“I need to pace.”
I stare at her with wide eyes, unaccustomed to this side of Elle. She rarely gets this shaken up.
“You can tell me anything. You know that, right?” I say.
I’m not sure she hears me. She makes a pass in front of me once, twice, and on the third time, she turns and moves toward the boxes and grabs a box cutter. Cutting through the tape, she opens it and takes out a book, holding it to her chest. Then she leans against the front of her desk and looks at me.
I wait because it seems like she’s struggling with how to get it out and I don’t want to rush her.
“I should’ve told you about this a while ago, and I don’t know why I’m so shy to do it now. It’s just all rushing at me, what it means for this to be coming out. Know that I wanted to tell you about it from the very beginning, but…there are a couple of huge reasons I didn’t.”
She turns the book around and holds it up for me to see.
“It Was Always You…by Zoey Archer,” I say out loud.
I nod and wait. When she still doesn’t say anything, my head tilts.
“I’ve seen that book around…” My eyes narrow. “Was that the book the girls were going on about? I think I bought a copy…”
“Yes,” she whispers. She still looks shaken.
“Baby, what is it? Do you?—”
“Zoey Archer isme,” she says.
She clamps her hand over her mouth and hysterical laughter bursts out of her.
“What?” A weird laugh comes out of me too.
I stand up and take the book out of her hands, turning it over like it will tell me more.
“Archer…you wrote a book and used my name and you didn’t tell me?” My voice gets louder with each word and her eyes are huge by the time I’m finished.
“Are you mad?” she whispers.
“Am I mad? Are you serious? I’m goddamn elated!”
I hold up the book and put my hand on her waist. She worries her bottom lip with her teeth and I lean in and tug it loose with mine.
“This is your book?” I ask.
She nods.
“My God. I am so fucking proud of you. Tell me everything,” I say. I shake my head and laugh so hard. “You wrote a book and put my fucking name on it. Goddamn, Elle baby. Right under my fucking nose!” I laugh until I cry. “It Was Always You…” I laugh harder and she’s laughing just as hard.
I flip through the book and see the names Ryder and Eliza and laugh even harder.
“It was right here under my nose all along,” I say, clutching my side. “Oh my God. The audiobook I heard. Right?”
She nods.
I can’t breathe from laughing.
“Sorry. Get to talking…I’m just in shock over here.”
“So, I wrote a book…” she says nonchalantly.
That sends us wheezing for another two minutes.
