Love Beyond Words (City Lights, #1)(16)

“Your turn,” he said.

“My turn,” Natalie agreed. She heaved a breath. “I want to go to Venice because I saw a picture of the Grand Canal in a travel book once. The photo was taken at dusk, and the water was an amazing, brilliant blue. As blue as…” She looked at his eyes that were watching her intently and cleared her throat. “Uh, well, a stunning color. Lamps from the restaurants and cafés that lined the water cast this perfect golden hue along the edges. In the middle of the Canal there were a handful of gondolas, each with a lantern glowing at the front. The gondoliers who poled them wore their black and white striped shirts, and there were couples in each boat, huddled together.

“And there was one gondola sort of at the front. It had two men sitting in it, one playing an accordion, one with a violin under his chin. In this photo, the gondolier’s mouth was open and I just know that he was singing. I could hear the music and feel the warm air, and smell the water, and this man’s voice... it was beautiful. I want to go there and experience that beauty, surrounded by history and art. I think it would be…”

“Sublime?” Julian offered.

“Yes, exactly.” Natalie huffed a breath and wiped her eyes. “And there’s something else to know about me and that is I cry at the drop of a hat and it’s really embarrassing but I can’t help it.”

Julian’s smile was wistful and comforting at the same time. “My mother also said that tears flow when the soul experiences an emotion so potent the body can’t contain it.”

“She sounds like a poetic woman, your mother.”

“She was.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “Closing time. I’ll walk you home.”

He waited for her while she locked up the café and again while she unlocked the gate to her stairwell.

“Goodnight, Natalie. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, Julian.”

She hesitated for as a long as she dared, and when he did nothing she slipped inside the dark passage and watched him walk away.





Chapter Seven


October both raced and dragged by. The days of Julian’s absence from the café slowed time to a crawl. More often than not he was there, writing and then talking with her, but he’d also stay away for days at a time, no rhyme or reason to his schedule that Natalie could see but to torture her with his absence.

Marshall and Liberty begged her to come with them to an “epic” party on Stanyan Street on Halloween night. She declined and was mortified when they showed up in the café that night anyway.

Marshall was dressed as Gomez Addams, Liberty as Morticia. Liberty had made the costumes and done their make-up, and Natalie thought there must be a costume contest somewhere waiting for them to pick up first prize. Neither hid the fact they were looking for Julian. They blatantly inspected each customer, speculating over the young male patrons. Julian was late. Or he wasn’t coming. Natalie hoped it was the former and that he would arrive with serendipitous timing: right after Marshall and Liberty departed.

“Well?” Liberty tossed a lock of stiff black wig hair over her shoulder. “Where is he?”

Natalie shrugged. “Not here.”

“Not here,” Marshall said. “Therefore he’s not around to not ask you out on a proper date. Ergo, you are free to meet up with us after you’re done slinging joe.”

Natalie wiped the counter with a rag. She had no retort. It had been a colossal mistake to tell her friends about Julian. Marshall was right: he hadn’t asked her to go outside the café; hadn’t made any romantic overtures of any kind. And yet, his attention to her was rife with warm, sweet emotion. The nights he came to the café were rich with delicious conversation and every moment at her apartment gate was filled with possibilities. This would be the night he asked her to dinner or a movie or perhaps…something more. But he did none of those things and she was too paralyzed by her own shyness to do anything but let the moments pass. He told her good night and she closed the door behind her, to be rewarded with a dark, empty stairwell, an empty apartment, a cold bed...

“I don’t feel up to it,” Natalie said now.

Liberty’s expression was compassionate under layers of black kohl and white paint. “Honey, come with us.”

“I can’t just leave the café. I’m working.”

“You’re off at eleven, right? For a party of this magnitude, you’ll be right on time. Come. Be our little Wednesday. You’ve got the big sad eyes for it.” Liberty smiled brightly and took a new tact. “You’ll meet some new people! Forget about that Julian guy for a bit. I think that might be good for you.”

“You two go ahead. I’m going to take a bath and get some sleep.”

“Are you sure? Getting plastered might put things in perspective.”

“I don’t want to get drunk,” Natalie said.

“Why not? Afraid you’ll drunk-dial him?”

“No, I can’t. I…”

“What?”

“Nothing.” She glanced at them sideways and saw Liberty and Marshall exchange incredulous looks.

“You don’t have his phone number, do you?”

Natalie wiped a ring of old moisture off the counter.