She popped the trunk of the car and reached for Priya’s suitcase.
“I can’t believe you packed everything for the wedding in this suitcase.”
Priya laughed. “I didn’t. This is only like half of it. My mom has the rest.” She held up a hand. “Wait: Where did this car come from? When you said you’d pick me up at the airport, I thought you meant you’d just take an Uber or something and meet me here.”
“Oh.” Izzy must not have told her this part. “This is Beau’s car.”
Priya’s eyes widened. “This is HIS car? Okay, yet ANOTHER thing we’re going to have to talk about.”
Izzy rolled her eyes and went around to the driver side. “Oh, stop that. It’s no big deal.”
Izzy pulled Priya in for another hug as soon as they were both in the car. “I can’t believe you’re here. I’ve missed you so much!”
Priya nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I’ve missed you, too, etc., but you haven’t told me yet if you’re taking me to the HOUSE or not, and if I’m going to get to meet HIM. I’m dying here.”
Izzy started the car. She was still nervous about this.
“Yes, I’m taking you to THE HOUSE,” she said. “Beau said it was fine, but I don’t know if you’ll get to meet him; he may not be around.” That was one way of saying that Izzy hadn’t told Beau that Priya wanted to meet him. He’d seemed weird enough about the idea of Priya coming over. Izzy was pretty sure she’d been one of the only people, other than Michaela, who Beau had really interacted with in the past year—Priya might be too much for him. He’d probably be hiding away in one of the off-limits rooms while she gave Priya her tour. Her very brief tour.
Priya shrugged. “Oh well, I can’t have everything. Though I can’t believe he doesn’t want to meet me.”
Izzy laughed. “While you’re obviously the center of the universe, Beau and I don’t actually talk about you. We mostly talk about his memoir, since that’s what I’m here for, remember?”
“Mmm, sure, his memoir. Oooh, look at the beach!” Priya stared out the passenger-side window, at the ocean right there along the side of the freeway. Izzy remembered when she’d driven this stretch of freeway on the way from LA to Beau’s house, and how amazed she’d been at the ocean, and how nervous she’d been about her destination. It felt like a lifetime ago.
Only about fifteen minutes later, they drove up to the house, and Izzy pulled the car into the long driveway.
“We don’t have a ton of time,” she said, “because I managed to get us dinner reservations at a great place downtown, but we have to be there in less than an hour, and it’ll take some time to find parking and stuff.” She’d gotten the early reservation exactly so they wouldn’t have a ton of time at the house. Not that she’d ever tell Priya that.
“I’m just excited to really be here,” Priya said. “Oh wow, a real, actual palm tree, right in the front yard!”
Izzy laughed. “There are more in the backyard, too. You’ll see.” She lowered her voice. “I can’t take you in all the rooms, though, okay? I’m just staying here, remember?”
Priya nodded, her eyes moving back and forth as she and Izzy walked up the path to the front door.
“Sure, whatever, but I’d better get to see the pool. Wow, look at that cactus; it’s enormous!”
Izzy unlocked the front door and ushered Priya inside. They both slipped their shoes off by the door and started down the hall.
“Wowwww, that staircase! You didn’t tell me about that!” Priya said.
Izzy laughed. “Isn’t it great? I go up and down it multiple times a day—I always sort of want to slide down that banister, but the tile floor would hurt too much if I fell. My room’s upstairs, let’s go there now.”
When Izzy opened the door to her room, Priya’s mouth dropped open.
“Okay, the pictures you sent did not show how huge this bedroom is! This is, like, bigger than most New York City apartments! And you have your own bathroom?” She burst through the bathroom doors and turned in a circle. “This is, like, a five-star-hotel kind of bathroom! And it’s the famous bathtub! Does Marta know you’re living in luxury?”
Izzy shook her head. “Absolutely not, and I will murder you if you even so much as hint it to her. As far as Marta knows, Beau lives in some boring suburb, and I’m in the servants’ quarters. I’d like to keep it that way, please.”
Izzy led Priya back down the stairs and turned to take her to the kitchen.
“What’s this room?” Priya said, standing outside the doors to the library.
