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  “What would be a good place to get dinner?” he asked the first person he met in the stairwell. Persons. Three men and two women, probably neighbors of Alfred’s he’d never noticed.

  One of the men snorted. “This is New York. This is Lower East Side. There are a million places you can get a good dinner.”

  “What do you want to eat?” One of the women asked helpfully.

  Luke was at a loss. “I don’t know. Can’t you just name me a place, any place?”

  They lost their smiles. Luke realized he was tired, hungry, and as polite as a colicky baby. He took a deep breath. Before he could apologize, the older gentleman said, “Try Otto on Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue. You’ll find it. Ask around. My sister works there. Tell her you’re Andres’s friend.” The man pronounced the restaurant like the Italian number rather than the German name. Luke’s heart soared, a taste of home! He began thinking of red wines, fine cheeses, and small plates of cured meat. He could easily spend three hours in a good restaurant and completely forget about this Alice figure. Woman. Devil.

  “Thank you,” he said with real gratitude. It was a blanket statement and the New Yorkers all nodded back, forgiving his previous outburst. As the door closed on Luke, he heard Andres say, “That wasn’t Alfred, was it?”

  “Maybe his grouchy twin,” the woman replied. He wasn’t used to hearing people disparage him in such close proximity. Luke also wasn’t used to fending for himself; he was rarely hungry at home since they had regular meals together. If he ever did feel peckish after a long run or a tiring day, there was always a bountiful kitchen teeming with chefs ready and eager with menus.

  Luke took another taxi and told the driver to take him to Otto on Fifth and Eighth. He felt like a spoiled brat, angry that he didn’t have the toy he wanted. Alice wasn’t a toy, he reminded himself, she was a woman. He had given her the power to find him but he hadn’t expected her to be silent for so long. He gazed out the window to take his mind off his stomach and his heart.

  Traffic was thick and Luke didn’t even try to keep track of every corner they turned in the driver’s efforts to avoid jams. An out of breath bicycle messenger kept steady pace a few meters behind the swerving taxi, vowing to demand a raise.

  They passed Strand Bookstore and Luke cried out, “Para!”

  “What?” said the driver, dangerously turning his head toward Luke without braking.

  “Stop, please. I’ll get off here.” The taxi slammed to a halt and a bicycle shot past with choice oaths and an angry fist knocking on the window. He pulled over a few car lengths ahead, grateful for the break despite the close call. The cyclist watched a tall young man exit the cab and rush into a bookstore.

  Luke had paid the driver in three bills, not looking at which they were.

  “My friend!” shouted the taxi driver, bewildered by the flush of cash. But Luke was already in the store.

  Strand Bookstore. Of course. Alice had said he’d find her here. She hadn’t said her name was Alice Strand. Luke had only assumed it, and she’d laughed.18 Miles of Books, he whistled appreciatively. Of course she would be here. This was her kingdom.

  Hunger forgotten, he wove through the aisles. The smell was delicious. The vanilla of old paper and ink. And apples. Was there a hint of apples in the air? Or was that just wishful thinking? Where was Alice? Did she spend her weekend evenings here? Even Luke could see himself spending more than half a day here. It was enormous. Stack upon stack of shelves upon shelves.

  Someone was running toward him. At first Luke thought it was a paparazzo, but suddenly a tall young man in skinny jeans rounded the opposite corner with an ear-piercing kiai and launched himself at some guy. In a normal situation Luke would have helped, throwing himself on the offender before even knowing what the fight was about.

  But this was not a normal situation. Despite the bizarre scene, Luke had lost interest and was no longer looking. His legs carried him past the karate guy and the book thief.

  There was Alice.

  She was kneeling on the floor, putting to rights a tower of books the running guy must have ruined.

  Alice wasn’t facing him, but her hair was unmistakable. His eyes dropped to her pretty derriere, showcased just now while she was bending and reaching and stacking books. She was wearing a red t-shirt and jeans, nothing spectacular. Yet he was enchanted by the sight of her. He wanted to know the curves and swell of her body, to hear the sounds she would make when he kissed her.

