Chapter 17
In a state of half-consciousness, Aurelia felt a tickling sensation on her cheek. There was something touching her face and there was… music? As she shook off the fog of sleep, she realized that Fezz was nudging her with his wet nose, and the music was coming from her alarm clock.
“Fezz!” She rolled onto her back and he climbed on her chest, his nose and whiskers now taking turns on her face. She turned her head from side to side, finally covering it with her arm.
“What time is it?”
Looking at her alarm clock, arm still blocking the cat’s attentions, she saw that it was just past seven thirty.
“Seven—what?”
Aurelia was suddenly wide awake. She shifted Fezz off her as she sat up and grabbed the clock to check the display—it was indeed seven thirty-four in the morning.
She turned off the radio; it must have been playing for hours, set off when the alarm kicked in at eleven thirty last night to wake her from what she’d intended to be a short nap before meeting the characters at midnight.
Racing to the top of the stairs, she took the steps as fast as she could without tumbling down them. She wrenched open the door to the shop and saw sunlight streaming in the mezzanine window through the filter of the branches in the square outside.
“No! No, no, no!”
She dropped down to sit on a stair, staring out at the shop and the early morning light that was growing brighter as it stretched across the floor toward her feet. She felt awful for having missed the characters. Would they wonder what had happened to her, like Cuff had worried over Marigold?
Fezz gave an annoyed meow from the top of the stairs, reminding Aurelia that he had worked very hard to wake her for his breakfast. Heaving a deep sigh, she looked across the shop and down to the Recommended Reads table. There’s always tonight, she reminded herself, and tried to believe it.
Her missed night with the characters, combined with several days of getting less sleep than she needed, put Aurelia in a strop for the rest of the morning.
She scolded Fezz when he attacked the sheets as she was making the bed and nearly came to tears when she broke one of her aunt’s old mugs after dropping it in the sink.
And memories of Oliver’s visit to the shop yesterday—just to confirm he didn’t like her—weren’t helping her mood either.
She’d even cried in the shower when she’d had the thought that her mother would never meet the man she’d end up with one day, whoever he might be.
If only she’d had more time to sleep before midnight had arrived, she wouldn’t have slept through her alarm. She’d need to catch up on sleep since she’d be spending late nights in the shop, so she decided to commit to napping after closing up in the evenings.
After yawning in between helping customers for most of the day, she perked up when an old friend from her university days, Kali, appeared at the shop door later that afternoon.
Kali was a small woman who usually wore her dark hair parted in the middle and pulled back into a low bun, not unlike a beloved ballet teacher from Aurelia’s childhood.
That afternoon, she was dressed in a stylish coat and was pushing a pram that seemed twice her size.
Inside was a toddler, her son Ben, who was wrapped up in blankets and a large coat.
“Good afternoon, love!” Kali’s gravelly voice carried across the shop to where Aurelia was sitting.
“Hello, you!” Aurelia made her way over and gave Kali a hug before dropping down to greet Ben.
“How are you? Are you keeping Mummy busy?”
He stared back at Aurelia, his sleepy, half-lidded brown eyes suggesting that he had just woken up or was about to fall asleep—perhaps both.
“I’m trying to tire him out. Tom and I are off to dinner tonight and I don’t want Tom’s parents to have a struggle over bedtime.”
“I think you’ve succeeded. Though it looks like he might fall asleep any moment.”
“Oh no.” Kali dropped to a squat beside Aurelia, assessing Ben. “I must have overdone it. We spent a few hours at the National Gallery.”
“A few hours? You managed to keep him interested in art for all that time?”
“Yes, finally dusting off that art history degree I’ve never used,” she laughed. “You should have seen us—I had a crew of mummies with toddlers following me by the end.”
“Really? You know, I’m not surprised, actually. It’s your solicitor skills coming back to you—commanding an audience. And that voice! I’m sure you had them all under your spell.”
“Maybe so.” Kali shrugged.
“Can I get you something?”
“Tea would be lovely, thanks.”
Kali pulled off her coat and draped it over the back of the pram. Ben’s eyes began drooping and soon closed.
“Ah, well, best laid plans. Gives us time to chat uninterrupted, at least.”
Kali followed Aurelia into the back room, where Aurelia began making their tea. Remembering her aunt’s note from the last time she’d made tea for a visitor, she caught her quivering lip between her teeth as tears threatened, but she managed to hold them in.
