The Friends We Keep(84)

His hand was shaking as he opened up the gossip sites he had always loved, and there it was, his name the top story on all of them. He started to read, his heart pounding, feeling nauseated as “sources” were quoted saying how shocked they were, that he wasn’t the person they thought they knew.

He felt himself flush as he mentally scrolled through who might have said that, jumping from website to website, all of them proclaiming him a fraud. The more he read, the worse he felt. It was too early to call his agent, but what would his agent say? There was nothing anyone could say to make it better, for it was true, he had plagiarized, and even though it was inadvertent, he couldn’t deny what was being said.

After a while, he couldn’t take it anymore. He turned his phone off and lay on the sofa, closing his eyes and doing his best to sleep.

When he woke up, he felt as if he hadn’t slept at all, but his phone said differently. For a second, he wondered where he was, and then he remembered both where he was and why he was there. The room was piled high with boxes, Evvie having already packed most of her things, and because he was not going back to sleep, and because he needed anything to distract himself, he walked over to a box labeled Photographs, picking one up from the top of the box and turning it over, squinting as he looked.

It was Evvie, looking gorgeous, from the height of her modeling days. Her hair was a thick straight mane, her makeup lifted directly from the sixties as she balanced on a chair in a multicolored caftan-like beaded dress that undoubtedly cost thousands of dollars.

He smiled as he looked at how beautiful she was; still is. She had gained weight, but they were all in their fifty-first year; wasn’t that what they were supposed to do? He didn’t see the weight when he looked at Evvie; she looked the same to him. They all did, as if their eyes didn’t age along with their bodies. To him they each looked just as they did at eighteen.

He put the photo back in the box and had just picked up another when Evvie walked in, bleary-eyed as she yawned and smiled before seeing Topher standing with the photograph. She rushed over.

“Don’t look at those,” she said loudly. She seemed to catch herself, then said more calmly, “We’re not going to revisit the past today. Come on.” She strode over to him, took the photograph out of his hand, and put it back in the box before leading him to the kitchenette with a smile.

“Coffee. We both need coffee. We probably need something stronger. How are you feeling this morning?”

“Terrible.”

“You went online, didn’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“Because I know you. Was it bad?”

“Yes. Terrible. I want to disappear.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “I mean, it’s not okay, and I totally understand how you feel, but even in this day and age, it will blow over. I can’t say today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrappers, not anymore, but another story will break any second now, and this will be forgotten. Do you want a bloody Mary instead of a coffee? We can go across the street to Parker for breakfast if it’s not a crazy idea?”

Ten minutes later they were settled at a window table, two bloody Marys in front of them.

“It’s five o’clock somewhere. Cheers!” Topher chinked glasses with Evvie. “That’s better. Thank you for stealing my phone. I hate you for it, but I’m also grateful. When in pain, bury your head in the sand.”

“I agree.”

“Can I go through those photographs when we get back? You must have a bunch of us from college.”

Evvie blanched. “No,” she said, a little too sharply. “I’ve organized them all and I don’t want to pack and unpack.”

“Okay. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“I’m fine.”

“You seem a little on edge.” He peered at her. “Are you hiding something in that box? Are there porno pics or something in there?”

Evvie seemed to relax as she let out a genuine bark of laughter. “Oh, Topher. No, there aren’t porn photos in there. Life may have been hard at times, but it was never that hard.”

“Okay, good. It just felt like there was something you didn’t want me to see.”

“Oh my God, no! Well, actually, there are some pretty heinous pictures of me in that box. All fully clothed, I might add, but some of them are dreadful.”

“Honey, I’ve lived with you. I’ve seen you first thing in the morning, horribly hungover, and with chicken pox. Remember when you got chicken pox?”

“How could I forget? Look. I still have a scar.” She leaned forward and showed him a tiny round scar above her eyebrow. “Makeup artists spent years covering it up. I love that I don’t have to do that anymore. Especially now, with our fresh start in England.”

“England.” Topher closed his eyes for a second. “Never have I been more relieved to be leaving this country. Thank you, Evvie.” Topher took her hand and squeezed it. “I have no idea what I would be doing if you hadn’t rescued me.”

“You’d be a prisoner in your apartment,” she said. “And spending much too much time on your phone. With any luck, we might be able to get a flight out to England tomorrow. But what do we do about your things?”

“I can get Dickie to send them on. Frankly, the thought of setting foot in the city right now makes me sick with fear.”