Chapter 20: 20. Beach Read

Beach Read is a 2020 contemporary romance novel by Emily Henry. In which, January Andrews, a successful romance novel writer reconnect and bond over writer’s block with Augustus Everett, her former rival in college and now an acclaimed literary fiction author. They challenge each other to spend the summer writing a novel in each other’s genres. [Source: Wikipedia]

*****

FFANC: Nathan knew it was one of her favorite books.

*****

Chapter Twenty: Beach Read

“Screw Landon,” I muttered under my breath.

“That’s right,” Nathan sat down beside me, “He’s everything that is wrong with this world.”

“He can go to hell,” I said, my anger rising, “With his stupid gelled hair, and his stupid white sneakers, and his stupid khakis.”

“And the way he walks around as if he’s the best,” Nathan added.

“And the fact that he is a trust fund baby and flaunts his money in everyone’s face,” I said, “He can fly to New York to check out Ivy Leagues as if they belonged to his father.”

Nathan nodded in agreement, “His stupid silk shirt and him putting on airs.”

“And his stupid freaking girlfriend that he will take to Prom.” I breathed out.

Nathan stared at me. His gaze was sharp, “So that was what it was about?”

I looked away from him, “What else would it be about?”

“Oh,” he sounded almost disappointed, “I thought you knew we were just cussing him out in general because you have finally gotten over him.”

I swallowed and fiddled with my pen.

“I think… I actually have.”

“Oh. Why the change of heart?” Nathan asked, glancing at me.

“I don't know. Maybe I just liked him because he was around? Like I never really knew who he was as a person.”

Nathan laughed, “Didn’t you say you loved him?”

I huffed. “I- I would have never said that. I didn't mean it. You were teasing me, and I just blurted it out on a whim!”

Nathan rolled his eyes.

“It’s the truth. The look on your face, when I said it, was worth it.” I replied.

“Your love’s so fickle, Kingsley. I thought-”

“It's not.” I gritted my teeth.

Nathan turned silent.

“So anyways. As I was saying, now we can be anti-romantic together.”

Nathan raised his eyebrow. “So you are giving up on all things romance because of Landon McArther.”

“Gosh, no. Not because of him. You don't understand -”

When I looked at Nathan, he was laughing so hard his shoulders were shaking.

“What's so funny?” I narrowed my eyes.

He shook his head, “Nothing.”

“Hrmph,” I looked away from him as Wong walked in.

Our chemistry teacher made us work on our group project. I knew Nathan was not going to make me work all alone, even though he said that yesterday. I was right. We both took our turns solving the problems.

My phone buzzed. Leanna had texted about the dress shopping. I said ‘no’ once again and told her I’d walk home and not to worry.

Wong tortured us for the entirety of the class, and when Nathan and I walked out, I was gasping for air. I hated chemistry.

“I want to go book shopping,” I announced.

“Romance?” He cocked his head and asked.

“No, I told you I'm anti-romantic for now,” I said as my eyes fell on the prom poster. The sickeningly sweet font and hearts all over it made me want to punch the walls until they shook.

Nathan followed my eyes but didn't say anything.

We walked side by side towards the parking lot.

“In the spirit of being unromantic, you are going to come with me as I buy some thriller or murder-mystery.” I said.

“I am going book shopping?” Nathan asked me.

“Yes, unless you have work,” I replied, “I am going to pick up some books about serial killers while my friends go to prom dress shops and get overpriced tulle and lace.”

“Let me ask,” Nathan was walking by me, side by side, “do they have dates?”

I puckered my lips, “No, they don’t.”

We reached his car in the parking lot. We got in, and I told him the directions to the nearest Barnes and Nobles, “So they are going to come alone?”

“As a group,” I said, “all of them, together.”

“So, why are you not with them?”

I thought about my dilemma for a while. I might be honest for once.

“Because I told them I'm not going if I don't have a date.”

“Wow,” Nathan said as he drove.

“So yeah.”

“What made you say that?” Nathan asked. I shuffled nervously and tried change the subject.

“Did you even read the book I had around, or were you just staring at it?”

Nathan spared me a glance, “So subtle, Kingsley, the subject change.”