  She handed him one of the books and he snapped out of his daydream. “This one is cleared for duty!” She laughed before her eyes met his.

  Luke watched her draw breath as she recognized him. He wanted to sweep her up and bend her backwards in a deep kiss, murmuring promises and poetry in Elmeran. Instead, he said something along the lines of having been led on a goose chase and then there she was.

  She stood up and the half-tower she’d just finished reconstructing slumped over. She closed her eyes at the noise and blushed.

  Luke immediately sank to the floor and gathered the books. Kneeling in front of her—that was something. She was something. She knelt beside him, still blushing furiously and trying to hide it with her hair.

  “You owe me dinner for that stunt,” he blurted.

  She swept her hair aside to look at him with a smiling scowl. “Did one of the books nail your foot? Don’t be a baby, it’ll heal just fine.”

  He laughed. Just five minutes ago, he could have detonated at the merest touch, and now he felt so light, like he could laugh at anything. “You know what stunt I mean, Alice Strand.”

  He’d expected this wouldn’t make her blush. He was right. She even smirked.

  “I did tell you I won’t have you Googling me.”

  “Are you hiding something?”

  “Are you?”

  The laugh in Luke’s throat turned into a cough. “Ask me anything and I’ll tell you nothing but truth.” As soon as those words left his mouth, he felt dread and relief simultaneously. He couldn’t tell her, he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. But maybe she would find out on her own.

  When she stood up, he followed. She barely came up to his chin and yet she looked at him down her nose. He pocketed his hands again. She was making it so tempting and so easy to pull her to him and kiss that delicious mouth. He needed to know she was real.

  “You mentioned dinner?”she asked with a playful line to her mouth.

  “I was thinking Otto?” Luke heard himself saying, as though they had planned this.

  “Let’s go, then.”

  And she began dragging him away. Luke bit his lip to stop a grin that could swallow these eighteen miles of books.

  Chapter Six - Alice

  Alice saw Clay making an odd and frantic body dance to get her attention but she ignored him. Marsha and Rebecca seemed to be marching over as fast as their impractical high heels could carry them as well. She waved at them nonchalantly and continued to speed-walk with Luke to the front doors, out the doors and into a taxi.

  Wait, that was too fast. Where did the taxi come from?

  “My friend!” the cabbie sighed in relief. “Still going to Otto?” he asked.

  “How do you know that?” asked Luke, seemingly as surprised as Alice.

  “I drove you here. You gave me too much. Much too much! You—”

  “Never mind,” Luke interrupted, pleading rather than commanding. Alice paid attention to men who treated cab drivers and waiters with dignity. “Yes, please,” Luke said to the cab driver, “To Otto.”

  The cabbie nodded with a grin at Alice and started the car.

  “Did we just run away from something or someone?” Luke asked.

  Alice laughed, still remembering Clay waving his arms and stomping his feet. “You could say that and you should thank me.”

  Her mirth slipped away when she noticed how he was looking at her, like he was trying to count her eyelashes or see through her forehead into her mind. She felt the blood rise to her face. Damn her face
.

  He touched her cheek, like her mother usually did to check her temperature, pressing the backs of his fingers to her skin. It was tender and sweet and dangerous all at once.

  “I’m glad I saw you again,” he murmured.

  “Me too.” What else could she say but the truth when he was touching her like that?

  *

  Otto was crowded, full of people just off from work and parents off from parenthood for the night. The hostess squeezed them in with a smile, not asking how they knew her brother though she gave Luke the once-over. Alice decided not to ask either. She’d let Luke keep some of his mysteries. She pocketed her Strand ID and looked around, soaking in the atmosphere. She could smell dozens of herbs. She could hear a hundred conversations. Most of all, she could feel Luke’s gaze on her, a thousand tiny pinpricks of sensation all over.

  “Have you found me yet, by the way?” he asked.

