Now That I've Found You by Kristina Forest

Author:Kristina Forest [Forest, Kristina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250295033
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Esther basically forces us to take containers of extra food when we leave, and I feel bad when I promise her that I’ll call my parents if I don’t hear from Gigi by the end of the day. What I actually plan to do is find a way to get in touch with James Jenkins. He’s one of the last people Gigi talked to before she left. He has to know something.

“Esther and Ruby are big fans of yours,” I say to Milo as we walk back to the subway.

He shrugs, smiling a little. “They’re sweet.”

“According to Ruby, you’re charming, just like Henry.”

He chokes out a laugh and looks away, embarrassed. “You heard that?”

I try to hold back my laughter. His embarrassment intrigues me. “Let’s see just how charming you really are. Can you say Henry’s famous line for me?”

He stops walking, so I stop too. He leans down so that his face is level with mine. My silly little heart goes thump, thump, thump. He blinks at me, and I hold my breath, waiting. Then, just as he opens his mouth and I expect to hear those swoony words, he laughs and simply says, “Nope.”

I blink as he starts walking away. “Nope?”

“I’m not Henry,” he says. “I won’t even pretend to be.”

But then, as we wait for the subway, he reminds me to put my sunglasses back on and uses his MetroCard to swipe me through the turnstile. He’s not Henry, but I can begrudgingly admit that he is something.

As we ride the train for the third time this week, I think about the conversation from our first subway ride and how it went unfinished.

“Do you really think that Gigi is lonely?” I ask.

He glances down at me, and I’m wondering if he’s going to evade the question like he did before. But he says, “The day I first brought groceries to your grandma, I was nervous, of course, because she’s Evelyn Conaway, you know? Mr. Gabriel was all like, Don’t stay too long or annoy her. Just drop off the food and go. But as soon as your grandma let me in, she just kept talking to me. She asked what I did other than deliver groceries, so I told her about the band. She told me she worked at a speakeasy when she was around my age.”

“Don & Jake’s,” I say.

Milo nods. “Yeah, Don & Jake’s. She asked if I wanted to listen to some records, and I thought I should say no because Mr. Gabriel told me not to stay longer than necessary, but I just had this feeling that she wanted to spend time with someone, that she was tired of spending so much time alone. So I stayed, and we listened to Curtis Mayfield. Every time I dropped off her groceries, we’d listen to a new record. I guess we bonded over music.”

“Okay,” I say, absorbing this. I imagine Gigi, sitting at home alone, just waiting for someone to come along and talk to her.

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