38
As she stepped outside with Biscuit, Aurelia noticed that the rain from earlier in the day had turned into an annoying mist. She’d hoped for an escape from her thoughts, but even the city streets—with their motors, bicycles, and pedestrians—felt lonely to her.
The thoughts that plagued her in the empty flat were just as persistent outside of it, so that she found herself trying to inconspicuously wipe away tears as Biscuit trotted along ahead of her.
Once again, she ran through what she might have done differently, what she might have said, and when she should have shared the part of her life that she’d kept from Oliver for so long.
But then something shifted, perhaps from of the frustration of having to brush the mist from her face and the tears from her eyes every few minutes as she walked, or perhaps from Biscuit pulling her over to sniff at the shopfront of a children’s shop with a window display of trick cards and magicians’ capes.
Either way, Aurelia’s thoughts finally started running on a different track.
Oliver had said that she’d been wrong not to tell him about the magic of the shop, but hadn’t he proven her right by disbelieving her when she’d finally told him?
It wasn’t until Antonia and Julia had confirmed Aurelia’s story that he’d begun to come around.
He was angry with her for not telling him sooner, but couldn’t she be a bit angry with him for not believing her when she’d asked him to?
Weren’t they both right in their own ways?
Yet he’d run off to find his space to think.
Just like David had said, they were never going to work through this while apart.
Wasn’t the whole point of choosing to get married that they’d chosen to be together?
They were about to promise each other for better or worse.
Why shouldn’t they start today—what would a few more weeks mean if it was a choice they’d made months ago when they’d proposed to one another?
Aurelia was walking faster now, keeping pace with Biscuit for once.
She felt a fire in her belly born of anger, frustration, and—above all—passion.
She loved this man she’d chosen, and she wasn’t about to sit back and wait for him to work something out on his own that they needed to work out together.
She suddenly knew where he’d gone and directed her steps toward Jack’s flat.
She was sure he would be miserable there, surrounded by Jack’s clutter and mess, but also suspected he’d chosen it as a sort of punishment, his own personal purgatory where he could do some wallowing of his own.
She grew more determined with each step. She wanted Oliver to come home, and she didn’t plan on returning there without him.
“Aurelia!” Jack exclaimed as he opened the door to find her dripping on his doorstep. She was certain she saw relief on his face, even as Biscuit began barking and leaping around his feet.
“He’s here, isn’t he?” she asked.
Jack looked behind him and then back at her and nodded.
“He won’t tell me what happened, but he’s miserable,” he said in a whisper. “What do you want me to do? Leave you to it?”
“I won’t kick you out of your own flat, but it might not be too pleasant for however long this takes.”
Aurelia didn’t make any effort to whisper—she wanted Oliver to hear her.
“I’m off, not to worry.” Jack grinned, pulling her inside and grabbing his coat. “I’d better come home to an empty flat,” he added as he kissed her cheek.
“I’m on it,” she said, giving him her first genuine smile since Oliver had left.
She undid Biscuit’s lead and watched as he raced down the hall, seeking out Oliver, whom he must have smelled or heard.
Aurelia, meanwhile, heard nothing from within as she stripped off her coat and slipped off her shoes.
She found a dry scarf of Jack’s on a peg and used it to wipe down her mist and tear-soaked face and hair, assuming he wouldn’t mind.
Then she gathered in a deep breath and squared her shoulders as she strode down the hall and into the living room.
There was Oliver, standing near the sofa petting Biscuit, his packed suitcase at his feet. He raised his eyes to meet hers as she entered and she knew instantly that they would be alright.
The tension in her body released as she told him, “It’s time to come home.”
“I know it is,” he agreed.
She pushed on, wanting to be certain he understood her.
“There’s no working this out on your own.” She paused, emotion rising in her voice. “We made a choice to be together. I chose you and you chose me. That was a promise we made to each other and I’m sticking to it.”
“Me too,” he said.
He moved across the room impossibly fast, and they had their arms around one another just as quickly.
“I’m sorry,” they both said as each held tight to the other.
