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“For starters, you should know that while I did ask the hot lawyer to kiss me on TikTok, he turned me down.”
“That’s because your request probably scared the shit out of Sam Rafferty. He’s such a nerd, actually, as hot as he is. I love his girlfriend, Robin. You know she’s a teacher at East High?”
“Really?” Wil narrowed her eyes. She might have a reason to use Sam’s number for something other than kissing after all. Now that she and Katie’s investigation finally had some legs under it.
Wil told Beanie what had happened at the meeting. It was easier than she’d expected, since she’d already talked to Katie. She even included some of her feelings about what had happened, again, because Katie had invited her to articulate them.
Wil had never thought of herself as someone who avoided her feelings, but Katie’s relationship to feelings was different. Even in high school, Katie was someone who experienced the world with her feelings all out in front of her. Her years away honing her craft in Los Angeles had only made her more this way.
It was part of what had made it hard for Wil to watch Katie hold herself so firmly in check on the stage in Chicago when the press started asking questions about Ben.
There was a directness and enthusiasm to the way Katie asked for what she wanted that got inside Wil in a way she had neverexperienced with anyone. It was almost scary the way Katie made Wil’s feelings so much bigger, made Wil’s body so needy and demanding. Even now, if she closed her eyes, she’d be able to feel the ache in her hands from wanting to grab Katie, the hot place on her thigh where Katie had pressed against her, the rasp in her throat from the way she’d had to breathe to hear every single sound Katie made when she came.
Katie’s feelings got in the way of her writing, to some degree, but she’d done good work today with Wil’s assignments. Incredibly well, actually. Katie could write. She had vision. She’d won an Emmy for her directing, and what she’d said onstage in Chicago made it clear that this work was a serious passion.
So where was the insecurity coming from? Why wasn’t she creaking under the weight of offers and opportunities?
Wil knew what had been holdingherback, but she wasn’t sure about what was holding back Katie. It was a problem that interested her. It was even more interesting that Katie hadn’t told Wil herself.
Wil wasn’t sure how to make herself safe enough to be a confidante, a genuine friend, for someone like Katie. But she wanted to.
Beanie listened, eating, drinking her wine. When Wil was done, Beanie put the plate on the coffee table between them and gave Wil a long, considering look.
“Oh, no,” Wil said.
“You must know that you were going to come right up against this, baby girl.”
“I did not know. I work hard onnotknowing things.”
Beanie sighed. “Honest to God, you are like Jasper Greene 2.0.”
“But I look exactly like you.”
“You look like me, but your insides are all Jasper. It’s infuriating for me, I don’t mind telling you.” This bit from her mom about Wil being identical to Jasper was an old one, wrapped up inboth of their missing the bigger-than-life man. Beanie delivered it in her teasing voice, which was a voice she used when she was only 50 percent teasing. The other 50 percent was the dangerous part.
Sometimes, it was grief. Tonight, clearly, it was frustration. Wil had given her mother a lot of reasons to be frustrated with her.
She hoped Beanie and Diana weren’t talkingtoomuch about what Wil and Katie had been up to.
“You’d think it would be comforting.” Wil smiled.
“I would never say that my marriage to your father was comforting. Exciting, interesting, fun, loving, hot—”
“Nope,” Wil interrupted.
“You can make out with strangers on the internet, but I can’t tell you I had a satisfying marriage with your dad?”
“You cannot.”
Beanie laughed. “The point, obviously, is that you were born to be a lawyer, and this destiny doesn’t seem to care if you’re ready for it or not. It’s gotten bored with your—I will give you this, incredibly creative and elaborate—avoidance tactics and is now actively hunting you down.”
“You’re a mother. You could be more fluffy and tender and nurturing about this.”
Beanie threw her hands up in the air. “Wilifred! Oh my God! What the fuck do you call the last eight years? I have done so much fluffy, nurturing tenderness! I follow your weird makeout account, and twice a week Idon’tlook at it while I put a heart on it! I buy you boring work sweaters! I am done. I have stood by long enough. Too long. If it takes running into Katie Price again to get you to go to that meeting, then I am Team Katie.”
“Wait, was this your plan?” Wil asked. “Did you take me to that talk in Chicago so I would get back in touch with Katie and be inspired?”
“Wow. No. I am not orchestrating your life at that level, I’m just doing regular yelling at you.”