Vronsky looked down at his hands before responding.
“I struggle to place myself in your position.If I were to wake tomorrow, confronted with characters from the novels on my shelf, I would presume I had gone mad.”
“I did think I might have lost my grip on reality.I also wondered whether I was dreaming all of you.Honestly, I wonder that still.”
She gave a smile, which Vronsky returned.
“But here you are, sitting next to me and seeming as real as the customers who came in and out of my shop earlier today.Or yesterday, rather,” Aurelia added as she noticed the sky outside the window slowly morphing from deep cobalt to a soft violet-blue as dawn approached.
Vronsky also made note of the changing light and his eyes took on a worried cast.
“Are you alright, Alexei?Is something wrong?”
“The night is ending,” he said with a regretful smile.“It has been a pleasure.”
He stood and made a slight bow.
“I don’t understand—are you leaving?”
Aurelia stood too, confused by his change in tone.A moment ago, they were going to talk about his novel and he’d invited her to ask him about his life.Had she said or done something wrong?
Vronsky smiled reassuringly and took a step backward, toward the spiral staircase.As her eyes followed him, his body began to shift and change, melting back into a parchment-colored mist littered with words.Startled, Aurelia jumped back and fell neatly onto the edge of the window seat.She saw mists appear all around the shop as the figures that had been solid a moment before were changed back into their literary forms.
Dropping to her knees, she crawled to the mezzanine railing to watch Vronsky’s mist join the others that were making their way back to the Recommended Reads table, back into their books, and back to their own lives and stories.She stayed at the railing long after they’d vanished, watching the table and its copies of their books.
Was it really that simple, that easy for them to disappear?Just like that, swept up in a breath of air, they were gone and she had stood by, unable to stop them.She was sure that Vronsky, at least, had been disappointed to leave.Eventually, Aurelia sat back, stretching her aching legs before sitting cross-legged on the floor.
They’d come to the shop two nights in a row now.Was it unreasonable to hope they’d come for a third night?A fourth?She smiled, remembering Cuff’s teasing words: ‘You doubted?’
Maybe hope wasn’t such an unreasonable thing after all.
16
Byherthirdcupof coffee, sipped at her desk soon after opening the shop the following morning, Aurelia felt her cognition slowly reignite.She wasn’t used to these late nights in the shop, and her internal clock was revolting.
It was during that third cup that she realized she hadn’t heard from David again.She was surprised but also relieved not to have to discuss the date any more than they already had.She hadn’t told David about that kiss and she wasn’t sure she had the fortitude to keep it to herself if he really pushed her.He would almost certainly see it as a sign that his matchmaking was successful rather than, as she did, just an odd ending to an awkward first date.
Aurelia soon had to shift her focus back to the shop, as customers kept her busy through the early afternoon.They included Sophie, a UCL undergraduate who was fast becoming one of the shop’s regulars.She’d found Aurelia and the shop through one of Aurelia’s old literature professors and was one of the first customers who felt like hers rather than Marigold’s.
They were standing near the armchair as Sophie was explaining why she preferred George Eliot to the Brontës.That was when Aurelia’s eyes drifted to the window for a moment, only to spot Oliver walking past, holding something in his hand as he looked up at the shop.Aurelia frowned as she watched him looking up and down, from the windows to whatever it was he held in his hand, until she realized he was holding the bookmark she’d given him.
“Aurelia?Is everything alright?”Sophie asked.
Aurelia pulled her attention back to Sophie just in time to realize that her frown had turned into a smile.
“I’m sorry,” she said as she watched Oliver approach the door.“I just… There’s just someone—”
Sophie’s eyes followed Aurelia’s.
“Ah, I see,” Sophie said with a knowing smile.
The bell above the door rang as Oliver came into the shop.
“No, it’s not… It’s nothing like that,” Aurelia began explaining in an undertone.
“That’s alright,” Sophie said, grinning now.“I’ll leave you to it,” she added in a whisper as she headed toward the door.
Aurelia felt the color rise in her cheeks as she watched Sophie pass Oliver.