  Alice chuckled. “Well, we have Alfred’s address and phone number.” She raised a finger, knowing what he’d say next. “I don’t know either of them. But I was getting ready to take the phone number tomorrow.”

  She ordered summer corn and fregola for antipasti. Luke ordered roasted peppers and capers.

  They both ordered romaine and red onion salad,linguineallacarrettiera, and Montepulciano wine.

  Their server hovered after serving their appetizers.

  “You two on a date?” he asked.

  Luke seemed startled at the effrontery but Alice covered her grin with her serviette. The staff at Otto were friendly and familiar like this, imitating genuine Italian curiosity. She didn’t come here often, but the few times she did, every server seemed to have at least one word for every customer. She was surprised that Luke, being from Elmera, was taken aback by the server’s friendliness.

  Luke answered, “Yes,” hesitatingly.

  The server nodded and turned to Alice. “First date?”

  Now Alice laughed. “How do you know?”

  “You have a rule of not kissing on the first date?”

  “What?” Alice sputtered, feeling her cheeks burn. She hated when people implied she was a prude.

  “Because you two ordered onions and garlic!” The server grinned at them and poured Luke a taster of the wine bottle. He grudgingly approved the fine wine.

  Thankfully, the server seemed to have decided he had tormented them enough. He was silent when he delivered and collected plates and wine. The food was divine. For a while, Alice and Luke ate silently, just exchanging glances a little subdued by the food between them. Their fingers brushed when they reached for bruschetta or to pour more wine.

  Before now, Alice had thought it only happened in books, that renowned electricity from touch. Maybe it lessened and died down over time, but it was delicious and so thrilling right now. This was why she didn’t want to kiss him yet; because she wanted to trace that electric buzz along the curve of his ear. She wanted to mess her fingers through his hair and rest her cheek against his heart.

  Finally, they sat back spooning dessert into their mouths and making faces of bliss at each other. She imagined curling up in the winter sunshine for a nap with Luke, or sitting across from him in her living room while they both read. They were sharing this silence, and it made her heart open to him as a flower does to sun.

  “So, you’re a reader and I’m a reader. What else do we have in common?” Luke asked, breaking the meal’s sacred quiet.

  “That’s not important, is it?” said Alice. “There are so many people with so many things in common and they still end up hating each other.”

  Luke put down his spoon and leaned his elbows on the table, one hand around his wine glass. “Tell me things about you and I’ll do the same. Will you start with your real name?”

  “Alessia Luisa Martelli. But I don’t answer to Alessia. It’s just thrown at me like a slipper when I misbehave.”

  He chuckled and nodded, tilting his head as if to better scoop that with his ear, or maybe just displaying his jawline to her. Alice continued eating her gelato.

  “Lucian Neville,” he said.

  “I’m Catholic,” she said.

  “I’m Catholic,” he replied with a smile.

  Alice smirked. “I like the Virgin Mary and I dislike many outdated notions in the Church.”

  He smirked back. “I like the Virgin Mary myself. But after my Confirmation, I lost touch with my confessor. I haven’t made an effort to study the Church since, so I am unaware to which outdated notions you refer.”

  “You have a confessor?”

  He blinked. “Of course, don’t you? I suppose you won’t be telling him you lied to a stranger, will you?”

  She grinned. “The last time I went to confession was before my Confirmation, too. I still go to Mass now and then.”

  “Are you going tomorrow?”

  Alice thought how much her mother would love this. A Catholic. And what did she always tell Alice? “You want a man who goes to church and listens and kneels and makes the responses all at the right time. Your father does, and he hasn’t given us heartache, has he?”

  “Yes.” After a very short hesitation, she added, “Do you want to come with me?”

  Luke’s answer was to blind her with his smile. Goodness, he should stop looking so pleased. She wouldn’t be able to help assuming she was really important. He made her feel important and sought after. And how could that be, when he looked like that?

  He was probably only intrigued with her because she resisted his pull. But when she succumbed, he’d go on to the next girl in the queue. Her father had warned her about men like this. Alice was waiting, wondering whether the flirtatious romance could outweigh the inevitable heartache.

