“You should go after her.”
“I will.”
“Now.”
I found Claire in the elevator.
The doors were closing.
I reached between them.
They opened again.
She looked at me.
“You forgot your award,” I said.
“Rachel has it.”
“I needed an opening line.”
“It needs work.”
I stepped inside.
The doors closed.
No cameras.
Just mirrored walls and the two of us reflected from too many angles.
“I don’t want you to stop being my girlfriend.”
Claire looked straight ahead.
“Then eventually, you’re going to have to let me be one.”
The elevator began to climb.
I stood beside her, empty-handed.
For the first time, hiding no longer felt like a game we were playing together.
Fifteen
Ellie
My mother opened the front door before I reached it.
She looked at me.
Then at my suitcase.
Then past me toward the rental car, as though Savannah Brooks might be folded into the back seat.
“You came alone.”
“That was always the plan.”
