by Robin Benway
“You’re late,” I said to Julian, even though I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at him.
“I’m always late,” he shrugged. “That’s why you like me.”
“Oh, really?” I looked towards Henry and Mariah. “Hey, guys,” I said. “How nice of you to be on time.”
Julian sighed and just hugged me to him. “You’re difficult.”
“I know,” I said. We had plans to go to a used bookstore over in Burbank and then the movies. I like used books because they’re full of stories that have already been read. Sometimes I can even find a book that has an inscription inside. Like “To Jo, love Alex,” that sort of thing. As much as I can see the future, I like discovering the past, too.
“You’re grossing me out,” June said, pretending to gag as Julian bent down to give a quick kiss. “C’mon, Mariah, let’s go do exciting things like solve for X. Let them all be jealous!”
May bounced downstairs, smiling when she saw Henry. “Hey, nerd,” she said.
“Hiya, dork,” he replied.
They really are perfect for each other.
“Wanna go study about incestuous royal families and bloody murders?” she asked him. “Or do you wanna study European history instead?”
Henry laughed and followed her into the kitchen just as my mom came out. “Oh, hi, Henry,” she said. “There’s a Sprite in the fridge for you. Hi, Julian.”
“Hi, Mrs. Stephenson,” they both said. (Okay, so we were still working on the last name thing.)
“April, honey, I’m probably not gonna be here when you get back so …” She came over and hugged me goodbye. “Have fun, be safe, all the Mom stuff.”
“No worries,” I said.
“Have fun, you two.”
Julian walked me out to the car. He always washes it on Saturdays, and it was shining in the autumn sun. He held the door open for me, and I slid in. The little pine-tree air freshener I had hung on the rearview was swinging back and forth, and I made a mental note to replace it the next time he picked me up.
“So,” he said as he got in and started the car. “I assumed you looked at traffic reports online, just like always.”
“Don’t take the 101,” I replied. Julian thought I was addicted to traffic Web sites. He had no idea how much time I’ve saved him over the past month.
“Ha. Tell me something I don’t know.” He began to drive down the street, and I put my hand in his, twining our fingers together.
“Okay,” I said. “Here’s something you don’t know. I knew I was gonna kiss you the first time I saw you. Well, the first time I recognized you.”
He just laughed. “Yeah, okay. Sure.”
“I did!” I protested. “Fine, don’t believe me!”
“You know what I know?” Julian said. “You’re extraordinary.”
“I already knew that.” I grinned, and I held his hand tight in mine and smiled to myself, excited to see what would happen next.
Acknowledgements
I don’t know how I got to be lucky enough to have this many wonderful people in my life, but I’m glad I did.
Thank you to the family, friends, first-draft readers, and overall awesome support crew: Mom and Jack Schultz, Chris Benway, Adriana Fusaro, Johanna Clark, Aaron Hartzler, Maret Orliss, Steve Bramucci, Kathleen Ekins, Rosemary Surina, Heather Siemons, Leslie Simon, Jennifer Banash, Dallas Middaugh, and Rachel Cohn.
My gratitude to Ben Schrank, Gillian Levinson, William Prince, and Christian Fuenfhausen at Razorbill Books; Anna DeRoy, Tracy Fisher, Raffaella De Angelis, Jane Kim, and Elizabeth Reed at William Morris Endeavor; and Stéphanie Abou and Hannah Brown Gordon at Foundry Literary + Media.
Thanks to the bookstores, the librarians, the bloggers, and the readers who found Audrey, Wait! and championed it from the very beginning.
This book and my writing career wouldn’t exist without the phenomenal efforts of Lisa Grubka at Foundry and Lexa Hillyer at Razorbill. As a writer, you always hope for a good agent and editor, but these two ladies have gone above and beyond the call of duty. I cannot thank them enough.