The power of his grip around her matched the power of hers around him.
“What can I say?” she asked softly after breathing him in to her fill. “You know I’m sorry? You know I would never hurt you on purpose?”
She tried to pull away so that she could look into his eyes, but he held her firm and she eased back into him.
“I know,” he said, his breath ruffling her hair as he spoke. “I’m sorry for this—for not staying. I knew as soon as I heard the shop’s bell going that it was wrong to leave. I should have turned back.”
“It’s alright,” she told him as she brushed her thumb along the line where his hair met the back of his neck. “The good thing is, I don’t have any other giant lingering secrets to spill, so this should be our last dramatic blowout.”
He pulled back and she was able to run her eyes over his face at last.
“That’s a promise?” he asked with a smile.
“Consider it a guarantee.”
As he leaned in to kiss her, she put her hand to his chest to stop him.
“What about you? Communicate with ghosts? Telepathic powers?”
She squinted at him as though trying to detect whether she could spot any hidden secrets of his own.
“If so, as yet undiscovered,” he said. “But you’ll be the first to know if anything changes.”
“Remember, I did tell you before we started dating that I was too much—I gave you fair warning.”
“And I was supposed to interpret that to mean you had conversations with fictional characters?” he asked skeptically.
“Fair point.”
She laughed and he pressed his mouth to hers, taking in her laughter as he kissed her.
It was some time before she pulled away to catch her breath, asking, “Home?”
“Home,” he said with a firm nod. “I was just headed back when you got here,” he added, pointing to his suitcase.
Aurelia dropped her head to his chest in relief, then she waited while he wrote out a note for Jack.
They walked back to the shop together, Oliver hoisting his suitcase under an arm as Biscuit pulled Aurelia forward.
As soon as she locked the door behind them, they couldn’t keep from kissing each other and pulling at one another’s clothes.
Somehow, they managed to climb the two flights of stairs and stumble into their bedroom.
Emerging a good while later, Aurelia felt wrung out from the intense feelings that had been coursing through her over the past few days, and the words and emotions they’d spilled to one another in between kisses in the dark.
Oliver followed behind her, moving slowly, as though equally exhausted and relieved.
She opened a bottle of wine, and he pulled out two glasses, then she poured the wine as he foraged in the refrigerator and emerged with cheese and apples. After finding a box of biscuits in a cabinet, they made their way to the dining room table.
Oliver looked up at the clock as they sat down.
“It’s eleven,” he said.
“Is it that late?”
“Lost all track of time, I see,” he teased.
“I’ve been a bit too preoccupied to worry about things like time passing,” Aurelia said cheekily.
He took a sip of wine and then asked, “Do you want to go down and see them tonight?”
It took her a moment to understand his meaning. She looked into his eyes and saw no hurt there; he was just showing her that it would be alright with him if she wanted to see the characters.
“No, not tonight,” she said honestly.
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. But I should go down just before midnight and step out of the shop. That way they won’t show up and find it empty.”
“You have to be in the building for them to visit, right?”
“Right. Usually they know not to worry if I’m not there, but this is a pretty crotchety group. You’d have no problems hearing them from up here if they really got going.”
“Maybe I can try talking to them again sometime?”
“Anytime you like,” Aurelia offered happily. “Do you want to try tomorrow night?”
“Actually, I was thinking we should head up to your dad’s tomorrow. There are still things to work out, aren’t there? Like who else to tell, and when. Maybe we can hash it all out together?”
Aurelia raised her eyebrows. He was right; they hadn’t yet decided whether Antonia would tell the rest of her family. And what about her dad? And Jack?
“That’s a great idea, actually. I’m sure Dad will be happy to have us—he has plenty of room. Will you be able to take the time away from work?”
“I’ve already cleared it with the team, since… Well, I figured we’d need another day or two to sort ourselves out. Can you close the shop for another few days?”
“I can. It’s one of the perks of being the owner, as a matter of fact.”
“That and chatting with fictional friends, apparently.” He laughed.
“Also a perk,” she said with a grin.