“I think…,” I started. There was a pen lying on a side table, and I picked it up and pulled the piece of paper with the Gansevoort’s address out of my pocket. I closed my eyes and tried to remember, not caring for the moment if the movie star and her fiancé thought I was being weird.
I tried to pull it up—the woman’s voice, its low timbre… what exactly had she said? Elephant, I wrote, starting with what I was sure about. Pilgrim. 113. Alaska? Daedalus??
I turned to look at Amy and Lucien, who both had slightly frozen, concerned looks on their faces. “I think I got one of those invites.” I held out the paper to them, then immediately felt embarrassed about my scrawly handwriting. They were probably used to getting fancy invitations on beautiful stationery.
“You did?” Amy asked, sounding surprised.
“I answered the wrong pay phone,” I said, and she laughed.
“What is this?” Lucien asked, frowning at the paper. “Elephant—is this at the zoo?”
“No, it’s Dumbo,” Amy said.
“Then what’s Pilgrim?” I asked, bending over to look at it too.
Amy snapped her fingers. “Plymouth Street,” she said. “Has to be. And Alaska… maybe it means Anchorage Place? I’m pretty sure it intersects with Plymouth. And 113 must be the address.”
“You’re welcome to use it.” The second I offered this, I very much hoped that this was actually a party, and not like a front for black-market organ harvesters, or anything.
Amy shook her head and pulled out her phone. The case was a picture of two dogs squinting in the sun, one little, one massive. “I’ll take a picture of it,” she said, snapping one, and then handing the paper back to me. “In case you want to go too.”
“Wait,” Lucien said, looking alarmed. “We’re just… going to Brooklyn? Just like that?”
“You were the one who wanted to go,” Amy reminded him with a laugh. “I trust Kat. It’ll be an adventure.”
I tried not to smile as wide as I was feeling when Amy said that, but I don’t think I pulled it off, and she gave me a tiny wink.
“Can we get something to eat, though, first?” Lucien asked, slinging his arm around her.
“Okay, we’ll get food.” Amy laughed and turned to me, just as her phone rang, her ringtone an old Elvis song. Her face lit up as she looked at it. She held the phone up to Lucien, who nodded. “I have to take this,” she said to me with a smile. “But it was so nice to meet you, Kat.” She turned and walked farther away, then answered the call by shrieking joyfully into the phone. “Agh! Hi hi hi! We finally get to talk! I miss you!”
Lucien smiled at me, shaking his head. “Her best friend,” he explained. “They’re usually on the phone for two hours minimum. So I don’t think I’m getting any food.” He suddenly brightened. “Do you think you can get room service delivered even if you don’t have a room?”
I shrugged. I was still watching Amy, who looked lit up from the inside, smiling and then letting out a guffaw of laughter that practically had her bent double. Her best friend… all at once, I realized that I wasn’t out of options. I still had one more thing to try, one more chance to take.
“So,” Lucien said, and I tried to focus back on him. “Are you staying around here, or…?”
“No,” I said, making a decision. And one that meant that I needed to get out of here, and fast, before I was accidentally seen by my parents. “I have to go to Grand Central. I’m meeting a friend.”
CHAPTER 25
Stevie
The car pulled to a stop in front of the apartment building in Murray Hill. “This it?” the driver asked, turning around to look at me, and I nodded. My dad had insisted on getting me a car service to take me home to Connecticut. I’d used them sometimes with him, or when my mom and I went to the airport, but I’d never been in one before, just me. The driver looked like he was in his mid-twenties, and cute, with dark hair sharply parted. He was wearing a suit and seemed to be taking his job very seriously. He’d already called me ma’am three times, and the drive hadn’t been all that long.
“Yeah,” I said, unbuckling my seat belt and reaching for the door handle. “You’re—it’s okay for you to wait, right?”
“Of course, ma’am,” he said easily. “Take as much time