9
Before the week was out, Aurelia and Julia had fallen into a routine. Julia did light cleaning around the shop, sometimes with gusto and sometimes reluctantly, depending on how hot it was. She’d even begun ringing up customers at the register, which she seemed to enjoy.
With Julia helping out in the shop, Aurelia had more time to write, which slowly started to ease her tension around the deadline Louisa had set for her.
That release of pressure was a magical thing, giving Aurelia a chance to find her rhythm with writing again.
There weren’t so many edits to make after all; it had just seemed like a lot of work when there was a time crunch attached to it.
But the deadline seemed manageable now, like she’d have no problem turning in an updated draft on time, which was a welcome relief.
Less welcome was Oliver’s impending departure for his trip.
They’d been apart before, but this time Aurelia felt a strange uneasiness, like she needed him with her just now.
The night before his trip, their friends David and James took Julia to a show in the West End, giving the near-newlyweds a night to themselves.
David and James had introduced Aurelia and Oliver, and were over the moon knowing that their matchmaking had been successful.
Aurelia and Oliver had agreed to have just one glass of wine at home before leaving for dinner, but that plan went out the window once Aurelia started kissing him.
An hour later—having missed their dinner reservation—they were wrapped around each other in bed, Aurelia holding him a little too tightly.
Oliver kissed the top of her head, then pulled at her arms to loosen them.
“Think you can pin me here and I won’t be able to leave?” he asked, laughing softly.
“Would that work?” she asked, squeezing him tighter before easing her grip.
“You’ve been anxious about this trip. Is everything alright?”
“I don’t know what it is… It’s just a feeling. I want you here.”
“Can’t live without me? That’s a good sign since we’ll be making it permanent soon.”
“Julia’s reading Jane Eyre—that’s the book she picked to read first.”
“Okay…”
Oliver waited, knowing she would eventually link up those two distinct lines of thought.
“I was skimming through it again, and I found this scene where Rochester goes out of town the night before the wedding. Jane feels off all day while she waits for him to come back. She senses something’s wrong but can’t put her finger on it.
And of course, she’s right. Something’s very wrong, but she doesn’t know what it is yet.
” Aurelia paused before finishing, “That’s how I feel. ”
“I promise I don’t have a mad wife living in the attic,” Oliver said in a very serious tone.
“There’s no attic here. Maybe you’re hiding her somewhere else?”
“Alright. You’ve guessed my big secret, might as well tell you now: Jack’s been keeping an eye on her for me.”
Aurelia was quiet at the mention of a ‘big secret.’ Was that what was bothering her—that she still hadn’t found the right moment to tell Oliver about the characters? Was now the right time?
“What’s going on in there?” he asked as he tapped her forehead.
“I… um…”
Now? Surely now wasn’t the time. He was leaving tomorrow, and Julia would be home soon. This wasn’t a quick story to tell; there would be so many questions that she wanted to be able to answer without either of them feeling rushed.
No, she’d tell him the week before the wedding, just as she’d been planning.
“Um… Sorry. So, you think maybe what I’m feeling is just mixed-up intuition?”
“I do. Everything’s fine, and everything’s going to be fine,” he said as he kissed her. He sat up and added, “Come on, we should get dinner before they come back.”
“Hey—what if we meet them at the theater and grab dessert somewhere?” Aurelia suggested as she, too, got up. “I bet Julia will be buzzing about the show. We can let her tell us about it and also catch up with David and James.”
After a quick shower in a failed attempt to cool off from the flat’s unrelenting heat, she and Oliver foraged in the refrigerator for dinner before taking the Tube to the theater to meet everyone.
During the short trip, Aurelia made herself shake loose her lingering worries so that she was able to greet David, James, and Julia with a genuine smile when she spotted them walking out of the theater.