Page 63 of Is This for Real?
“You should put that on your website,” Jake says.
Audrey smiles at Jake. “I put that in all my reviews.”
Jake and I catch up. He and Audrey visited Tokyo over the summer, and I never heard all the details, although I saw the pictures on Instagram.
“You have to tell me about your Mario Kart experience. That looked crazy,” I say. Jake posted pictures of himself and Audrey, dressed as Mario, driving go-karts through the streets of Tokyo. “I can’t believe that’s allowed.”
Jake laughs. “It was so wild. We did this two-hour Shinagawa course.”
“In costume?” I ask.
“Would you expect anything less?” Jake says.
“No,” I say.
“I have some video.” Jake turns on his phone and searches. “How’s the writing coming along?”
“Good. A publisher liked my first three chapters and wants to see the rest, but I’m still writing it.” I explain what’s going on, but I think I hear my name being mentioned at the other end of the table.
I hear Callie say to Rory, “You expressly said to me that you preferred a private life.”
I don’t hear his response.
“Penelope, your blog is so cute,” Callie calls out. “I love how you’ve based it on your relationship with Rory.”
I look up, shocked.
“You write stories on your blog about you and Rory?” someone asks.
“No, she enacts little miniature doll scenes. They’re like Barbies, but smaller,” Callie says.
I want to sink into my chair. It sounds awful. And very public.
My face flushes. Rory looks equally upset.
“It’s not actually Rory and me,” I say. It’s true, given that the dolls are actually dating. I made that clear on my blog with an earlier breakfast scene where Piper is in Rob’s pajama shirt and he’s in his pajama bottoms. The fake dating was short-lived on the blog. Luckily. If Callie is following my blog, too. “One post was inspired by one of our dates—the cooking at the restaurant one—but other than that, it’s fiction. Just like what I write.”
“It feels like you and Rory,” Callie says directly. She has the tone of someone who is asking casually, but she smiles slyly as if she’s about to pounce. “Do you write about you and Rory in your book?”
Rory shakes his head.
“Not specifically, but obviously, I try to convey emotions.” I pause as I think how best to answer. “I would say that I do try to capture the love underlying our relationship.”
“Oh, that’s right, you write romances,” she says.
“I think Penelope’s miniature scenes are art,” Rory says. “They combine storytelling and visual imagery, almost like a film, and somehow she manages to invoke emotion with those scenes. Some artists work with paint or clay. She works with miniatures.”
Callie sits back. Her lips compress into a thin line.
Audrey switches places with Jake and leans in to chat as the catering staff serves us a dessert.
She shakes her head. “Callie. Is she still interested in Rory?”
I look at her, surprised but also relieved at her bluntness. At least I’m not alone with my suspicions. “Yes.”
“Oh Callie,” Audrey says. “You’re the only couple she separated. Jake texted me that he switched the place cards so he sat next to you. She had put you sitting with the lawyer I sat next to.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, he shouldn’t have done that,” I say.
