Page 3 of The Note

“Oh my god. That makes me sound like a total psychopath.”

“Well, to me it was very romantic, because it meant that other people drive you crazy in a way that I do not. And now you’ve committed yourself to spending seventy-two hours with these women. Honestly, I’m not sure whether to be more worried about you or them.”

She rolled over to face him. “Lauren and Kelsey are different. I’ve talked to them, like, every singleday for more than a year.” They didn’t actuallytalk.But the group text thread among the three of them had somehow grown into an omnipresent conversation. “I’ve known them since I was twelve years old.”

“No. Youusedto know them. Not the same.” His lips curled into a sly smile. He knew he had a point. This would be the first time she had seen Lauren and Kelsey in person at the same time for nearly a decade.

“Well, I was super close to Kelsey for like ten years—all the way through college. And Lauren and I never fell out of touch.”

“A few phone calls a year and lunch when she comes to New York is not the same as a vacation together under the same roof.”

“No, but back in the day, the three of us basically lived together for weeks on end.”

“When you and Kelsey were kids at summer camp a lifetime ago.”

“One, Wildwood was anartscamp.” And she hadn’t exactly been a kid that final summer after college graduation, when the economy crashed and even her Ivy League degree couldn’t land her a good job. Off to law school she would go instead, spending the interim summer as a counselor at the camp where she’d once been a student. She was surprised when Kelsey chose to do the same. Kelsey had a ready-made job waiting at her father’s commercial real estate company, but whenshe found out May’s plan, she asked her father if she could defer adulting to join her.

“And two,” she added, “don’t make me sound like such a geezer.” She ran the math in her head. “Wow, that last summer at Wildwood was fifteen years ago.” Not half a lifetime, to be sure, but how was that even possible?

“May, you are definitely not a geezer.” Josh gave her a soft kiss on the lips. “And even when you are …” He moved down to her clavicle, and she felt herself smiling. “Your gray hair and wrinkled skin will be all my old man junk needs to—”

She pushed him away playfully. “Oh god, I’ll never get that image out of my head.”

“My OMJ will have you saying OMG.”

“Stop!”

He pulled her close to him again, nudging Gomez to the foot of the bed and wrapping his arms around her. “I am going to miss you,” Josh whispered. “I don’t even remember what it’s like to sleep without you.”

“You’ll have Gomez.”

“You’re really sure you want to go? What if your pen pals are torture in real life?”

“They won’t be.” She didn’t know how to explain to Josh how important this trip was. A year ago, after the worst day of May’s life had made her infamous, Lauren—more than anyone, more than her mother, more than even Josh—had beenthere for her. And then, through Lauren, Kelsey was there too, in the group thread that sometimes felt like her only tether to sanity.

Of course she was going to East Hampton tomorrow. She couldn’t wait.

2

May was making her third loop around the JetBlue terminal at JFK when the next text from Lauren popped up.Okay, finally made it outside. Pick up 4.

As she passed the third area for passenger pickup, May had no problem spotting Lauren in the crowd, even though she hadn’t seen her in person for nearly four years. There had been plenty of Zoom happy hours, but those were typically conducted with unbrushed hair, makeup-free faces, and the athleisure they had all come to live in for months on end.

Where May felt like she was having troublereadjusting to a world that expected a certain level of aesthetic attention, Lauren was apparently back in full fashion mode. She wore wide-legged peach linen gauchos with a silk paisley wrap blouse and chunky wedge sandals. Her long hair was pulled back sleekly at the nape of her neck, then fluffed into a perfectly round pom-pom. Her giant square sunglasses screamed peak Jackie O. If May tried to pull off Lauren’s look, people would say how nice it was that she was able to get around by herself.

I see you! Pulling up now.May watched as Lauren read the message and then scanned the tangle of cars jockeying for space near the curb. Lauren waved enthusiastically at the sight of Josh’s Subaru.

May hit the hazards and hopped out to help Lauren with her bags. She felt a familiar heat in the pit of her stomach as the gazes of two twenty-something-year-old white women followed her when she moved in to hug Lauren. When the video of May first went viral, she was convinced people were staring at her everywhere she went. Recognizing her. Whispering about her. Judging her. She didn’t leave the apartment for five days straight because she was convinced that her neighbors would shun her in the elevator. And when she finally did, she was grateful to have the N95 mask as an excuse to cover most of her face.

She looked directly at the two women who had been watching her, reminding herself of thetimes Lauren had tried to comfort her by joking that May shouldn’t worry about being recognized because “most people think you all look alike.” Instead of confronting May, the young women seemed discomforted by her stare.

“Sorry, we were just admiring your whole vibe.” They were talking to Lauren, not her. May was most definitelynota vibe.

“Your hair is amazing,” the second woman added.

“Why, thank you,” Lauren said, primping her hair puff with her fingertips. “Have a good day, y’all.” As she threw her bag in the hatchback of Josh’s car, she whispered under her breath, “At least they didn’t try to touch it. That’s a good way to lose an arm with me.”

May studied Lauren in her periphery as they strapped on their seatbelts. Lauren had arrived at Wildwood as the lead symphony coach during May’s third summer. She was twenty-three years old and had already served as the first-chair violinist in the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. By the end of the first week, the camp rumor mill reported that she played five other instruments, had been identified in grade school as a prodigy, and had composed the score to an entire animated film. By week four, she supposedly had a recording contract with Quincy Jones. That part turned out not to be true, but she did land a two-year artist-in-residence gig at the Music Institute of Chicago when it wasn’t camp season. She wasonly nine years older than May, but seemed impossibly talented and sophisticated. It wasn’t only that Lauren felt an entire generation apart from May at the time. She seemed like a completely differentspecies.

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