Wish I Were Here by Melissa Wiesner

Author:Melissa Wiesner [WIESNER, MELISSA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2024-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Are you going to be okay?”

It’s three in the morning, and Luca is standing outside my apartment door. I’m still wearing my scrubs, clutching a file folder to my chest. A file folder that reveals that I’ve been googling the wrong name for decades. That my birth certificate—the copy, anyway—was a lie. In some ways, my whole life has been a lie.

I’m not really sure what “okay” looks like at this point.

I hesitate in the doorway, tempted to invite him in for a drink. I have a bottle of red wine I bought to celebrate when I received the offer from the mathematics department, but I never drank it. Dad was off at the Shanti Festival, and in the end, it seemed kind of depressing to drink alone.

My gaze slides over the janitor coveralls that Luca’s unzipped and folded down to reveal his black T-shirt beneath. He’s already spent his night breaking and entering on my behalf. I’m sure he wants to get to bed, either his own, or maybe that friend on the eleventh floor’s. “I’ll be fine,” I lie.

“Are you going to try calling your dad again?” Luca asks.

I called Dad twice from Luca’s car on the drive home, but he didn’t answer. It could be because he’s asleep. Or isn’t Burning Man this week? I have no idea.

I sigh. “Yes, but to be honest, I don’t have high hopes for that conversation.” It’s not like I can accuse Dad of lying to me, because he’s never told me anything about my mom to begin with. Not a single thing. But it’s still a shock to find out that my birth certificate was essentially a forgery. I guess that explains why I only ever had a photocopy.

Luca takes a step closer, his gaze locking on to mine. “You know what you need?”

I’ve spent enough time with Luca to know literally anything could come out of his mouth right now. So I just shake my head.

He reaches for my hand. “You’re not afraid of heights, are you?”

I don’t know what to say to that, both because I’m trying to work out where he could possibly take me at three in the morning where a fear of heights could be an issue, and because a little zing of electricity shoots through me as his hand closes around mine. “I—no.”

“You sure?”

“I once sailed across a warehouse on a trapeze swing, hanging on only by my knees.”

Luca opens his mouth to say something and then stops. “Really?” he finally manages.

I admit I enjoy seeing his forehead crease and his head tilt as he tries to work out what to make of this information. “Really.”

His grin widens. “I’m going to watch you do that someday.”

“You absolutely are not.”

“We’ll see.” He tightens his grip on my hand. “In the meantime, come with me.”

I set the file folder inside my apartment and let him tug me back into the hall to a window at the end. As Luca releases the locks and slides it open,

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