Dear Reader...

Chapter Seventeen

~Noah~

I love watching her do things on our date days. Museums, art galleries, the aquarium. She will stand and stare at whatever it was and go into her own world for a few minutes. The aquarium was my favourite. It was empty when we'd gotten there last month and she ended up running around the room like she was on crack. I could only slow her down by dancing with her. Spinning us around to no music under the blue light with sharks and other giant fish watching us through the glass.

I'd seen so many versions of Juliette in our 4 short months, but my favourite by far was her in bookstores. At least once a week I made sure we ventured out to a new one and spent as much time there as she wanted. We'd get lunch before and I would let her run wild. I've always paid attention to what she looks for in books. What she touches and always noticed that she picked up the same few artists, flicked through a few pages, skimmed them, and popped them back.

"Okay. I have a challenge for you today." Her eyes glittered as I pulled her closer to me, tugging the door to the bookshop open.

"Ooo. A challenge?"

"Mhm. You've got a bunch of meetings coming up when I've got that week off with you and I don't want to just sit around. I want you to pick me out 2 of your favourite books for me to read." That was it. Her face, right there. Not a face she'd ever pulled before but it was the face I was going to marry one day.

She's literally glowing. So beyond excited it's making me giddy.

"That's hard."

"Why?"

"Noah, babe, look around. There's at least maybe 7 thousand books in here, maybe more. In fact, no, definitely more. And you want me to pick 2?"

"To start with yes. Give or take a few. We can always do this again when I've read those."

"You're serious?"

"Deadly. When you read or write Jules, or when you're thinking about it, you go into your own world. You always look so happy in it and I'm ready to come with you now. I want to see what you see and talk to you about it and have discussions over your books and know what you're talking about when you tell me about yours when it's published." The tips of her cheek bones flushed.

"Okkaaayyy. Well, what do you want to read?"

"Romance." Because that's what she writes. I know this from her talking on calls. She talks about tropes, whatever the fuck they are. But then love interest is always a big thing she focusses on in those calls. I think romance is what she writes anyway. She stopped, turned in the middle of the aisle and tipped her head. "What?"

"Romance is a little broad."

"What do you write?"

"Oh, you are so not ready to go down that road."

"Why not?"

"Because I write Dark Romance. My books aren't fluffy little rom coms Noah. They're-" She pulls a black book off the shelf. "They're like this." She flicked through a few pages and handed it to me. I took the book but stared at her as she looked over the shelf, seeming to let out a breath.

"Are the 2 you've released on this shelf right now?"

"No comment."

"Is this one of yours?"

"God no. That's not as dark as mine." She smiles sweetly. "Read." My eyes move line by line, growing with each vicious, blood curdling word on the paper. I've watched horror films that have less blood than this book. When I look up at her she's almost giggling. "Told you you weren't ready for Dark Romance yet."

"You write worse than this?"

"That book is one I read in my last year of high school that started me writing. There's books much much worse than mine. But that one is tame in comparison. I'm kind of the top middle end of the tier."

"The upper middle class of Dark Romance."

"Exactly." She took the book sliding it back onto the shelf and taking my hand. "Let's find you the fluffy section before I taint my golden retriever boyfriend." The dark covers, covered with skulls, snakes and roses, quickly turn into pinks and blues as she pulls me a few aisles down. "Here. Have a look down this section. I'm just going to go do something and I'll be back."

"You're going to sign your books." She blinks those long lashes at me as I bend down to see the bottom shelf.

"You've been watching me."

"No. I just know you always bring that specific bag with you and the one time we didn't, you went to the till to buy a pen before disappearing on me. When I called you to find where you'd gone to, you came back with ink on your fingers. Just simple maths beautiful. Go sign them. I'll be right here."

She's gone for all of 15 minutes before returning and I've got 3 books in hand, completely unsure what I should be looking for. This was so far out of my comfort zone it was unreal. I read, don't get me wrong. But mainly non-fiction. Any fiction books I've bought have been action or gifts I haven't opened. I haven't read for fun since- maybe early high school. Back when Captain Underpants was the thing to read.

"I'm back." Jules sat down beside me. "How you doing?"

"You're supposed to be choosing for me. My brain is about to explode with pinks and cartoon covers and plots that are all melting together." I turned to her; glasses pulled on like she always did when she was doing something work related. Reading or writing, she wore glasses. "Help." She let out a quick chuckle, climbed across and into my lap, looking at the books I'd chosen.

"They're not terrible options to be fair. I think this one's going to bore you though. She's a good author but if you're looking for easy reads, her books are a little complicated." She turned in her spot, facing me. "What was the last book you read that you loved?"

"I can't remember. What's that book you and Ally were talking about at Christmas. The fantasy war kind of one."

"Shatter me?"

"Maybe?"

"That's a series. It's a good one. A little intense at times." She tips her head, looks over her shoulder and pulls a book off the shelf. "Maybe start with this one and then do the Shatter Me if you want to. They're completely different. One's Figure skater and Hockey player cute but not super fluffy. Some really well written sex scenes. They're funny, cute. He falls first and super hard."

"Is the war book similar?"

"God no. Shatter me is like dystopian, Earth in like 40 or 50 years, enemies to lovers kind of thing."

"Sex scenes?"

"Of course, that's your focus. Kind of but not in the detail you get with Icebreaker. Shatter me is a lot more subtle and not in the first few books."

"Books?"

"Yes. It's a series. A decent sized one. Took me 2 solid weeks to read."

"How about we start with 1 and see where we get?" Juliette nodded, leaned forward, and kissed my cheek. "Okay, let's tidy this up and find you some books to take home and we can have a book night on the sofa."

"Ugh. You know exactly the right way to a girls heart."

"No. I know the way to your heart. Food, mind blowing sex and books."