The Three Lives of Cate Kay

When Amanda is working the desk at her father’s garage, she is pleasantly surprised to see Mr. Riley. His smile makes her feel as if things really are going to get better. Mr. Riley asks her to start coming to the high school to help him with the drama department’s current production—Twelfth Night. She agrees, feeling a mixture of happy excitement and anger, reflecting that, even now, Annie seems inextricably bound up in everything about her life.

Cass collects celebrity gossip magazines, searching them for stories about Ryan. Just before the final film in the Very Last trilogy is supposed to begin filming in Charleston, she discovers the Vanity Fair story in which Ryan reveals to Jake Fischer that she is a lesbian. Ryan says that she has chosen Jake because he wrote an article about his own experience revealing that he is gay, and because he has written several articles about Cate Kay and The Very Last. In the article, Ryan admits that she was in love “once,” and she mentions having written a note confessing her love. Cass assumes that this must have been some other woman and concludes that Ryan was never in love with her. She decides that it is time to get over Ryan.

However, when Ryan’s final scene in the final movie is scheduled to shoot, Cass goes to watch. Her heart pounds as she watches Ryan talking to the director and then shooting her scene in the golden light of sunset. Cass still finds Ryan exquisitely beautiful, and she desperately wishes that they were together. As she drives home later, she tries not to think about her physical response to Ryan. When she realizes that her sadness is about Amanda as well as Ryan, she begins a new book. Instead of “writing from loss, begging for forgiveness” (239) as she did with The Very Last, Cass writes with “joy,” and with the intention of writing her and Amanda “back to life, together” (239).

The narrative flashes back a few weeks. Ryan sits with Janie in her elaborate Hollywood Hills home, thinking that she prefers her simple Los Feliz bungalow. She is sad that the film is wrapping up, and when Janie is reluctant to accompany her to Charleston as emotional support, Ryan retrieves the note that she once wrote to Cass and shows it to her as a reminder of why she finds wrapping this particular film so upsetting. Janie agrees to go with her. On their way to the set in Charleston, Ryan fantasizes that Cass will show up at the shoot for a romantic reunion. Janie reminds her that there is no way to know what will happen at any future moment; she urges Ryan to stop dwelling on past disappointments.

Amanda accompanies Mr. Riley to New York City to see a play. On the way, she plays the mixed tape that Annie made for her many years ago. She remembers hearing it for the first time and knowing that the Sarah McLachlan song was expressing Annie’s feelings about their relationship. She asks Mr. Riley why he chose to produce Twelfth Night all those years ago, and when he reveals that Annie asked him to, she struggles to know how to respond. Impulsively, she tells him that Annie is Cate Kay. He is shocked, and he asks her why she has been keeping this secret on Annie’s behalf for so long. She realizes that, even after all this time, she still sees herself and Annie as being “in this thing together” (246). She tells Mr. Riley that she still loves Annie. That night, she pours her heart out in one final letter to “Cate,” thinking that if this doesn’t bring Annie back to her, nothing ever will.

Patricia flashes back to a memory from 1988, in which she had a rare spell of sobriety and wanted to do something special for Annie. She found her own beloved childhood Tom and Jerry t-shirt and told Annie that it was a special surprise for her. Annie was delighted. Now, when Patricia thinks about this moment, she feels intense regret for the way she treated Annie.

Jake Fischer, the Vanity Fair reporter, re-enters the narrative to describe an exchange between him and his husband during their 2013 honeymoon. He was very nervous about what he had to tell Danny, but he did not want any secrets between them. His confession was triggered by seeing an article about The Very Last being turned into a Broadway play. He told Danny that seven years ago, Sidney Collins had called him and offered him a significant amount of money to call a woman and say that he knew she was Cate Kay and that she had been involved in a death in her hometown. Hearing this Danny insisted that Jake call Sidney and threaten to expose her if she did not make it right.

Sidney explains that in the years since her breakup with Cass, she has been married twice. Her marriage to her Soul Cycle instructor lasted only a year. Now, she is married to a high-powered political staffer named Helene. Helene knows about everything that Sidney did to Cass, but she does not judge—instead, she understands, because she uses similar tactics on other people, especially in her job. When Jake calls, saying he is going to write a letter to “Cate” explaining what he did, Sidney decides that it is time for her to “relinquish Cate Kay, return her to Cass” (256), and wash her hands of the Cate Kay empire.

In April of 2013, when Cass goes into her regular coffee shop to get her morning latte, she sees a woman reading The Very Last. For the first time, she feels drawn to someone who is reading a copy of her book. She surprises herself by telling the woman, “This is my book” (259), reflecting that her confession is one small step toward a better future.

When Sidney’s box arrives, Cass takes it out to her writing studio. The note from Sidney explains that the binders in the box contain records related to the Cate Kay business empire: accounts, addresses, correspondence, and so on. At the very end of the letter, Sidney confesses that she was the one who had the reporter call Cass at Ryan’s bungalow in Los Angeles. Cass reflects that she cannot really be angry at Sidney, because Sidney’s life will always be a sad one, made empty and chaotic by Sidney’s own actions. She is, however, devastated to think of the undeserved heartbreak that she caused Ryan. She reads Melody Huber’s suggestion about writing a memoir, thinking that perhaps someday she will actually do it, then decides to follow up on the address that Sidney has listed for her fan mail P.O. box. She has never read any of her fan mail, and she thinks it will be exciting. Then, because she no longer has Ryan’s phone number, Cass picks up the phone and calls Janie.

