Chapter 49 #2
She could picture herself and Daniel eating in every restaurant she passed, shopping in every store.
And now here she was.
She stood outside Shakespeare and Company.
Even if Daniel hadn’t heard of it before this trip, it was in every guidebook.
He would be thinking of a bookstore, because a bookstore—the dusty shelves of Turn the Page back in Albany—was where he’d first learned her name.
And if you had to pick only one bookstore in the whole of Paris, it would be this one.
If he wasn’t there yet, he would be shortly. And then she wouldn’t have to picture anything.
She could start living it.
Daniel , five minutes later
The concierge suggested he take the Metro rather than walk. He didn’t want to be wheezing and out of breath from a thirty minute walk in the cold when he saw Nora for the first time in two years, so here he was aboard the number 4 line headed towards Chateau Rouge .
It was crowded, but nothing like the last time he’d been on the subway with Nora. Eleven years ago to the day, New Year’s Eve 1988. They’d been squashed together, not that either of them had minded it one bit.
Next to him sat a young couple—probably still in high school, if he had to guess—making out as though they were the only ones on the train.
In their minds, they probably were. And if Nora was sitting here next to him, it would be the same. He’d kiss her, and go on kissing her, regardless of what else might be going on around them.
When the conductor announced Saint-Michel and he stood to make his way to the door, the teenagers were still at it.
Good for them.
He made his way off the train, up the stairs to the mezzanine, and then another flight up to the street. Then it was just a short walk to the bookstore.
Because a bookstore was where he’d first heard her name. Where she’d made him laugh by reading out loud—with character voices—from some ridiculous romance novel.
She had to remember that just as well as he did.
And if she was going to pick a bookstore, she’d do her best to make sure he could find her.
Where else but the most famous bookstore in the whole city?
It was even called out on the tourist map he had back in the hotel room. There was nowhere else she could be.
She wasn’t outside—of course not, in this cold. He couldn’t blame her.
He went inside, and in a way, even though it was different in every visible aspect, it reminded him of Turn the Page. The smell was the same, for one thing—you couldn’t mistake the scent of old books for anything else.
And like Turn the Page, he had the feeling that even though the shelves looked chaotic, everything here somehow made sense.
But where would she go in here?
It was obvious, wasn’t it? The romance shelves. Which he’d never find on his own.
He went up to the cash register, where a bored-looking young man with steel-rimmed glasses was slouching.
Daniel supposed that retail cashiers were the same the world over.
“Where would you have romance—uh, libres de amour ?” He wasn’t at all sure that was right, but he was certain that amour meant love, so hopefully that would be enough to get the point across.
The clerk sighed with deep impatience. “I expect you mean livres d’amour ,” in perfect, accent-free English.
“We don’t have a separate section for romance.
But you might try upstairs, through the library.
” Daniel’s blank look led to an even more exhausted sigh, and a severe eyeroll.
“Go up the stairs, directly behind you. The library will be straight ahead. You’ll see a desk with a typewriter, and a door to the left of that. Go through it, and you’ll be there.”
Daniel thanked the man, which just earned him another eyeroll, and went upstairs. As promised, the library—complete with a plush red armchair and side table—was straight ahead, along with the desk and typewriter. And the door to the left.
And through that door, standing at a shelf, engrossed in the book she held in one hand, was Nora.
There was no mistaking her.
She was more beautiful than she’d been two years ago aboard the ship. Or eight years ago when she’d given him the necklace. Or eleven years ago, on another New Year’s Eve.
She turned around.
She saw him.
Her eyes lit up, and she smiled.
That smile.
And that was the most beautiful sight of all.
Nora , one second later
She didn’t run to him.
There was no need. They had all afternoon. All night. The rest of their lives.
She walked to him, slowly, deliberately, taking in every detail of him.
His hair, swept all over the place by the breeze outside.
His pretty eyes—God, they were even prettier than the last time she’d seen him, how was that even possible?
The delicate chain of the necklace, disappearing beneath his shirt.
His strong arms, beckoning her, reaching out to her, folding her in.
And his voice, whispering to her. “I knew you’d be here. I knew I’d find you.”
And then his lips on hers, and everything else faded away.
Daniel , five minutes later
The way he felt right now was worth waiting two years for.
She was in his arms, and hers were around him. Her eyes were wide open and bright, never breaking away from his for an instant.
This was everything he had imagined, and more. Forget two years—he’d have waited a million years for this.
“Nora,” he whispered. “I don’t want to wait anymore. I know we said ten years, but I don’t want to let you go again. I can’t.”
She was already smiling, but it got even brighter somehow. It was almost blinding.
