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Henry was in conversation with Eddie, who was red-eyed and very upset. “I just don’t understand. Won’t the viewers be confused when my storyline is dropped?” Eddie was asking.
“The viewers don’t care about anything,” Henry said, sounding very tired. “They tune in to forget about their real lives. They’ll take whatever we give them.”
Eddie looked like he was going to wail. His eyes turned dangerously toward Rachelle. He then snapped at the cameras, telling them to turn on. “Come on, guys. It’s us. It’s the big romance of the show! You need to get this on camera!”
“Give it a rest, Eddie,” Rachelle said. “Henry, can I talk to you for a second?”
Henry followed Rachelle outside. It was a beautiful morning in May, and a cerulean blue sky echoed above them.
“There’s a girl in Diana’s office,” Rachelle explained. “She says she’s Diana’s daughter?”
“What?” Henry was flabbergasted. “No way.”
“I didn’t even know Diana had a daughter.”
Henry was already hurrying away from her, headed back toward Diana’s office. Rachelle raced after him.
“Valentina, what are you doing here?” Henry asked the teenage girl.
“Oh. Hey, Henry.” Valentina looked withered and drawn.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” Henry demanded.
Valentina shrugged in the way of a flippant teenage girl. It was beautiful snide.
“Listen,” Rachelle began, “I’m done prepping for lunch. I could drive her over to Diana’s. I want to check on her, anyway.”
“Check on her? Is she not okay?” Valentina demanded.
“She’s totally fine,” Rachelle assured her, cursing herself for worrying Valentina.
“I can also get a crew member to do it,” Henry said.
“No,” Rachelle said firmly. “It needs to be me.”
“Hurry back,” Henry said. “We can’t be down two chefs today. We’re totally reserved for lunch.”
Rachelle and Valentina swept out into the glittering morning. Rachelle burned with questions for Valentina—the first of which involved how Valentina had gotten to Nantucket on her own at all.
Rachelle led Valentina the few blocks back to her apartment building, where she’d parked her car. Valentina took stock of everything: the cozy bookstores, the Victorian homes, the historic architecture. It was entirely unlike her home in California. A different world.
“Mom would love this,” Valentina said quietly. “She’s a romantic.”
Rachelle hadn’t seen Diana outside the confines of The Clam Factory. She had no idea if she enjoyed Nantucket life, if she walked the cozy streets, or if she dined at the wonderful restaurants.
“Where do you go to school, Valentina?” Rachelle asked as they situated themselves in her car. She hoped it was an innocent enough question.
“It’s a boarding school in New York,” Valentina said. “All girls. It’s totally awful.”
Rachelle’s heart seized at the idea of going to boarding school, away from your parents, at such a young age. She kept her face expressionless.
“How long have you been a student there?”
“Like, I don’t know. Three years? I’m going to graduate next year.”
“And you’re skipping?” Rachelle asked with a wry smile, hoping Valentina would dish.
But Valentina didn’t even look her way. She wasn’t going to explain herself.