I shrugged, “Do you even remember the names of the characters?”

Nathan let it go, “Something about hearts or something. There was this Jacks guy who was tryna get on with someone else’s wife?”

I had to stifle my surprise burst of laughter with a hand over my mouth.

“What? Am I supposed to feel sorry for him? Because the author really tried to make me.”

I giggled as I said, “I can't believe you picked up the last book of a series and started reading from the middle of it and now blame the author.”

“Dunno, there was a lot of talk about hearts and feelings,” he made a face, “and I didn't quite like the Jacks guy.”

I glared, “Oh, Callahan. Speak very carefully. One bad word about that guy, and who knows what I might do to you?”

Nathan turned the engine off as we had reached and turned to me, “Really?”

“Aha.” I nodded.

“I can't believe it.” He gripped his steering wheel and shook his head. I smiled in reply.

Then he got out of his seat, opening the door. I was doing the same when he came around to my side of the car. He opened the door and leaned in.

I was surprised by this sudden invasion, “The things you make me do, Kingsley.”

I raised my eyebrow, “Huh?”

Then Nathan flicked my forehead.

I yelled and tried to grab him, but he was already laughing and walking backwards. I shook my head and followed suit.

I might have come for murder mystery, but the romance shelves pulled me like magnets. I could never avoid those. I walked right there with Nathan Callahan after me. Who would’ve thought this day would come – Emily Kingsley walking in the romance section with Nathan Callahan in tow?

I entered like a battered and bruised soldier of love, still holding on to her principles, fighting till her last breath, hoping there would be some miracle that would win this war of romance that didn’t survive in this cruel world, only in the world of fiction.

God, I wished I was living in any of the books around. Not the Colleen Hoover ones though.

“That one is about fake-dating, but not really fake-dating,” I pointed to a cover on the table beside us, “She pretends to be someone’s girlfriend for a night.”

Nathan looked at where I had pointed. He nodded, “Nice.”

“I know what you are thinking, ‘unrealistic bullshit’.”

“Does she pretend to be the girlfriend of the lead guy?” He asked as I looked around. The colors of the covers were washing away my sorrows while making my chest hurt.

“Nope, his brother,” I said with a dramatic flare. Nathan gasped on cue, and we laughed.

I pointed to The Love Hypothesis, and Nathan followed my eyes, “That one has a cute age gap, and she says ‘I love you’ in Dutch at the end.”

“Oh?” He asked as we moved from one table to another.

“It goes something like,” I looked into his green eyes and said, “Ik hou van jou.”

He stared at me, looking perplexed, and I laughed, “I am pretty sure my pronunciation is all wrong, but that's how.”

Nathan blinked, standing where he was, motionless. I shrugged and moved on. He joined me some minutes later.

I found The Hating Game, “Oh, this one is my favorite.” I brought out the copy, “She is five feet, and he is six. The height difference gets me every time. And, and,” I added enthusiastically, “He painted his bedroom the color of her eye because he fell for her. She was so oblivious.”

Nathan glanced me as I put it back, “Wow, that would be difficult.”

He was looking at my eyes.

I opened my mouth to reply, but he continued, “A little green, a little blue with a subtle brown base, but not too much. It would be so hard to replicate.”

He was leaning against the bookshelves as he spoke. I walked up to him and elbowed him in the stomach,“Stop joking.”

“Aw,” Nathan said covering his stomach with his palm. I shook my head and he straightened.

He suddenly looked behind my shoulder as if something had caught his attention, “Look, your name. Emily-”

“Henry,” I finished for him, “It's amazing to share names with a somewhat 40-year-old romance writer and millions of other people.”

“You don't like your name?” Nathan asked as he checked out the title. It was Beach Read he had picked up. I remembered how much I had loved Augustus Everett the first time I read this book.

“I wish my name was uncommon,” I replied, staring at Nathan Callahan’s features; his green eyes, his black hair that fell in messy strands all over his forehead and thinking he might look like a teenage version of one of my favorite romance heroes, “Unique and beautiful.”

Nathan suddenly looked up at me, “Emily.”

My breath hitched, and I swallowed, “Yeah, I know my name.”

