Page 27 of The Midnight Book Club
“Apologize?”she asked before realizing she knew exactly what he meant.
“The other night—the way I… Well, the way I ended our date.I should have explained myself.”
She was about to insist that it wasn’t necessary then thought better of it.She was curious to hear what he had to say.
“I dated someone, for a long time.We broke up a few months ago—I think I mentioned it?”
Aurelia nodded and he paused.It looked as though he were struggling to let down his usual wall of reserve, and she had the good sense to let him speak in his own time.
“I hadn’t kissed anyone else in years,” he continued.“That night, I just had this sudden impulse to see what it might be like.Maybe in part because… Partly because I thought we’d never see each other again.Of course, later I realized we might very well do, since we both know David and James.Afterwards, I felt bad.I didn’t want… I mean…”
As he spoke, Aurelia’s face fell and she quickly tried to rearrange it into something neutral.Had he come all this way just to make sure she understood he didn’t like her?The fact that he’d seemed to think it was necessary—as if she’d been crossing fingers, hoping he’d ask her out again—made her face flame with embarrassment.
“No, of course not,” she cut in before he could stumble on.“We both said the other night that neither one of us is looking to date anyone, least of all each other.Right?”
“Right,” he echoed, though his face wasn’t registering the relief she’d expected.
She gave a curt nod, as though that settled things.
“Okay, then.Well.I’d best get going,” he said, his words sounding clipped.“Take care, Aurelia.”
“You too.”
She walked him to the door, and he leaned in to kiss her cheek.Aurelia felt that fluttering in her belly again, like she had during their date, as he lingered a moment too long.She’d enjoyed that kiss the other night, but he’d come to the shop with the sole purpose of telling her that it—and she—didn’t mean a thing to him.And so even though the moment felt full of something, she’d take him at his word that it wasn’t.
Oliver’s brow crumpled in confusion, just as it had after he’d kissed her days ago.It shadowed his smile as he pulled open the door and left the shop.Aurelia watched him through the window, feeling just as confused as he looked.
He turned back to the shop as he walked through the square and, spotting her, gave a small wave.She waved back until he turned and continued on his way.
“Seriously, what on earth was that?”she muttered as she watched him disappear on the other side of the square.The inscrutable Oliver had struck again, but no—he wasn’t all that inscrutable; he’d made his intentions clear regardless of that final moment at the door.
Best to take him at his word, she reminded herself before turning back into the shop with a sigh.Dusting the bookshelves wasn’t an ideal task to take her mind off Oliver, but it would have to do until midnight, when she’d have a much more exciting distraction.
17
Inastateofhalf-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.
