No One Knows Us Here(100)

“Sam!” Wendy yelled. “Sam!” She ran ahead of me and I heard her screech. She jumped up and threw her arms around him. “I got him!” she yelled back at me.

I made my way to them, slowly, winding up the narrow walkway. I could see my breath when I exhaled into the cold night. A single snowflake floated above me and whipped behind my hair. I looked up to the sky, surprised. It hadn’t snowed since we’d arrived here. Another flake appeared. They weren’t soft, fluttery flakes but small white dots that darted through the air and scuttled across the sidewalk.

I stopped in front of both of them and tried to smile, though I was nervous. If he was still angry, I could accept that. I had already accepted that. “Hi,” I said.

He looked the same. So much like Sam that my throat closed up, like I could cry just remembering everything about him. His floppy hair. His handsome, rumpled face. Our eyes met. He wasn’t smiling, but he definitely wasn’t angry. If I had to pin down his expression, I’d say it was a bit baffled, like the guest of honor at a surprise party, right after the lights switched on and everyone shouted “Surprise!” and the confetti was still floating through the air.

Wendy announced that she had to leave. She had somewhere to be, she said. Friends to meet.

Then Sam and I were alone in the narrow street. He reached toward me, slowly, the way you might reach out to touch a ghost, not sure whether your hand was going to land on flesh or air. His fingers hesitated before settling on my cheek. “Hi,” he said.

Everything happened quickly after that, the way it did the first time. He set his instrument on the ground, and I flung my arms around his neck, and he grabbed my face in both hands and kissed me. We stumbled back against the stone wall of a shop and kissed until we ran out of breath.

“I can’t believe it’s you,” I said when we finally broke apart. What were the odds, the two of us here, so far from Portland, after everything? Maybe we would have a night together, or two. Maybe we would have a week and I could show him the sights. We could drink coffees and eat cakes and listen to music and read books tangled up in the sheets on the wide-planked floor of my little attic room with its sloped windows looking out at the spires and rooftops. He could move here—why not? It would be perfect. The perfect place for him. A city full of music.

Sam laughed. His laugh was loud and deep, and it surprised me so much I jumped a little. It surprised me because I’d never heard it before, not really. I had never heard him laugh until that moment.

We stood there under the streetlight, with the snow falling thicker and thicker around us, and I thought that no matter what happened after this—whether we said goodbye or went up to my attic room, whether he stayed an hour or stayed forever—I’d end the story right here, exactly at this moment. It would be difficult to make up an ending any better than this one.

It was almost impossible to believe that I deserved it, this happy ending.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


In 2015 I wrote a listicle for Bustle called “These Novels Should’ve Had Female Main Characters.” High on the list was Crime and Punishment. Women didn’t murder people enough in literature, I mused, and a seed was planted for No One Knows Us Here. While my book later veered off in several very different directions, I’d like to thank everyone who said this was not a completely horrible idea.

My writing group The Whom carefully combed through the entire manuscript, seven pages at a time, and their advice and support kept me going. Mara Collins, Art Edwards, Christina Struyk-Bonn, and Michael Zeiss must have read dozens of versions of this book, and each time they helped make No One Knows Us Here better. Heather Arndt Anderson, Sarah Gilbert, Justin Gauthier, Gracey Nagle, and Brian Reid also encouraged me to keep going early on, as I stumbled through that first draft—thank you!

My sister, Gina Kelley, read an early draft of the manuscript and gave me very detailed, valuable feedback that I took very seriously. I tried to incorporate all of her suggestions and hope I did them justice.

Jen Chen Tran, my agent, saw a wish list by a new editor at Lake Union, Melissa Valentine, and immediately thought of No One Knows Us Here. Without Jen and Melissa, the book would be gathering dust on the proverbial shelf right now. Thank you, Jen, for sticking with me all these years, and thank you, Melissa, for believing so strongly in the book’s potential. I’d also like to thank Danielle Marshall for filling in while Melissa was away, and Tiffany Yates Martin, whose edits forced me to dig deeper into character motivation, resulting in a much more satisfying finished product.

And finally I would like to thank my family, Andy and Audrey—my two biggest supporters and fans. I’m so happy I could do this with you by my side, cheering me on.





ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Rebecca Kelley is a fiction writer from Portland, Oregon. Her first novel, Broken Homes & Gardens, was published in 2015. She also coauthored The Eco-nomical Baby Guide with Joy Hatch. When Rebecca isn’t writing, she is conducting elaborate baking experiments, designing book covers, and keeping up her thousand-plus-day streak in Duolingo. Find her at www.rebeccakelleywrites.com.