Page 173 of Movers and Shakers

Wilfred: dang it

Wilfred is calling . . .

After the plan for Wilfred to visit was finalized, I had a text from Rose that she was free. I immediately called her, knowing that she needed to know about Ruth and Tom.

“Hey,” she said. “Good timing. I just got home.”

“How was your day?” I asked. She’d been growing increasingly stressed about the tour, and while I would never keep anything from her, I wanted to know if we should FaceTime about this. Sometimes, seeing each other helped, but other times, it was a painful reminder of the distance.

“Busy as always. I’m going to take the longest bath after this.”

“If only I could be there.”

“There’re only a few more days,” she said, laughing.

It trailed off as I tried to work out how to tell her about all of the things happening at once.

“Are you okay?” she asked after a long silence.

“I know you’re busy, but I have something to tell you. Are you sitting down?”

“Uh, yeah?” she asked. “Is everything okay?”

“Itisokay, but you should know that Ruth figured out your secret.”

“Which secret?”

“Thebigone.”

“What? How?”

“Ruth figured out that you two sounded the same on the phone, so she called Tom and me for a family meeting to talk about it.”

“Damn it. How many people are going to figure it out beforeeveryoneknows?”

“I stand by what I said before about Malia. Sheneededto know. And my family won’t tell. They know how much you need privacy. Ruth has a famous boyfriend, remember?”

“But they can’t be happy about the lying.”

“They were angrier at me for that, but we’re all good now. Tom was more confused about how you wear a wig onstage.”

I heard her take a stilted breath. “This could be bad.”

“But it won’t be,” I insisted. “I trust them.”

“And I do too, but it’s complicated.”

“Yeah, it is. But that’s the thing about having people on your side: they’ll help you too. Don’t just think about how this could go wrong. Think about how it could go right. Malia can now bury leads and Ruth can stomp on anyone who thinks twice about it.”

“Okay, yeah.” She was trying to sound confident, but her voice was still shaking.

“Everything’s fine.”

“It’s easier to believe that when you’re here in front of me. When I’m alone, all of this feels . . . heavier.”

“I know, and I would be there if I could.”

“Just a few more days until the concert. I’ll try to keep my shit together until then. Thank you for telling me, though.”

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