Page 75 of The Shake Off

“That’s cool they confirmed. Go Columbia. What’s her major?”

“English,” Kit grinned. “She’s going to be in one of my classes. The Secret Service came around this week to assess the security systems, and what needs to be upgraded.”

“Holy shit! Thatiscool!” I put my arm around her shoulder and squeezed tight. “You’re going to be teaching the President’s daughter. That’s huge.”

She grinned. “I know.”

“I like her,” nodded Lowe in approval, as we all stopped in front ofanotherstore window, then followed her inside. “Whenever you see pictures of her, she always seems sensible.”

“Terrible choice in boyfriends though.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, but it can’t have been easy with her parents being the President and Secretary of State. I know all about difficult parents and rebelling, and mine just have regular jobs. Can’t imagine the pressure she’s under.”

“How do you know who she’s been dating?” asked Marnie, flicking through a rack of exclusively white items of clothing, and pulled a dress off. “This is cute, it would suit you.”

I took it from her and held it out as I stood in front of the mirror. She was right, itwascute. The price tag wasn’t, however, and I put it back.

“It was in the papers last year, and all over social. How did you miss it?”

Marnie shot a wry smile in Lowe’s direction. “I work for Penn Shepherd.”

“Touché,” she smirked. “She was only seventeen. He was a senior at Georgetown, and was using her to get into politics and get to her parents. She broke up with him, and somehow pictures of them naked together made their way onto the internet.”

Marnie’s face dropped in horror. “Oh my God, that poor girl.”

Beulah nodded. “Yeah, it was bad. It was during the election campaign as well. It was why she deferred her college year last year.”

“Was it the boyfriend who did it?”

“Nothing was ever proved, though I think everyone assumed it was him.”

“What a dick. What happened to him?”

“Nothing. He’s still riding the coattails of being Radley Andrew’s ex. He’s working for a lobbying firm in D.C.”

“She’ll find someone better at Columbia. Columbia boys are hot.” Kit picked up the white dress I’d put back on the rack, and held it against her.

“What’re you talking about? She’ll be far too busy writing essays on sixteenth century poets, or which is the superior Shakespeare play, to mess around with boys.”

“You’re right, she will be. I’ll have her up to her eyeballs in manuscripts.”

“You make me almost thankful we had Professor Grady teaching us,” I chuckled. Grady was not a teacher anyone ever messed with, though Kit had always been her favorite while she merely tolerated me just because I was Kit’s best friend. “And speaking of manuscripts, I think I’ve found my next novelist. Like a proper one; not one who writes about carrots and farmers, and the naughty bunny.”

Beulah’s eyes lit up. “Oh, who? I really need a good book to read.”

“Her name is Gracey Jackson. She’s unsigned right now, but I think I’m going to sign her. She’ll be my first signing for adult fiction.”

“Hang on,” Lowe blurted and spun around, the blue striped shirt she was holding whipping through the air. “You’ve moved out of children’s books? When did this happen?”

I winced. “A couple of weeks ago. It’s tied into this whole Ace situation.”

“What d’you mean?”

“This lunch I’ve been invited to.”

“The Met Gala one?”

I nodded, again with a wince, because now I remembered exactly why I hadn’t given the more salient details to Lowe. “Yeah. It’s Nathalie Cheung’s lunch. She likes Ace, and I happened to mention I wanted to move into adult fiction. She said she’d help me if I could get some signed stuff for her kid. Please don’t tell Penn.”

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