Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson

Author:Shauna Robinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2021-12-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Andrew waited an entire thirty-six hours before broaching the subject. Nora suspected what was coming when he texted her Sunday morning to ask if she wanted to meet for coffee at the ferry building. When she pointed out that she preferred not to make her weekday commute across the bay on weekends, he invited himself to the East Bay, undeterred.

He even suggested the place, a café on Piedmont, where they sat now: Nora with Earl Grey and what remained of a sesame bagel, Andrew with a half-drunk coffee and a slice of quiche he hadn’t touched.

“I was thinking about what you told me the other night,” he said right after she’d taken a particularly large bite of her bagel. “I’m sorry I wasn’t more helpful.”

Nora looked up from her plate, still chewing. “Hmm?”

He raised his eyebrows, like she couldn’t possibly forget showing up on his doorstep with a moment’s notice and confessing that she was a three.

She hadn’t. But now, in daylight, she didn’t want to dwell on it. Nora washed the bagel down with a sip of tea and met him with an even stare. “That’s fine. I just had a crappy day. Thanks for letting me come over. It helped. It was nice.” She tried a smile. The word nice was almost offensive in its inoffensiveness, but she couldn’t let herself think about it, about Andrew being anything more to her than nice, when there were bigger problems lurking in her mind.

“I can help more,” he pressed.

“I’m sure you can,” she said. “Any soup kitchen would be lucky to have you.” Andrew rolled his eyes and Nora smiled. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m really okay.”

“I don’t want to brag, but I have my life figured out pretty well. That’s expertise you don’t have.”

“That’s true,” Nora admitted.

“So I read the happiness report.”

She searched his face for signs that he was joking. She came up empty. “You said it was two hundred pages,” she said.

“It was mostly graphs and charts. It wasn’t a big lift.” He dug into his quiche, leaving Nora to watch him with what she guessed was a very stupid look on her face.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

He shrugged and shoved another bite of quiche into his mouth. “It’s no big deal. I highlighted some parts I thought might interest you. I can email it to you if you want.”

“Okay,” Nora breathed, unable to think of a clever response. “Thank you.”

“I got you a book too.”

“What?” She was almost dizzy from his barrage of kind gestures.

Andrew reached under the table and pulled out a small paper bag. He slid it across the table.

Nora swallowed and took the bag. She peered inside and brought out a hefty paperback. “A career book.”

“It’s supposed to help you figure out what you want to do with your life,” he explained a little too excitedly for her comfort.

She turned it over and read the back. She wouldn’t tell him career books had never helped her in the past, not

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