In April of 2013, Ryan returns from Australia after shooting a film for three months. When Janie picks her up at the airport, she tells Ryan that Cass called. Ryan is immediately alert. Janie explains that she does not have specifics, but Cass told her that the breakup was the result of a misunderstanding. Cass recently learned information that changed her perception of what happened that night in Los Angeles, and she would like to talk to Ryan. Janie suggests that Ryan talk to Cass in person.

Cass drives to the New Jersey warehouse where unclaimed mail is stored, hopefully imagining bags and bags of fan mail. There, she meets a helpful man named Carl who reminds her of Amanda’s father. She is pleased to learn that Carl recognizes the name “Cate Kay” and is excited to meet her.

Carl, the mail clerk, explains why he is so excited to meet “Cate.” He and his wife, Charlene, were childhood sweethearts. She developed cancer, and he took a leave to care for her in her final days. One of the ways he distracted her from her pain was by reading to her. He read her the final book of the Very Last series. When they finished it, she told him that she believed the author was a young person “trying to work out something about the world” (270). The characters in the story, Charlene said, still had not learned an important lesson about life: that the most important thing is not trying to conquer the world but making the small part around you more beautiful. He takes this as his wife’s way of saying that, even though she had different ambitions before she married him, she found their marriage to be genuinely fulfilling.

Cass celebrates her excitement about reading her fan mail by booking herself into a fancy hotel in New York City. She happily reads letter after letter until it is nearly four in the morning. Finally, she pulls a letter from the pile with a return address in Bolton Landing. It bears the initials “A.K.,” and she is startled. She tries to calm down, reminding herself that Amanda is dead, but the angry message shatters her attempt at calm. She hurriedly sorts through the remaining mail for any letters from Bolton Landing. In the end, she finds five. She prays that there is some chance it could really be Amanda. While reading the letters, she becomes progressively more convinced that they are actually written by Amanda, and the final letter, signed with Amanda’s actual name, makes it certain. Amanda’s final letter spells out her continuing love and begs her best friend to come home. Cass immediately begins repacking her bags.

As Annie drives to Bolton Landing, she is filled with regret for ever allowing Sidney into her life. She drives straight to Amanda’s house, feeling as if she is finally back where she has really belonged all along. Finding no one home at Amanda’s, she walks down to the diner where she and Amanda used to stop for key lime pie. When the woman working the counter tells her that Amanda is likely at the high school, Annie buys a slice of key lime pie and heads for the school. Amanda is onstage, showing a student actor some blocking. When Amanda spots Annie, she freezes momentarily and then resumes working. Amanda comes out to the front row to watch the scene, and Annie hurries down the aisle toward her friend. She takes a seat next to Amanda, who remains focused on the students. Annie’s heart pounds, wondering if Amanda does not actually want to see her. Finally, when the students have finished, Amanda leans over to Annie and nods at the slice of pie, asking, “We gonna eat that, or what?” (281).

Amanda notes that she did not eat any key lime pie during the years that Annie was gone. Now, she finds the pie “even better than [she] remembered” (282). She and Annie have a slice together every night for a week.

Ryan flies into Albany. She refuses Janie’s offer to set up a meeting with Cass, because she wants to surprise Cass and to judge from her reaction whether Cass still loves her. She is so nervous that when she gets to Cass’s hotel, she is cold and shivering. The desk clerk says that Cass is out, but a helpful bellhop lets Ryan know that Cass just left for a walk toward town. She gets into her rental car and drives toward town. Outside an old apartment complex, she spots Cass sitting in an old Adirondack chair. Ryan pulls over and hurries across the road to Cass.

Eight months later, Annie holds her very first book event at The Strand in New York City. She nervously watches the audience streaming in. She sees Amanda looking “effortlessly cool” (287) and realizes again that she underestimated her best friend years ago. Amanda has just come from the theater, where she is preparing to star as Samantha in the third act of the Broadway version of The Very Last. Ryan is directing. Annie takes a seat with Jake Fischer, who is acting as both interviewer and host for the evening. She sees Ryan come in and thinks back to the night that Ryan appeared outside her old apartment in Bolton Landing. Her heart flutters as she watches Ryan.

Jake asks her questions about her upcoming memoir, and she hears some shock and disapproval in the audience when she reveals what happened right after Amanda’s accident. Even so, the audience stays with her and keeps listening, even laughing when Jake asks her what advice she would give her younger self and she comments that she is the last person who should be giving anyone advice. She thinks for a while before she realizes what advice she would give herself: love is the only thing that is truly fulfilling. When Jake opens the floor for questions, a woman introduces herself, and Annie feels good when she is able to reply “Hi, I’m Annie” (291).