Just as You Are

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Dedication Acknowledgments Dial Delights About the Author Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Contents Start Copyright Print Page List iii iv 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 v 289 290 291 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 305 307 311 Just as You Are is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Copyright © 2023 by Camille Kellogg Dial Delights Extras copyright © 2023 by Penguin Random House LLC All rights reserved. Published in the United States by The Dial Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. The Dial Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC. Dial Delights and colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kellogg, Camille, author. Title: Just as you are: a novel / Camille Kellogg. Description: First edition. | New York: The Dial Press, [2023] Identifiers: LCCN 2022035925 (print) | LCCN 2022035926 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593594704 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780593594711 (ebook) Subjects: LCGFT: Romantic fiction. | Novels. Classification: LCC PS3611.E4439 J87 2023 (print) | LCC PS3611.E4439 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23/eng/20220816 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022035925 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022035926 Ebook ISBN 9780593594711 randomhousebooks.com Book design by Jo Anne Metsch, adapted for ebook Cover design and illustration: Sandra Chiu ep_prh_6.1_143232710_c0_r0 Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Dedication Acknowledgments Dial Delights About the Author _143232710_ 1 Everyone knows that when you throw a dinner party for a bunch of lesbians, at least half of them will be vegan. Which, unfortunately, was why Liz was going to be brutally murdered by her roommate. Liz paused outside her apartment door, still panting from her sprint through Crown Heights to their third-floor walk-up. The weekend train from Manhattan had been agonizingly slow, and then she’d had to push through a million people on Franklin Avenue to get home: a crowd of parents waiting outside the karate studio, a line of couples outside the trendy pop-up restaurant, a large family barbecuing on the sidewalk, and dozens of people walking tiny, slow-moving dogs. Liz said a quick mental prayer that Jane would be in a forgiving mood. Tonight’s party was going to be tense enough without them fighting, too. Then she flung open the front door as dramatically as possible. “I’m the worst,” she said between breaths, bending over and grabbing her knees. “I know it. You don’t have to say it. You can have my firstborn child as repayment.” Jane, a dark-skinned Black woman with her hair in long, thin braids, let out a loud humph noise from the kitchen, where she was shaking a pan of what seemed to be sizzling onions. “You were supposed to be here two hours ago.” Jane released the pan without looking up and yanked open the oven with a clang. “No,” Liz said, unlacing her Doc Martens and leaving them in the pile of shoes by the door. “I was supposed to be here an hour ago. Not two. You look great, by the way. And wow, it smells amazing in here! Is that risotto?” “I said four.” Jane pulled out a tray of mini-quiches and laid them on the stove. She still hadn’t looked at Liz. “It’s six.” “But we all know that you said four