16
It was yet another restless night as Aurelia barely slept, her mind too busy whirling through the oddity of Mrs. Jamieson, Blanche, and Kitty suddenly appearing in the shop.
It was a Sunday, so she had the benefit of letting Julia sleep in while she continued thinking through everything that had happened.
At one point, Aurelia went downstairs to look again at the books on the Recommended Reads table.
The same three titles she’d set out before Julia’s arrival were still there.
What did it mean? First Julia had seen the characters, and now a whole new set had replaced them. Was it something to do with Julia?
Back upstairs, the phone rang and Aurelia answered, her mind still far away.
“Is everything alright? Is it Julia?”
The slight anxiety in her sister’s voice brought Aurelia back to the present.
“Antonia? No—Julia’s fine. I let her sleep in this morning.”
“Oh. I just had this strange feeling… Are you alright?”
“Yeah. I’m a bit off today, but nothing’s wrong.”
For a moment, Aurelia wished she could confide in Antonia, tell her everything and see what she’d make of it, but it was far too late for that after keeping her double life a secret from her for nearly three years.
“I haven’t been sleeping well. It’s the heat and Oliver being away… I’ll be fine.”
“Is it too much having Julia there? You can send her back. I can make something up, pretend it’s me that wants her home.”
“No, don’t do that! We had a great day yesterday—Kali took us around the National Gallery.”
Julia appeared in the doorway to the guest room, her eyes half open and a giant wrinkle from her pillow marking her cheek.
“Is that Mum?”
“Your daughter has emerged from her slumbers. Hang on,” Aurelia told her sister before holding the phone out to Julia.
Julia became more animated as she wandered around the flat, chatting with her mother.
That gave Aurelia time to consider Antonia’s offer: maybe it would be easiest to send Julia home so that she could figure out what was happening with the characters?
Then she could come and go from the shop at night without worrying that Julia would hear and find her sitting amongst fictional characters again.
But Julia had been looking forward to her visit for a full year, and Aurelia liked having her there, in spite of the slight chaos that had arrived with her.
“Here,” Julia said, suddenly standing in front of Aurelia and handing her the phone. “Mum wants to talk to you again.”
“Hi,” Aurelia said into the phone.
“It sounds like she’s having a great time. But are you sure you’re alright having her there?” Antonia asked.
“I am. She’s a very good duster,” Aurelia added loudly, to an eye roll from Julia.
Julia seemed to sense that Aurelia was out of sorts—or maybe Antonia had warned her—and was on her best behavior that day.
Feeling guilty for not being able to tell Julia what had her so distracted, Aurelia suggested that they find a double feature at the cinema to take advantage of the air conditioning before finding a spot for dinner.
Julia eagerly agreed and changed into a dress that, to Aurelia, seemed more like the suggestion of a dress given how short and strappy it was.
She kept quiet, however, and patted herself on the back for it when she saw how happy Julia was.
It was the first time they’d really been out together, just the two of them, in spite of all the time they’d been spending together in the shop.
Although different from Antonia in many ways, Julia had some of her mother’s habits, so that at times Aurelia almost felt like she was with Antonia, back in their early twenties and running around the city on their old adventures.
There was the barest hint of a breeze alongside the Thames that night, so on their way home they bought ice cream from a cart and plopped themselves down on a bench.
They’d been talking about Julia’s friends back in Paris when Julia asked out of nowhere, “Tell me about you and Oliver.”
“What about me and Oliver?” Aurelia laughed.
“Like, how did you meet?”
“David and James introduced us.”
Julia was silent, clearly waiting for more details, so Aurelia obliged.
“We had this really terrible first date and we both behaved pretty badly. I kept yawning and not listening to him. And he seemed sort of cold, like he didn’t want to get to know me at all.”
“And then what?”
“He kissed me.”
“What?” Julia asked, scandalized. “I thought you said the date was terrible?”
Aurelia laughed, enjoying a rare moment of intriguing Julia instead of exasperating her.
“It was, but he surprised me with a kiss. We didn’t see each other for a while after that, but I remembered that kiss.”
“Was he a good kisser?”
Julia said the words quickly, as though she couldn’t believe her own daring at asking the question.
“He was. He is.”
Julia looked like she was battling between disgust at the idea of her aunt kissing her soon-to-be uncle and interest in the world of dating that she hadn’t yet—to Aurelia’s knowledge—ventured into.
“So if he was a good kisser, why didn’t you go on another date?”
“Neither one of us was really ready to date back then. He had just broken up with someone, and I was still pretty upset about your gran and Aunt Marigold.”
“Then when you met again, you were both ready?”
“Well, he was, but I was still working on being ready.”
“How did you know when you were ready?”
Aurelia thought for a moment. How had she known?
Wasn’t it when Elinor and the other characters had helped her to see that she was?
And Kali had helped, too. Aurelia smiled, happy to think that, someday, Julia would have friends both in and outside the shop to help her navigate her own relationships.
“How did I know…” Aurelia said, still thinking. “Maybe it was when I realized that I’d rather be with him than risk losing him. I was still sad about your gran and Aunt Marigold, but I knew I’d be sad if I lost a chance to be with Oliver, too.”
“And when did he propose?”
“It was right before we came to visit you in Paris last year. So, a little less than a year after we started dating.”
“That soon?”
“Oh—and we proposed to each other,” Aurelia added.
“He didn’t get down on one knee?”
“Nope, but he did make me breakfast with bacon. Find someone who will treat you to a good English breakfast,” Aurelia said, pointing the last of her ice cream cone at Julia for emphasis. “I’d take that over a one-time on-a-knee proposal any day.”
Fortunately, the walk and heat had tired Julia out and she went to bed early again.
There was something childlike in her ability to completely crash after a busy day, which would come in handy since Aurelia wanted to be down in the shop well before midnight to see who might appear.
Her fingers were crossed that she’d see Lizzy, Jane, and the others.
But, if the disgruntled ladies appeared again, she’d remove their books the following morning and put a different set on the table.
She wouldn’t be able to gather up the insight about their books that she’d been hoping to share with Julia, but it was a better option than dealing with their bad tempers for the rest of her visit.