“You don’t have to.” She pulled back from him, just a few inches, and took his hands in hers. She squeezed them. “I was just thinking—if you count from the last New Year’s Eve we were together, we’re already past ten years. So we can keep our promise right now.”
“Yes.” Absolutely yes. She was right. The fact that they were here together, in spite of the mix-ups and mistakes and miscommunications of the last three days, proved it.
This wasn’t fate or coincidence. Or the universe playing some game. It was them—both of them—choosing to find each other, no matter what.
“Do you want to go? There’s something I want to show you.
” She pulled her hand away to check her watch.
“Only two-thirty. They should be open for a while.” Daniel didn’t ask what or where—as long as it was with Nora, he didn’t care.
“But I want to buy this on the way out.” She went to grab the book she’d been reading when he saw her.
Sonnets from the Portuguese and Other Poems. He didn’t recognize the title, but he knew the poet—Elizabeth Barrett Browning . They’d had to read her poems in tenth grade English, not that he remembered any of them now. Except maybe one. He was maybe fifty percent sure about it.
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Is that right?”
Nora clapped. “Exactly. Sonnet 43. But they’re all beautiful. We can read them together.”
Whatever she wanted to do together was fine with him.
Nora , fifteen minutes later
“There,” Nora pointed down, at the white and green houseboat she’d fantasized about earlier this afternoon. “That’s our boat.”
Daniel stopped to see what she was pointing at. “Wait. You rented it for tonight? I didn’t know you could even do that.”
What an amazing idea.
She wished she had thought of it. How cool would it be to watch the fireworks from on the Seine, toasting the New Year with everyone else on the deck of their own boats? And then to go belowdecks for their own very personal fireworks?
“Sorry, nothing like that. I just saw it when I was walking over to the bookstore to meet you, and I was imagining what it would be like if we moved here and bought it to live in.”
His eyes glazed over, and she knew he was right there with her, picturing it too.
“I’d live with you on a boat. But it looks like it would be pretty close quarters. Where would we put all your clothes?”
He said it completely deadpan, so at least one thing about Daniel had changed over the years. He was better at delivering a joke now.
“I guess we’d have to buy a second boat for that,” she said. “We could tie them together.”
A new thought came to her. Tying together—what if she and Daniel did that, right now? She had no idea where to go in Paris to get a marriage license. But they were both smart, surely they could figure it out and get there before the office closed.
Why not?
“Let’s do it,” she said softly. “Let’s get married. Today. Now.”
He turned away from the boat to stare at her. “You’re serious?”
She nodded.
He kept staring. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking. He didn’t look scared, though, so that was a good sign.
“We can’t.”
After everything they’d gone through to find each other? After what they’d said in the bookstore?
“We will get married,” he said, just as she was about to answer him. “Just not here. It would be perfect, except for one thing.” Now he laughed. “My mother would disown me if we got married and she wasn’t there.”
Daniel , half an hour later
“What do you think?” Nora asked. “Was this worth the walk?”
Daniel didn’t know how to answer. The Musée d’Orsay was breathtaking—and a little overwhelming.
Kind of like Nora.
“Totally worth it.” He looked all around. “But where do we start?”
She took his hand, led him out of the lobby and into a gallery of sculptures. “My mother told me about this. She said if I was ever here, I had to see it first thing.” She kept going, not stopping to look at any of the sculptures or into the side galleries. “See?”
He understood immediately why her mother had told her to go here first. It was a huge, intricately detailed cross-section model of the opera house he and Bianca had been to Wednesday night.
“That’s where we sat,” he said, pointing to the orchestra section of the model. “Dead center, twenty rows back from the stage. I don’t want to know how much Bianca spent on the tickets.”
She was still holding his hand. “What did you see?”
He described it as best he could, but he wasn’t sure he conveyed much about the performance to her.
“We saw Sleeping Beauty ,” she said, her breath catching. “And when we got back to the hotel,” she went on, her voice trembling, “I cried myself to sleep. I felt like her—like I was stuck in a dream. Except you were my prince, and I didn’t know if you’d ever come kiss me and wake me up.”
He took her in his arms, held her close. “You should have known I’d be there.” Except how could she have known, when he didn’t know himself until today?
“I know now.” She was starting to cry again. He felt like he might, too.
But there was no reason for either of them to cry anymore.
He gently wiped the tears from her face. “We both know. And you don’t need to worry about falling asleep for a hundred years, because I would never let some witch put a curse on you.”
She smiled. “It was an evil fairy, not a witch.” Now she giggled. “But either way, I’m going to hold you to that.”