“Well, you clever clever thing!” Cynthia trills joyfully. “It looks like we’re in business. Shelovesyou. The studio loves you. I had to sign the NDA to even get them to tell me the part but I’m looking through the script now. And boy-oh-boy, this is a big one, very very exciting for us. Now listen—let me get on the testing contract and I’ll get straight back to you with details.”
I’ve said yes to the screen test, of course. Like a seasoned gambling addict, I’ve laid all my hopes for the future on a single square, not for the first time. The least I can do is enjoy the soaring high I’m feeling right now before I inevitably lose everything on a roll of the dice. Though maybe not this time.
Bursting with happiness I tap on the missed call from Nick. I guess he’s wondering what exactly happened with Emily last night. I did mention it was odd but now after talking to Souki and in the warm midday sun the whole Emily incident seems, well, a bit silly. I open the new text from Nick.
Hey. Tried to call earlier. Just wanted an update. On our missing girl but mainly on our coffee plan. I’m going to be even more honest and say, this might be the most exciting thing that’s happened on the street opposite my office this entire week. Hell, this entire month even. Hope your meeting went well! Give me a call if you’re free. Nick
I grin at the screen, quickly tapping out a reply.
Sorry I missed your call. The Emily update is kind of a long story. The coffee update shorter. Free to talk now?
His gray dots pulse for a second then stop and suddenly my phone bursts to life, pumping out the FaceTime ringtone at full volume.
He wants to do a video call, Jesus.
My heart rate shoots up as I fumble open the visor mirror and check my reflection. It’s all still there, just as I left it, albeit slightly messier than this morning. I gingerly tap accept call and a bright patch of blue sky and the edge of Nick’s face fill my screen.
“Hi!” I call and he finally looks at the screen.
“Sorry, hey! Thought I should probably take this outside, one second,” he says, adjusting the phone angle so that I can see his full face. He smiles as our eyes meet. “Hey stranger! What’s the scoop?” I can’t tell if it’s the intrigue of our Emily sleuthing he’s enjoying so much or if he’s just genuinely pleased to see me. I remember Souki’s advice to stop obsessing over Emily and I consider avoiding the whole subject with Nick from now on, come what may. If he loses interest then that would certainly answer that question. But then I have to tell Nick something and round off the whole story—I mean, he knows Emily’s car is gone.
“Emily sent me a text last night and then she just came over to collect her stuff,” I say, keeping it light and as underwhelming as possible.
“Wait, how did she get your phone number?” he asks, brows knitting. “Did she finally go back to the casting studio and pick up your note?”
I sigh internally. Nick doesn’t know I stole Emily’s rental document and called her. And now that I think about it, I still have her rental document. I flip open the armrest beside me and it stares back at me.God, I’m a crazy person.
“What is it?” Nick asks, reading my expression from the screen.
“Right, don’t judge me but I went back to her car yesterday and found her contact information in the glove box. I rang her.”
“Great idea. And she collected her stuff?”
“Well, kind of.” I pause, unsure whether to fully lie in order to drop the whole subject or tell the truth and risk prolonging its airtime. I know I promised Souki I would drop it but surely Nick, an LA resident, would be a great litmus test in terms of whether I’ve blown this whole thing out of proportion. I tread carefully. “Right, this might sound mad, but it wasn’t Emily who collected the stuff.”
His forehead creases. “Oh, she sent someone else to collect the stuff for her?”
“No, no.” I’m not explaining this well at all. “A woman turned up saying she was Emily but it wasn’t her.” Nick looks even more confused. I try again. “Someone who looked very similar to Emily showed up pretending to be Emily. She said shewasEmily but she wasn’t.”
Nick raises both eyebrows. “Whoa. What! Okay. I wasn’t expecting that. Someone was pretending to be the girl you think disappeared!” he says, incredulous. “So what did you do? You didn’t give this woman Emily’s stuff, did you?” I go quiet. “Oh shit. You did.” He gives me an appraising look. “You didn’t even say anything to her, did you?” He bursts out laughing. “You just pretended it wasn’t happening, didn’t you? God you’re so British! Okay, so you just gave this complete stranger Emily’s things rather than cause any embarrassment?” He’s joking but that is pretty much exactly what happened.
I go to speak but stall. It’s funny how everyone is always an expert on what you should have done after the fact. I fumble for an answer. “Yeah, I did. Well, actually, I was flustered so I accidentally gave her the wrong car keys first and that’s when I knew it definitely wasn’t her because she had no idea the keys I gave her weren’t hers. It was such a weird situation that up until then I wasn’t sure, I thought I might’ve just misremembered her face. But if you’re using your car for everything, every day, rental or not, you recognize your car keys. But yeah, as I say, I got flustered and gave her Emily’s stuff.”
He shakes his head in amused disbelief. “You gave her someone else’s wallet! Even though you knew it wasn’t her—?”
“Hey!” I protest. “Give me a break. I only met Emily for ten minutes, days ago. I’m not bloody Rain Man, I don’t remember every single face I’ve ever seen. I wasn’t certain it wasn’t her until Iwascertain. And even then, she was probably just a weird friend of Emily’s or, I don’t know. She had the same accent as Emily, she looked pretty much the same. It’s not as if I handed over Emily’s stuff to three kids stacked in a trench coat! She looked really similar. And then I guess I just thought she must know her.”
“Fair enough.” He grins. “But why would she pretend to be Emily? Wouldn’t Emily have just mentioned that her friend was coming around to get her stuff?”
The conversation is not going the way I had hoped. Any chance of us dropping the Emily mystery seems to be fast disappearing. “I don’t know. Maybe she’s just flaky?”
Nick snorts a laugh. “That’s certainly one way of putting it!” he quips then takes in my stony expression. “Aren’t you even a little concerned?”
I feel my resolve wobbling because of course I am. Or at least I had been, because why would Emily’s friend pretend to remember me and then tell me that bizarre ex-boyfriend story? I try to stack up a reasonable explanation in my mind. But as far as I can see there is no reasonable explanation for any of this. Unless, of course, Souki is right and Emily’s friend was just a run-of-the-mill LA weirdo. Then a thought begins to form. “There was something else,” I add. “I kind of caught her out.” The corners of Nick’s mouth edge toward a smile as I continue. “She was pretending to be Emily so I tested her. I pretended we’d made a plan to meet up for coffee. We hadn’t actually made a plan but she said she remembered and she still wanted to meet up. She had no idea I was bluffing, she remembered us making that plan.”
He studies my face a moment before speaking. “You’re really worried about this, aren’t you?”
I guess I haven’t dropped it. And now he thinks I’m fully mad. I feel my face flush. “No, I just…” I stutter to a halt because I am worried all the valid points Souki made have now somehow melted away and I feel like I’m right back where I started. I’m definitely messed up because of George, and perhaps I am obsessing about this to distract myself, but if the woman who took Emily’s keys last night wasn’t Emily then who was she, and why was she pretending to be Emily? She could have been anyone and I gave her Emily’s things.
