Chapter 6 #2
I love the ending. I love the heroine. And I really love the hero.
I mean, I don’t usually go for men but he’s so great I think I’m almost in love with him myself.
He’s tall, dark and handsome (okay, so he’s a walking cliché, but I didn’t notice that while I was reading him).
He’s funny. He’s a little arrogant and a little hard-hearted to start off with, but in a very understandable way, and underneath he has a huge heart of gold.
There’s nothing he wouldn’t do for the heroine.
Or his family. Or his friends. Or anyone, frankly.
Yep, okay, so it doesn’t matter that he’s so great.
I just need to find someone equally perfect for Freya.
There clearly are great men out there. Like a lot of my male friends, so no problem.
Her hero’s a chef, and I don’t know a lot of chefs, but that’s fine.
Freya’s obviously creative, being a writer.
And chefs are obviously creative and artistic.
So that’s the kind of man I need to find for her.
Not specifically a chef. Really no problem.
I do have three months after all. I don’t need him to fall in love with her. I just need her to fall in love.
It really annoys me that I feel a twinge of guilt – bigger than a twinge actually; a large pang – at the thought of somehow causing someone to fall in love with someone who isn’t interested in them. It’s ridiculous having to feel guilty about a situation that I did not in any way cause.
She’ll be fine, I tell myself firmly. It doesn’t seem that likely, if I’m honest, that I can tempt her to fall in love with someone, but if I do, it’s only what I’ve been asked to do, and she knows that.
I don’t hear from Freya for a couple of days, and begin to hope that she’s so horrified by the entire challenge that she’s just pretending it isn’t happening and isn’t going to do anything about it. By late afternoon on Friday, I’m pretty sure that I’m never going to hear from her again.
And then, very disappointingly, just out of a meeting with a potential client so unreasonable that I fully sympathise with his soon-to-be ex-wife and am strongly considering refusing to act for him, I get a message from her:
I have a plan. Bit of a two birds one stone: forced proximity and literal blind date.
I have no idea what she’s talking about. Is this message even for me? Then I get another one:
See you at In The Dark at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. It’s a restaurant – don’t eat beforehand. I’ll send the address soon.
Oh, okay. The date is going to be forced proximity and a literal blind date.
Right.
I work quite late and then have a Friday evening dinner with uni friends, and it’s only when I’m on my way home that I think again about the challenge and next Tuesday.
Have I made a strategic error asking Freya to go first? Given her a head start on me?
No. I’ve just given myself extra planning time, which I should use.
Given that I do have extra time, I’m thinking I should use it for extra research.
Yep. I’m going to read a second Freya Cassidy, much as it pains me to add to her sales. I’ll listen to one on the way to visit my parents and brother tomorrow.
I always enjoy the journey out of Central London to Barnes to visit my family.
Firstly, the familiar route gives me a kind of comfortable going-home feeling.
Secondly, it’s nice visually to see the beautifully well-kept pastel terraces of Chelsea give way to the bustle of the Sloane Square end of the King’s Road, followed by the always-fascinating array of different shops as I trace the road all the way to the New King’s Road and Putney Bridge (thankfully for once not too traffic-ridden) and along the south side of the river to leafy Barnes.
Today, though, my journey is marred by having to listen to my second Freya Cassidy book.
I’m frowning within only a few paragraphs.
The first chapter of this one is written from the hero’s perspective, and at first acquaintance he seems to be completely different from her other hero, but equally lovable.
The second chapter sounds weird to me, because it’s from the heroine’s perspective and read by a female narrator, and – even though I do not like Freya – I can’t help wishing that it’s her, and not some stranger, reading her words.
By the end of this chapter, I realise that, yes, the hero does seem very different from the other one. And the heroine, also adorable, is different from the other heroine.
And that is a real bugger, because maybe, after all, I’m not gaining any insights into Freya Cassidy, the person behind the author. Or into her perfect man.
No. That can’t be true, I think as I pull up outside my parents’ house.
There must be some common themes. Like, for example, both her heroines are very optimistic people. And her heroes are both creative (this one’s an architect).
It’s a relief to spend some time with my family and then drive Max, my brother, out to the Surrey countryside to get a break from obsessing about winning the challenge. I tell Max about it and he laughs so much I actually feel grateful to Sonja for a moment.
I finish Freya’s second book the next morning, Saturday, while on the treadmill in the gym.
I have to admit that it’s genuinely almost unputdownable (or un-stop-listen-to-able).
I find myself really caring about her characters and simultaneously sad to say goodbye to them and happy about the ending.
(I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that, yes, they do have a happily-ever-after.)
The story was – within the constraints of being another romance – really quite different from the first one. I don’t think I’ve fully got a handle on the perfect hero for Freya yet.
I’m going to have to read a third one.
And – something I would not have credited – it isn’t even going to be that much of a hardship if her other books are as well written and as unputdownable as the two I’ve read.
By Tuesday, when it’s time to head out to meet her and whoever she’s set me up with, I’ve read (almost inhaled if I’m honest) another three of her books and have come to the conclusion that she’s cleverer than I had previously given her credit for and that her books really are quite dangerous.
(I’m also wondering why I’ve never read a romance before; she is not great, but her stories are.)
Of course readers fall in love with her heroes. Of course her books are contributing to marriage breakdowns. Real people are rarely going to match up to fictional but well-drawn, believable ones.
I think it’s going to be very hard for me to outright win this challenge.
I’m not giving up though.