The Bronte Book Club for Hopeless Romantics by Laura Briggs

Author:Laura Briggs [Briggs, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Chick Lit, Fiction, Love Stories, Romance, short stories, Women's Fiction
Amazon: B0722YBXWR
Published: 2017-06-20T23:00:00+00:00

***

Okay. So maybe Marina had a point. At Friday's meeting, I found myself watching the group, with disappointing results. As always C.J. had taken any available seat close to Llourdes — and Sophy was sitting on the opposite side of the room.

There was a lot of difference between the girl who fit C.J.'s life on paper, and the girl who fit his personal desires. Llourdes was cool, fit, looked effortlessly magazine-casual glam. Whereas Sophy was ... Sophy. Her somewhat frizzy dark hair was braided and pinned back to tame it, and the body beneath her black 'princesses are forever' t-shirt, pink skirt, and footless striped tights was more rounded than Abercrombie & Fitch skinny. But she had sparkle and passion in her eyes, whereas Llourdes's sky blue ones tended to look blank and dull when listening to other people talk, part of her I'm-so-bored-with-the-world attitude.

Maybe Llourdes was hiding a deep mystery inside herself by this shell. Or maybe she just cared less about debating Jane Eyre than following Bruno Mars's tweets.

"I think it's important that Jane's not just practical," Annette was saying. "She's still a romantic at heart, even after things between her and Rochester seem to be over. The proof that Jane's not just practical is when she won't marry St. John."

"So what does that mean — a practical romantic?" asked Sophy. "Is it just somebody who faces that love has limitations — like, price tags or something?"

"What do you think, Llourdes?" I asked. I couldn't help but see she was glued to her phone, obviously texting someone this whole time.

"Oh. Um ... I think Jane's totally nuts to run off," she said. "Who, like, goes hiking across some field without taking some money or some extra clothes?"

Sophy snorted. "Maybe somebody who doesn't want to be beholden to their lying boss?" she said. "It's totally about submission versus free will."

"I still think it's a dumb choice." Llourdes looked up for a second — right into C.J.'s eyes, as it happened, causing him to turn several shades of red and white.

"Yeah," he said. "I guess it could be."

I saw a little flicker of disgust in Sophy's eyes before she turned to the next bookmark in her leather-bound copy of the novel. But Llourdes just glanced around the room with her usual tiny smile that showed off her dimple, then went back to her phone.

Clearly, the first step was for C.J. to see the truth about his current state of amore. He would need a firmer push than either Tim or Annette to see its hopelessness, however. And that moment came on Saturday morning, when he approached the circulation desk while I was scanning a mountain of Eloise books for one of the summer reading program's smallest participants.

"Morning, Paige," he said, laying three books on the reception desk, then pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he smiled at me. "Um, is that video game I requested in yet?"

"Not yet," I said. "It's a pretty old game, so it may take some time to find a media center who has it — and one that's willing to loan it, too.

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