better to just operate like we’re above it all, at least for one day. In the meantime, I can work on a statement that specifies what that article got wrong. I mean, I wasn’t even asked for acomment.” She shakes her head. “That’s some shitty journalism.”
“The reporter reached out to me five or six times over the last few years,” I admit. “I ignored her.”
Camila frowns. “Just because you didn’t respond to a member of the press doesn’t mean you deserved this, Josie.”
It’s like she can read my mind. She knows me that well, knows I’m already internalizing my responsibility.If I had just responded to Nora Lindberg. If I hadn’t ever engaged with the Carlisle Group to begin with. If I’d worked harder. If I hadn’t been so distracted.
If I had never loved Will Grant.
“Go,” I say. “I’ll drive back to the office.”
Camila pulls me in for one more hug. “Don’t let strangers tell you who you are.” She walks back toward the storefront. “I’ll bring you a macaron.”
“Pistachio,” I specify, aiming for lighthearted.
“You got it.”
As I’m turning back for the exit, my phone lights up again.
Derrick.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
