by Jancee Dunn
“I don’t think so,” he said. “But thanks.”
Keep going, I urged myself. Push through your shyness. Stop being safe. Be a grown-up. Try again.
“Let me make up for my rudeness and buy you one coffee,” I persisted. “How about tomorrow afternoon? One cup and you can be on your way.”
I glanced over at Vi, who was pretending to talk on her cell phone, which she barely knew how to use. It might have even been upside down.
Andy stared at the sidewalk. “I really have to go,” he said hesitantly.
“Yet you haven’t moved,” I pointed out.
His eyes stayed on the sidewalk but I saw a faint smile.
“True,” he said.
From Vi’s 1985 autobiography,
Who Says There Are No Second Acts?:
If I wanted to, I could live among my memories. In my study at home, I have boxes of awards, heaps of photos, and many letters and gifts from fans. But I keep them tucked well out of sight. Do you know why? Because I prefer to be a part of the world, that’s why. If you think that your life is over, it will be over.
Some of my girlfriends feel that the best time of their lives took place when they were young. This is nonsense, and what’s more, it is positively dangerous. The “Good Old Days” weren’t always that good! You must tell yourself that the best times are right this minute. Every day I wake up and think, “What shall I do today?” Maybe I’ll meet someone who will become a lifelong pal. I might try an exciting new ethnic dish, or wear my hairdo a different way. Perhaps I’ll book a Caribbean cruise. Why, there is something new waiting for you every day! Isn’t life marvelous? You’d better believe it is!
about the author
JANCEE DUNN grew up in Chatham, New Jersey. From 1989 to 2003, she was a staff writer at Rolling Stone, where she wrote twenty cover stories, among them profiles of Madonna and Brad Pitt. She has written for many different publications such as GQ (where she wrote a monthly sex advice column for five years), Vogue, and The New York Times. From 1996 to 2001, she was a veejay for MTV2, MTV’s all-music station; the following year she was an entertainment correspondent for Good Morning America. She writes frequently for O, The Oprah Magazine, including a monthly ethics column called “Now What Do I Do?” Her memoir, But Enough About Me, which detailed her life as a chronically nervous celebrity interviewer, was published by HarperCollins in 2006.
Dunn lives in Brooklyn, New York, in a converted church with her husband, the writer Tom Vanderbilt, whose book Traffic will be published by Knopf in summer 2008.
Also By Jancee Dunn
But Enough About Me:
A Jersey Girl’s Unlikely Adventures
Among the Absurdly Famous
Don’t You Forget About Me is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2008 by Jancee Dunn
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Villard Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
VILLARD and “V” CIRCLED Design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Dunn, Jancee.
Don’t you forget about me: a novel / Jancee Dunn.
p. cm.
1. Adult children—Fiction. 2. Class reunions—Fiction. 3. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
PS3604.U5577D66 2008
813'.6—dc22 2008006068
www.villard.com
eISBN: 978-0-345-50745-7
v3.0