Page 10 of A Very Snowed In New Year
ME:Hey, should my sister be reading a Judy Blume book?
SIENNA:LOL she’s adorbs.
Okay, that is not helpful. She never answers my questions.
SIENNA:Also, can you grab a bottle of flat mineral water? My fave kind pls thx!
I see. This is a test to see if I remember her favorite kind of mineral water. I do. But I’m also not horny enough to deal with this tonight.
ME:You know what, something’s come up and I won’t be able to make it tonight. Can you do breakfast tomorrow?
I know she can’t do breakfast tomorrow.
“You’re canceling on Sienna, aren’t you?” Rory sticks her hand out, like I owe her money.
“Only because I have to figure out how to get this journal back to the person. And we did not make a bet, so you aren’t getting anything out of this.”
“Oh yes, I am.” She takes that outstretched hand and covers her heart with it. “Pride. So much pride.”
Sienna doesn’t respond. She isn’t responding because she’s hoping that will make me nervous and I’ll text her again. But I’m not nervous. And I’m not texting her again. Because I have to go set up an email address.
Chapter Four
From: [email protected]
Subject: You left your notebook in a cab and I’d be happy to mail it to you
Hi.
Let me just say right up front that I will mail your journal back to you at my own cost, if you feel comfortable giving me an address. I’m not some asshole who is going to make you pay me to return it to you. I mean, I might be an asshole to some people, occasionally, but not in this particular situation. And I just want to let you know that I did read the two pages the book was open to when I picked it up off the floor of the cab. But I stopped reading as soon as I realized it was a diary. So you have nothing to worry about there. I promise I didn’t and won’t read anything else.
Full disclosure, I’m guessing you’re underage, so I am being as careful as possible with the way I handle this. I actually asked my little sister what she thought I should do, and she very wisely suggested I mention that if you have a legal guardian you’d like to forward this email to, please do so. It was also her idea to create this new email account. It might interest you to know that apparently sixteen people have also found journals and decided to contact their owners via Gmail. I just didn’t trust that the cab company would take care of it.
So.
Yeah.
If there’s a way for me to mail this back to you in a secure padded envelope, I’d be happy to.
Sincerely,
E
From: [email protected]
OMG you have no idea how relieved I am, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I mean, I am as relieved as I can be while still being mortified. I can’t believe I left it in that cab, but I had to get out of there in a hurry. I didn’t get a receipt with the medallion number, so I would have been screwed ten different ways if you hadn’t reached out. Ironically… Never mind.
Also, I am not currently underage. I recently turned nineteen. Whatever you read in that journal was probably written a few years ago. But I’m in college now, which obviously means I amsuper mature and an incredibly good writer. Thank you for not making fun of my younger self’s very healthy curiosity about boys.
Despite my having achieved the age of majority as per the state of New York, could you please mail the journal to my aunt’s work address below? Just say on the label that it’s private, please.
Eternally grateful,
P
