CHAPTER 24
For the first time ever, I doubted Nellie’s strategizing. She normally was a pro at it—thinking ten steps ahead, analyzing the moves and countermoves of every choice she made. That was why, in most instances, she could always execute her plans flawlessly. She might’ve given up on her life goal of being perfect, but her analyzing skills were close.
Which was why I was concerned.
“This seems like a really, really bad idea,” I told her on the way to Alderton-Du Ponte, sitting in the backseat of Beck’s convertible that wasn’t a convertible. “Almost as bad of an idea as keeping the top up.”
“And ruin your hair?” Nellie turned to look at me over the middle console. Her necklace glinted in the low sunlight, her dark hair spilling in ringlet curls over her shoulder. “As if.”
She’d come to my house three hours ago to “get ready,” but she’d shown up with her hair styled and her makeupdone, and her sights had been set fully on me. She even brought a curling iron, but it’d been Mom who offered to curl my hair while Nellie did my makeup.
“Y’all are acting like I’m going to prom,” I’d muttered as Nellie settled on a chair in front of me, makeup brush ready.
Nellie had given my knee a squeeze. “Nah, just making you extra pretty for one last hurrah.”
One last hurrah, indeed. Jamie, he’d decided, would drive separately. Or so Nellie had said.
Beck held Nellie’s hand now, fingers curled firmly around hers. “A different time with the top down,” he promised me, eyes flicking up to mine in the rearview mirror. “As much as I’d love to see Nellie’s hair a mess again, it’s too beautiful now to screw up.”
“Thanks,” Nellie replied with a little eye roll, and Beck lifted their hands to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.
“Tell me again,” I said to Nellie. “Whyis it a good idea to stage our fake breakup at Alderton-Du Ponte’s fundraiser?”
“Alderton-Du Ponte is hosting its annual fundraiser for Rhythms of Hope tonight. Which means practically every member will turn out for it. Which also means word will spread that you and Jamie are breaking up in the library, and boom—clean break, everyone will see, fake relationship over.”
“And getting the attention of everyone is a good thing,how?”
Nellie turned to look at me again. “So that if Daltonever tries to pull a ‘oh, they were faking it the whole time,’ everyone would’ve witnessed the real breakup. If you two broke up in secret, there’s more room for people to wonder if it was ever real in the first place.”
That made sense. Kind of. But the idea of staging a public breakup made my skin crawl. “What are we breaking up over?”
“You’ll say you’re just better off as friends. That there isn’t a spark—it’s just friendship you two feel.” Nellie sounded so confident. “It’s neutral, anticlimactic, and realistic. It’ll work.”
“I forgot how intense the people around here are,” Beck muttered, giving his head a shake. His eyes found mine again. “But I believe in you, Daisy. And I’ll jump in as comic relief if things get too awkward.”
Despite everything, I smiled. “Our hero.”
Beck winked.
We arrived at Alderton-Du Ponte quickly, and Beck pulled into the valet lane to let us climb out first. Instead of letting one of the valet workers park the car, Beck drove off toward the self-parking lot.
Nellie looped her arm through mine. She’d forced me into another pair of heels, which brought me up taller against her side. “Or, you know,” she began in a hushed voice. “You could just confess to Jamie and call this whole breakup thing off.”
I glanced around, making sure no one was in earshot. “Eleanor.”
“Sorry. I know.” She mimed zipping her lips shut, scrunching her nose. “Lips are sealed.”
I clung to Nellie a bit more than I should’ve, resisting the urge to dig my heels in and turn around. I could do this. For Jamie’s sake, I needed to.
The Rhythms of Hope fundraiser was one of the most important events Alderton-Du Ponte held every year, and the Rhythms of Hope charity sent its biggest figureheads to the event. ADP raised money in honor of buying out the charity two years ago. It was all very performative, if you asked me. But Nellie was right—it would make for a good backdrop for a breakup.
The ballroom was full when Nellie and I stepped through the archway. The buttery light of the giant chandelier overhead shone down on the marble flooring, making everythingbright. The glass ceilings also highlighted the sun, which had begun its slow descent. A soft jazz quartet played near a makeshift stage along the back wall, their music barely audible over the layered hum of conversation.
I looked around nervously at all the expensive suits and gowns. “When you say you’ll bring everyone to the library…” I began, trailing off.
“The adults won’t care,” Nellie assured me, patting my wrist. “But Lydia, Raelynn, the other kids our age? I’ll make sure they’re there.”
Raelynn would cheer at our breakup, no doubt. Dalton, too, if he didn’t try to announce to everyone it was fake anyway.
