Chapter 25
Lily felt lighter as she put her shoes back on at the airport on the other side of security. No longer on the fringes of luxury or the movie business, she was back to being herself. But so much had changed!
Now she was by herself. She felt a fresh pang of sadness when she thought of how much fun it had been when she arrived at this very airport with Nicola.
Her best friend at the time. Not anymore.
They weren’t exactly enemies, but they both knew that trust and intimacy were gone, replaced with an air of aggrieved suspicion on both sides.
The Nicola of Pippi Beach no longer even existed. She had become Wilson’s girlfriend.
Lily felt that she too was a different person now.
The whole business with Dorian kept playing over and over in her head like a bad song.
For the first time in her life, she was living with the knowledge that she had misjudged, misunderstood, and been in the wrong.
Before, she had never given too much weight to what others thought of her.
Now she felt the burden of Dorian’s contempt.
She was used to moving on from altercations, but the words she had used against him still caused her cheeks to flame.
“Cruel,” “arrogant,” “self-centered,” “entitled,” “smug,” and “offensive.” She had flung those words in his face and nothing could ever take them back.
As she lined up for boarding, Lily wondered about those traveling up front.
Business class, first class. For a lot of the people she had met in LA, that was the norm, and for the rest, it was what they wanted.
Special treatment and privilege. Lily could see why, she mused, as she entered the plane and threw a casual glance over her shoulder toward the luxurious reclining pods in business class, where the lucky few were already being served champagne and offered hot towels.
She edged into her narrow seat in the middle section, between two strangers, one of whom was already unpacking their snacks.
The other was listening to music that escaped through their enormous headphones and their hood, which was almost completely closed over their face with a little drawstring bow.
It would be a long fifteen hours wedged in between the crackling chip packets and the techno, but Lily reminded herself she was lucky to be traveling at all and settled in.
The experience of living in a mansion in Beverly Hills was not one she would ever forget, but it had not tempted her to demand, desire, or expect luxury. She had seen the downsides too.
The flight was one long, dark night and Lily was surprised at how soundly she slept.
How wonderful it was to shuffle off the plane, through the maze of passport control and baggage collection and then customs, to finally emerge on the other side, home again, and put the world’s biggest ocean between herself and Dorian and everything associated with him.
She bounded out into the arrivals hall and the first thing she saw was Juliet’s lovely face.
In her embrace, she felt truly whole again.
“Honey!” Juliet exclaimed. “You’re crying!”
“I’m just so, so inexpressibly happy to be home!” Lily gushed through her tears.
How could a happy person cry so much? Juliet would just have to take her at her word.
“So. Tell me everything,” she insisted once they were on the road. “Are you okay? Is Nicola okay?”
“I think I am and she thinks she is.” Lily had to laugh.
“Does she know what she’s doing? With Wilson, I mean?”
“Absolutely. I know it seems incomprehensible from here, but over there—where things like cars and clothes and jobs and connections really matter—I don’t know. Wilson was worth it. To her. It all felt like a big game.”
“Is that really what it’s like?”
“It’s like … living in a theme park.” Lily tried to explain. “Everything is exciting, beautiful, and fun and brightly colored and kind of magnificent.”
“But?”
“But nothing. That’s what it’s like. And Nicola likes it.”
“But did you get deeper? What’s it like beyond the surface?”
Lily laughed. “It’s all surface! Not to say it’s superficial. I mean, that facade, it goes deep. You’re just not supposed to sit with anything too much or for too long. Everything we saw was for show, everything was about the look.”
“But you saw more?”
Lily smiled, shook her head, and didn’t trust herself to answer.
Juliet drove north, destination Pippi. Now that Lily was back, Juliet would spend more time with her at the beach. Both of them gave a little squeal of delight when they glimpsed the sparkling water.
As they pulled in at the ferry wharf parking lot, a massive bang on the passenger window made them both jump.
“SURPRISE!” shouted Rosie.
“What are you doing here? It’s a Wednesday!”
Rosie tossed her head and shrugged her shoulders. Her school uniform was so short, tied up and accessorized with dangly things, that it looked like a costume for a music video.
“I wanted to welcome my big sister home! And I’m only missing math,” she said with a pout. “And while you’re here with the car, Juliet, can we pop down to the mall just quickly? Pleeeze? It won’t take long and we can show Lily the new pub on the way.”
Juliet was too kindhearted and Lily was too tired to resist Rosie’s pleas.
So they detoured to the mall and let Rosie prattle on about the backpackers, who was dating whom, and how much Lily had missed.
After the high-profile and highly secretive gossip of LA, hearing about Pippi’s lawn-mowing dramas and Rosie’s high school parties was comforting and familiar.
“I got new earrings—see? Florence made them. Theo wears them too, all the boys do, and I’m getting my thirds done with Ludo next week.”