“Oh. That’s off-limits,” Izzy said.
She hadn’t sent Priya pictures of the library. She hadn’t even told her about it. For some reason, it felt like the library was a private thing, between her and Beau.
Priya let out a dramatic sigh but thankfully didn’t object. “Fine, fine, you’re living in an enchanted house, with lots of mysterious doors, and some of them lead to magical wings or secret gardens or buried treasure, I get it.”
They walked down the long hallway to the kitchen as Priya looked intently at the art on the walls.
“Where are we going now?” she asked. “To the pool?”
Izzy laughed. “The pool is after this, but first I’m taking you to the kitchen. There’s usually something delicious in there, and I know you’re probably hungry, so—Oh! Hi!” Beau and Michaela were both at the kitchen table, in front of Michaela’s laptop.
“Hi,” Beau said. He was wearing…jeans? She’d never seen him in anything but sweatpants before. Okay, or his swim trunks, that one time, but she tried not to remember that.
“Hi, Izzy,” Michaela said. “Beau said you’d bring your friend by today.”
Izzy turned to Priya, who didn’t even disguise the triumph on her face.
“Michaela, Beau, this is my friend Priya. She’s another editorial assistant at TAOAT, in town for a wedding. Priya, Michaela and Beau.”
Michaela and Beau stood up.
“Nice to meet you, Priya,” they both said.
Priya almost skipped across the room to shake their hands. “Nice to meet you! Thanks for taking care of our Izzy, so far away from home.”
“It’s been my pleasure.” Beau smiled at Izzy, then turned to Priya. “Um. Where’s the wedding?”
“The Four Seasons,” Priya said. “It’s apparently right by the beach? Though it seems like there’s a lot of stuff right by the beach here, given what I saw on the drive from the airport. And the weather! It’s incredible for March. There are so many flowers already blooming!”
Michaela smiled. “March in Southern California isn’t like March in New York, that’s for sure.”
Beau looked over at Izzy, a glint in his eyes. “You should make sure to take Priya outside, show her the orchard.”
“There’s an ORCHARD?” Priya looked back and forth from Beau to Izzy.
Beau laughed. “That’s what Izzy said, too. More or less.”
Izzy laughed as she remembered the tour Beau had given her at the beginning. “More or less,” she repeated, and they grinned at each other.
Michaela stepped over to the kitchen island. “Priya, would you like some chocolate cake?”
Priya beamed at her. “I would love some chocolate cake, actually! It’s probably going to spoil our dinner, but I don’t care. Where are we going, Izzy?”
Beau’s eyes snapped to her. “Oh, you’re going out to dinner tonight?”
Izzy nodded. He had that weird, blank look on his face again.
“Yeah, to a Mexican place downtown. Didn’t I tell you?”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh my God.” Everyone in the room looked at Priya. “This cake. This cake is incredible. You told me about the pool, and the bathtub, but not the cake. Is there just cake like this here, all the time? You have to go back to New York in what, a week? How are you going to survive?”
Beau turned away and sat back down. Okay, maybe he’d had enough of Priya. Though, to be fair, he’d been a lot nicer to her than Izzy would have guessed. And a lot nicer than he’d been to Izzy when she’d gotten here.
“Speaking of the pool,” she said. “Let’s go outside. You can finish your cake as I show you the gardens and the pool. And the orchard.” She smiled in Beau’s direction, but he didn’t look at her. She took Priya’s arm and steered her firmly toward the kitchen door. “See you later, Beau, Michaela. Thanks for the cake.”
Priya was subdued—for her—during the tour of the gardens and the pool. It wasn’t until they got back to the car and were on their way down the hill that she exploded.
“OH MY GOD.”
Izzy grinned. “Great house, isn’t it?”
Priya let out a high-pitched noise. “House? The house? You think I’m talking about the house? Yes, yes, the house is lovely, that is not what that OH MY GOD was for. Isabelle Marlowe, WHEN are you going to jump that man? Or have you done it already? Tell me you’ve already done it, and you just haven’t told me.”
Well, at least Priya had waited to say this until they were out of Beau’s hearing.