“I’m glad he’s sleeping, actually,” Kali said. “I wanted to stop in to see how you’re doing?”
Kali was one of those people who always remembered her friends’ birthdays and life events. Aurelia had known she would remember that it was the anniversary of her mother’s death and was grateful for it.
“Oh, thanks. It was a hard day, but I’m doing okay.” The tears that had been threatening escaped; sympathy always seemed to bring them on. “All evidence to the contrary.” She managed to laugh as she wiped them away. “It’ll only get easier, right?”
“It will, but it’s still a slog to get through.” Kali gave Aurelia a hug with a strength that was surprising given her size. “Did you see your dad or Antonia?”
“No, we decided we’d wait for Christmas since it’s just around the corner.”
“Well, you know I’m a phone call away, yes? I can always get someone to watch Ben if you want me to pop in for a chat or meet for a drink.”
“You’re very sweet,” Aurelia said, giving Kali another hug.
The kettle clicked off and Aurelia put their mugs on a tray with a packet of biscuits, while Kali—who knew her way around the shop—brought an extra chair from the back room to sit beside Aurelia at the desk.
As Aurelia pushed papers around to make room for the tray, she spotted her copy of Anna Karenina.
Setting it aside, she found herself wanting to share her new discovery with Kali, but Aurelia was once again held back by the fear that her friend would, appropriately, question her well-being.
She still hadn’t told Antonia and had forgotten to ask Cuff whether she’d ever be able to bring in other people at midnight so they could meet the characters.
“How’s it going? Are you all moved in upstairs?”
“Mmm…” Aurelia thought of the boxes that still littered the flat. “Getting there.”
“And how are things going down here in the shop?”
Aurelia wanted to laugh as she thought of the possible responses to that question but settled on what had become her usual: “The shop’s been fine. I’m slowly getting used to it all.”
“I remember the first day I came in here with you.”
“When was that?” Aurelia asked, scrunching up her face as she tried to remember.
“It was Marigold’s birthday and you wanted to drop off a present between classes, so I tagged along.”
“That’s right! Aunt Marigold wound up giving you a copy of something—what was it?”
“Ivanhoe!”
“Yes! Because you told her you had pretended to read it in school—”
“—and she said it was a crime to have skipped reading it and she expected me back in two weeks’ time ‘for tea and a discussion of the merits of the book,’” Kali finished, mimicking Marigold’s bossy tone.
“I still can’t believe you read it.”
“I was scared not to! But I’m glad I did. I wouldn’t have been able to come back and face her otherwise, and then I would’ve missed out on getting to know her.”
“She liked you—especially because she knew you liked it here.”
“I can’t believe it’s yours now, Aurelia,” Kali said with awe. “I know you must miss her, but how lucky that she left this place to you.”
“Yeah, that’s started to sink in these past few days.” Aurelia smiled. “At first it was a hassle, but now I’m seeing the upside.”
“You could find some real inspiration for your writing here, what with all the different customers coming in and out. Plus, there must be quiet moments during the day when you can write?”
“I’m just focused on the shop for now,” Aurelia said, trying not to wince at yet another reminder of her ongoing inability to put words to paper. “I swapped out the books on the Recommended Reads table this week, and I’m thinking of changing the displays in the front windows.”
“Good for you, taking charge of the place! I’ll have to come back next week and see how it looks.”
Ben slept soundly as they continued chatting, waking just as Kali stood up to say they should be getting home. He blinked his sleepy, confused eyes first at Kali, then at Aurelia.
“You missed teatime, lovey—did you have a good nap?” Kali asked.
Ben continued his drowsy assessment of them.
“Here, Ben—take a biscuit for the road,” Aurelia offered, pulling one loose from the packet and bending down to place it in his warm, damp hand. She kissed his cheek and he gave her a shy, sweet smile in return.
The rest of the day went by in a blur. Between frequent yawns and her anticipation of another conversation with Vronsky that night, Aurelia felt as though five o’clock took ages to come round.
When at last the mantel clock struck the hour, she eagerly closed the shop and went upstairs to make a quick dinner and unpack some more boxes before settling down for a nap.
Without closing her eyes for a bit, she didn’t know if she could make it until midnight, never mind dawn.
Although it took what felt like hours to fall asleep—What if she didn’t wake up in time to see them?
What if they didn’t appear tonight?—she eventually drifted off.