“Is this about Antonia, the thing you mentioned earlier?”
“That’s what started me thinking again,” Aurelia said with a nod. “She was saying how it was hard, with the experiments not working and knowing that Julia and I get to experience this thing that she’ll never be a part of…”
“And you thought of me.”
“I did. Before I told you, I was so focused on how to tell you and when to tell you that I didn’t think about what life would be like afterward, if you believed me. What it would be like to live together and go down by myself at night, leaving you when you’d know where I was going and what you were missing. It was easier somehow, before—when you didn’t know.”
“I’m glad I know, even though it might be hard sometimes.”
Aurelia nodded for a moment, thinking.
“It feels different now—better,” she added quickly, “but different. Before, there was still a part of me that thought it might not be real. And a part of me that felt like it could all end at any time, even though the characters had told me my aunts had met them—it felt like it could still all be in my head or they could disappear forever without me knowing how or why. But with Julia seeing them, it feels more real, more permanent. Like I don’t have to hold on so hard anymore. There’s some relief in that. And relief in you knowing. And relief in feeling like we can talk about it.”
Now it was Oliver’s turn to nod and think.
“I didn’t really appreciate that—how it must have felt to worry that it was all in your imagination, or that it was real but you’d never be able to make someone believe you. When you first told me, I had this vision of you having a great time with the characters, like it was this big fun secret you’d been keeping. But I can see it must have been difficult, too.”
He tugged her closer and she rested her head on his shoulder.
“I want to be able to open that door and have you walk inside and chat with Sergeant Cuff,” she said softly.
“I do too. But you can tell me about the characters. You can tell me who you meet and what you talk about.”
“I don’t want to rub your nose in it, though—‘guess who I talked to last night? Your favorite character!’”
“Well, as I think we’ve established, I don’t love the classics the way you do, so I definitely don’t have a favorite character.”
Aurelia laughed and swatted his leg.
“Your family is part of something very special,” he continued, a little more serious now. “And while it would be fun to walk through that door and see you chatting with characters you love, that’s not how this works, is it?”
She shook her head against his shoulder, and he leaned his head on hers.
“I’m alright with that.” And he really did sound just as ‘alright’ as he’d said. “I am. But only if, now that I know what you’ve been getting up to after midnight, you keep sharing it with me.”
“I will,” Aurelia promised. “I know I should have told you about it sooner. There’s still a lot to work out about how to do this, how we feel about it, and the wedding’s almost here.”
“Who says we have to work it out before the wedding?”
“It just seems like a big detail about how we’re going to live and function…”
“It is. But we don’t have to work it out in one go. We have a lifetime together, right? Better or worse.”
“Fictional characters or real ones.”
“Exactly.”
They were quiet for a few minutes, and Aurelia could hear Julia talking to the characters in the shop. She heard Kitty telling Julia about how her cousin, Mr. Collins, had tried to marry one of her sisters, and she snorted as Julia squealed at the idea.
“What?” Oliver asked with a chuckle. “Why does Julia sound like she just saw a mouse?”
“Kitty just told her about Mr. Collins and how he wanted to marry one of the Bennet sisters.”
Oliver let out a laugh and she joined in.
“That’s exactly what I’m looking for,” Oliver said through his laughter. “I want you to share all the character gossip.”
Aurelia was happy to have him in on the joke, and even happier to have him in on her secret.