  When Justin had pulled that bewildering jump from Alice to her friend April, Alice had vowed she wouldn’t play at love like that. But here was Luke, making it so tempting to play and to experience, just to experience without thinking about the future.

  Alice took another spoonful of fior di latte gelato and steeled herself. Ok, she was going to Mass with him tomorrow, and the church would bless her resolve to spend time with Luke without endangering anything. Not her heart, most of all.

  He was really threatening to her heart. He raised her eyebrows at her when the check came, wordlessly asking for permission to pay, not taking for granted that he, as the man, would. He came around to her chair and shielded her from an influx of new diners as she stood up. There were subtle lines between chivalry and chauvinism, and he knew those lines. Alice liked it.

  He offered his arm and she took it. They walked under the street lights, quiet, not trying to compete with the noise pollution around them. Alice liked that, too, that he wasn’t fishing for anything, for thanks or idle chit-chat.

  She led him to her street before stopping.

  He looked at her and smiled.

  “For a first date, we failed rather spectacularly, didn’t we?” she said. “We hardly talked.”

  “I notice we hardly talk. It’s like we already know each other.”

  Alice shook her head. “It was because we were hungry. Tell me what you do in Elmera at least.”

  “I’m in the royal corps. It’s not a demanding job. I’m also in funds committees, a position given to me through my father, who’s... how would you say... big there. There are a lot of big people there.”

  “Committees? What sort?”

  “Hmm, there are three. One for children, one for young adults and one for horses.”

  “For horses?”

  “Polo.” He grimaced. “I wish I worked in a bookstore. But that’s not all you do, is it?”

  Alice smiled. “Society seems convinced that if we love what we do, it’s not a job. My best friend Rebecca is in law school though she’ll probably age prematurely once she’s a prosecutor. Clay’s a freelance accountant. Marsha tutors ESL and—”

  “I asked about you. You haven’t even introduced these people to me yet. You dragged me away from them, if I recall.”
r />   Alice blushed. “Yes, well, I thought we should have our first date first before I sic them on you. I mean, they would have asked you what you do and we would all have found out at the same time. That’s hardly fair, is it? I should be the first to know.”

  He chuckled. “I promise you’ll always be the first to know. So what do you do?”

  “I work in Strand.”

  “That’s all?”

  “And I read. And I try to write. But I’m always distracted. I think I’ll only finish a book if you stuck me in a cottage on a moor somewhere; with intelligent internet that will only give me access when I do research, and remove the connection when I start to look up too much, too many other things. There. Do you want my degrees, blood type and zodiac sign, too?”

  “No,” he said, playing with her hand, the one tucked into his elbow. “I can Google those, I think.”

  Alice laughed, making it sound as carefree as possible; when in truth his touch was making her quiver.

  They reached her brownstone too soon. They stood at the base of the steps and Alice had to grit her teeth to pull away her hand.

  “Thank you for this evening, Alice.” He gave the facade an once-over. “It looks nice. When do I see inside?”

  Alice laughed again. “I do believe that’s a line.”

  He only laughed as well. “Is it? I hardly know what I say when I’m with you.”

  “And there’s another!”

  He kissed her again, this time on the forehead. It was such a tender gesture Alice almost whimpered in her throat.

  “Good night. I’ll see you tomorrow. When and where?”

  Alice heard herself say, “Eight. Corpus Christi. If you don’t know it, come here ten minutes beforehand.”

  “And I’m going to see inside your abode?”

  “Abode! Get on with you, good sir.”

  Chapter Seven - Luke

  Luke fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He dreamed of Alice. In the dream, she wasn’t as modestly dressed in a red shirt and jeans as she had been during their date. She wore a long evening gown and it was summer in Elmera. They were on the stone balcony overlooking his grounds, the land he would inherit. In his dream he could see the frail bones of her shoulders and the freckles of her skin. She wore a delicious gauze dress that looked as though it were spun from sugar.