“I got the makeup you asked for.”
“Which one? Oh God, no. Florence has it and it’s awful. Maybe I’ll find someone at school who won’t mind it—me and Florence are totally into this new Australian brand that’s really big in Paris. It’s ethical. You’ll have to come to the pub with us tomorrow and meet everybody.”
“Since when can you go to the pub?”
“Oh God, Lily, don’t be such a grandma. With makeup on, I look older than you. And if you want to make any impression at all, you’d better step up—I thought you said they bought you some new clothes? BUT, oh yes, I’m dying to tell you, your darling Alex King is totally unavailable.”
Lily drew in a breath at the mention of the name, but no one seemed to notice and she had time to compose herself as Rosie babbled on.
“He’s hooked up with the daughter of the lady who owns the backpackers’ hostel, and you should have seen her face when she found out.”
“Are you serious?”
“Deadly. He’d been staying in the daughter’s room; took the lady owner, like, weeks to finally realize he’d been hanging around the common areas and not paying for a bed. It was so funny—she turned red.”
“Did you know about this?” Lily asked Juliet.
“No.”
“Oh, it’s no big deal,” Rosie continued. “He’s staying over at Pippi now, in one of the empty places, mowing lawns, I think. Anyway, it won’t last long; they’re all going to Queensland during the holidays, so who cares.”
I do, thought Lily, but she was careful not to give that impression as Rosie would most definitely misinterpret the reason why. Lily’s interest in Alex now was nothing but forensic.
“What’s the daughter like?” she asked.
“I don’t know. She’s got a big nose.”
They finally caught the midafternoon ferry to Pippi, and Rosie talked the whole way.
Then Lydia was in a terrible mood because she’d been working all day on a cleaning job she’d only accepted because she thought Lily could do it and was personally affronted that Lily had arrived home a day later than Lydia had thought, even though it was the day written on the wall calendar all along.
Lily had to laugh. And when her bare feet touched the sand, she knew she was home and nothing else mattered.
Pippi was about as far as Lily could get from Los Angeles and she was glad of it.
She wanted to distance herself from that world as much as possible.
Lily hadn’t told anyone what had happened between her and Dorian, and the secret was burning a hole in her stomach that hurt a little bit more any time she was reminded of him.
Which, unfortunately, was a lot. Dorian’s face still glowered at her from the covers of magazines, her news feed, and posters plastered on bus stops everywhere.
As soon as the opportunity arose, she took Juliet for a long, quiet walk up to the north end of the beach and revealed the whole story: their time at the observatory, his invitation to stay with him (“No way!” said Juliet), her accusations, and his explanation.
The only thing she omitted was any reference to Casey.
In that regard, what was done was done and it wouldn’t do Juliet any good to know.
The real issue she needed help with was what to do about Alex King.
He was staying at Pippi and was very much a part of their circle; Lily would have to encounter him sooner or later. They were supposed to be friends.
“The problem is someone is lying!” Juliet said. “Alex definitely got fired from that movie—but why? Who is the villain?”
“Has to be one of them.”
“Or neither?”
“Or both?”
It was a conundrum.
“Who do you believe?” asked Juliet. “Alex or Dorian?”
“Inez,” admitted Lily with a laugh. “You know how much it pains me to say this, but I think I was wrong about Alex. I think he might be the snake.”
“But everyone really likes him!”
“He makes himself likeable.”
“So if he’s the snake …” wondered Juliet.
“Should we tell people?” finished Lily.
“Wow.” Juliet frowned and rubbed her eyes as if this was all too much for her to take in.
“Rosie’s hanging around him all the time. We could at least warn her that he has a past?”
But even as she said it, Lily knew it was impossible.
She’d been warned too, hadn’t she? By Cecilia and Dorian and even her own aunt Kitty.
Lily had only ever seen the side of Alex she wanted to see.
Warnings would do nothing to keep Rosie away from a hot guy, especially if the warnings came from Lily.
“She’ll never listen,” they said simultaneously.
Lily gave a rueful laugh.
“Anyway,” said Juliet, “we don’t know what really happened. Not for sure. And even if we did, it’s not our business.”
“You’re right,” agreed Lily. “And it’s not like Rosie’s marrying the guy. He’s with someone else.”
“Wait.” Juliet frowned. “Rosie’s not going to Queens- land with him, is she? With the whole gang?”
“She wants to but she can’t. She doesn’t have the money and there’s no way Mum will let her go.”
“Whew.”
Lily threw her head back and let out a long sigh. Relieved of (most of) her secrets and finally back home, she could forget about Dorian Khan.
“I just hope Alex stays away from me, goes to Queensland, and never comes back. I need some quiet time to think about what I’m going to do with the rest of my life,” said Lily.