Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

Author:Shelly Jay Shore [Shore, Shelly Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2024-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

The door to Dad’s office is propped open when Ezra returns in the morning, slightly high on the luxury of six and a half hours of sleep. The murmur of voices inside reaches him before he can knock, and Ezra hesitates for half a second when he recognizes them, before he makes himself take a breath and rap his knuckles against the side of the doorframe.

“That you, Ezra?” Aaron calls.

“It’s me.” Ezra steps inside and pulls the door mostly closed behind him, carefully avoiding Jonathan’s eyes where he’s seated next to Aaron across from Dad’s desk. He’s not surprised to see Ben there as well, leaning against the wall opposite the desk, languid and comfortable. He arches an eyebrow at Ezra as he enters, and Ezra pretends not to see it. “Am I late?”

“You’re right on time,” Dad says. “Grab a seat.”

Ezra takes one of the small leather-backed chairs from beside the couch and pulls it closer to the desk, dropping into it. He feels out of place, the way he almost always has in this room, like the walls themselves are judging him for not wanting to be there. “What did I miss?”

“Jonah’s going to go and pick Nava up from the ME’s office in about an hour,” Dad says. “He’ll bring her back here. Allison is coming in at nine or so, along with Nava’s aunt, who has apparently been her guardian since she managed to get emancipated from her parents. She’s driving in from New York, so she might be a bit later, but she’s given us permission to get her transferred and start preparations here.”

Relief hits him like an ocean wave. “Seriously?”

“We got lucky,” Aaron says. “The aunt was on all of Nava’s emergency contact forms at RISD, and they were willing to give us her contact information. It could have been a shit show otherwise. I guess the aunt also kind of left the family fold, so she took Nava in when she left home.”

“Our chevra sent a shomer over to the ME’s office as well,” Jonathan adds. “She shouldn’t be alone.”

“Thank you.” Jonathan gives him a small smile, like Ezra hasn’t been avoiding him for the past several days, and Ezra swallows around the gratitude welling up in his throat. “So…what happens now?”

“We’ll wait to discuss arrangements for the service and burial until the family get here,” Dad says, leaning back in his chair. “I think it would be good to have you there for that, Ezra—you knew her, but you know her community as well. It’ll be important to let them know so they can be here for her.”

“I didn’t know her that well,” Ezra says, and he’s surprised how guilty he feels about it. “I mean, she came to my classes, and I spoke with her a few times, but it’s not like we were…you know, close.” An idea hits him. “Nina knew her, though. Nava came to a bunch of the programs she ran—I bet she could tell us more about what she might want and who she’d want us to call.

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