Page 67 of Somewhere Only We Know
He frowned, a deep groove appearing between his eyebrows. “You can’t feel guilty about stuff like that forever.”
Jack’s ability to zero in on my thoughts was unnerving.
“Easy for you to say,” I said, laughing hollowly. “There’s this thingabout being famous. It shines light on people around you, but it can also hurt them.”
“With great power comes great responsibility?” he said, the corner of his mouth lifting in a sort of half smile.
Cute nerd. “Yeah… except… the power part isn’t there.” I knew how it sounded. Complainy. Ungrateful. Like, boo hoo poor little famous girl. I pulled at the sweatshirt and turned around to look in the mirror.
“I think you need some glasses,” Jack said as he looked at my reflection. I looked back at him through the mirror. He gave me a thumbs-up sign and I couldn’t help but smile.
We stood in front of a rack of plastic frames. Retro town. He turned the rack, making it creak loudly.
A pair of turquoise cat-eyes caught my eye. “Ooh, let me try those.”
I pulled them on and peered into the small mirror sitting on the counter. They were cute, but more importantly, they obscured a big chunk of my face.
“Let me see,” Jack said.
I faced him and he nodded. “Cool.”
“Don’t make some gross hot-librarian comment.”
“Excuseme. I was going to say you looked unattractive.”
I laughed as I pulled my hair back from my face, surveying my reflection to see how different I could look. “Glasses aren’t unattractive.”
“On you they’re hideous. Sorry to say it.”
“Thanks,” I said, still grinning.
“You’re welcome.” He winked.
We grabbed the glasses plus a new baseball cap (black! Even more camouflaged than before!) and the sweatshirt. I gave the owner my trench as an exchange for everything—his eyes went wide when hesaw the Burberry tag. “But this is worth way more than what you’re buying!”
“Actually, it’s the other way around. You have no idea,” I said as I pulled the sweatshirt on.
He shook his head but held up the coat to admire it. I tucked most of my hair under the cap, leaving enough to look like a bob, and pulled the hood of the sweatshirt up close to my neck. Final touch, the glasses.
“Well?” I asked Jack as we stepped outside.
“Well, you look pretty bizarre.”
I grinned. “Perfect.”
“Want to go eat?” he asked. “Night market style?”
“Now you’re just seducing me.”
We walked down the street, our hands swinging between us, not holding each other’s yet. I wasn’t sure if we had hit reset on everything or what. In my new outfit, with the newfound revelations between us, it did kind of feel that way.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
JACK
We were going to Mong Kok, a big market district in Kowloon. It was going to be crazy busy there but Lucky was pretty well disguised. And I felt like she needed to see it. It was a risk, but everything about today was. Why stop now?
With every step we took, I wanted to reach out and pull her closer to me. To have our hands touch. Something.
