Page 71 of The Midnight Book Club
“Are you feeling better?”he asked once they were settled.
“Better?”
“Elinor informed us that you were afflicted with a headache last night.”
“Oh!A headache… Yes, I did have one last night and that’s why I left early,” she improvised quickly.“But I’m better now.”
“Shall we resume our project tonight, or would you prefer a respite in order to recuperate?”
“Actually, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.You remember I was meeting with Oliver tonight?”
“Did that engagement take place this evening?”
“Yes.We met for dinner and I gave him the revisions.”
“You met him alone?At a restaurant?”
Oh great, thought Aurelia,here we go.
“In my time, women don’t need a chaperone to have dinner alone with a man,” she said with a smirk.“My honor is very much intact.”
Vronsky snorted out a laugh.
“At dinner we talked about one edit that I hadn’t mentioned to you before, something he’d asked me to consider when I saw him earlier this week.I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.I just… I wasn’t sure how to talk to you about it.”
“Yes?”
“He asked—he suggested—that the story would be more interesting if we wrote a love interest for you.”
“A what?”
“A love interest.A romantic storyline.”
Vronsky was silent, watching her.
“He thinks the story would be better with one, and after thinking about it… I agree with him.”
Vronsky continued to stare at her, his eyes hardening as he took in her words.
“Alexei, how can we write your life story without love?”Aurelia reasoned.
“My life has not been without love,” he said, iron in his voice.
“No, of course not—not in the past,” she said, shaking her head at her careless mistake.“But what about your future?This whole project is about trying to help you find a happier ending.And what would that look like without love?Oliver is right—he reminded me that yours is one of the greatest love stories in literature.We can’t write a future for you that leaves you alone when you deserve so much more.”
“You say this was Oliver’s idea.Heinsists?”
“He doesn’tinsist, but he thinks it would be a mistake not to write about you falling in love again.And I agree with him.”
“What right does he have to dictate my life?”Vronsky’s tone was heated, growing angrier by the moment.
“He’s not dictating, he’s just suggesting.He’s an editor—he knows what makes a good story.”
“You told me to ‘think big,’ but now you want me to think like a small-minded man I’ve never met?A man who dines at a restaurantalonewith a woman?”Vronsky’s voice rose with each word.
“I told you, that’s completely normal in my time.”
She was losing her footing now that he was gaining steam.