“Emily, Emily. Emily.” He said, his mouth stretching into a smile. That damn bottom lip.

“Yes, Nathan, Nathan, Nathan,” I replied.

“God, I love it when you say my name,” he slipped as he looked back at the book, casually and easily, as he always did. Nothing was hard for Nathan Callahan. He could throw in comments like that, leaning against a romance bookshelf, holding one of my favorite romance books by a writer who shared my name.

Unfazed, unabashed, and always right through my heart.

I pushed back all my thoughts and tried to stop being dazzled. We had wasted enough time. I pulled him by the wrist, but he was busy reading the blurb.

“A romance writer who writes happily ever after,” he murmured as walked.

“That’s January Andrews, the female protagonist,” I replied.

“A literary fiction writer who kills off his entire cast,” Nathan’s eyes gleamed as he read that.

“That’s Augustus Everett,” I said with a sigh.

“If I ever write a book, I’d kill off my entire cast at the end,” Nathan grinned as if he liked the idea very much.

“Of course you would,” I said, “just for the drama.”

He looked forward now, done reading the synopsis, “Yes. I love drama.”

I laughed, shaking my head.

“And you’d be something like the female protagonist writing romance with a happily ever after,” he stopped in his tracks, “Tell me, do they end up together?”

“Can’t tell you that,” I faced him.

“But it’s romance, and it’s supposed to be happy, right?” Nathan said. He looked like he cared. So, to toy with him, I looked around and found just the book I was looking for.

I pick up the cover with the movie poster, Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley lying together in the grass, “In this one, the guy dies at the end.”

Nathan let out a fake gasp, “No way.”

“Yes, way.” I put the book back to the shelf, “It isn’t always happily ever after.”

We started walking again, “Did you cry?”

“A bucket,” I told him, “His name was also August. Augustus Waters.”

“You really do love your Augusts.” Nathan said smiling, slightly.

“Taylor Swift has a song, ‘august’. It's been four years since its release, but it's still my favorite song.”

And I can see us lost in the memory,

august slipped away like a bottle of wine,

cause you were never mine.

I hummed underneath my breath.

“You... look happy.”

Nathan commented suddenly. I kept my eyes trained on the books around us.

We had stopped walking again since I got distracted by another plethora of new releases.

“Because this is my safe space… you are lucky I'm letting you see my safe space.”

My ears heated as I said that. I tried to avoid looking at him. But I failed.

Nathan was gazing at me. One of his hands closed around the book he had picked and another shoved into his pockets. He looked comfortable. He looked like he fit here, in my safe space.

Then he said softly, “I think, I think someone looks the most beautiful when they do something they love.”

I swallowed and looked away.

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Shit, Emily. Did I just say something profound?” Nathan chuckled.

I laughed.

“What have you done? You have turned me into a poet.”

We looked at each other.

He glanced at my lips.

Then he looked away.

Nathan examined his copy of Beach Read and said, “I have to buy this, don't I?”

“Yup.”

I bumped into a table on our way out of the romance section. It was filled with young adult romances. I grabbed Better Than the Movies.

“This is a prom book,” I started, “She is a fan of rom-coms and is a hopeless romantic. She has this hot bad boy neighbor, Wes. There is also her childhood crush, Michael I think. She is so clueless about who she actually likes.”

Nathan listened to the whole speech and deadpanned with a straight face, “Sounds like someone I know.”

I smiled, “The hopeless romantic bit is where I relate to Liz the most. But I would never be as clueless as her about knowing whom I’m in love with.”

Nathan's eyes bored into mine, “Oh, sure.”

“I am very self-conscious, Nathan Callahan,” I said as I put the book down.

He searched my face with his eyes, and I held my stare for a while before walking away. I finally headed to the mystery section.

I ended up buying The Guest List by Lucy Foley, and Nathan bought Beach Read.

I was bad mouthing prom once again and telling him how amazing it was that we were book-shopping instead of prom dress shopping, as we walked out of the shop. The latter was definitely the most boring activity anyone had ever come across. Who needed tulle? Not me.

I was blabbering my heart out. Nathan was walking ahead of me, holding both of our bags.

He turned around suddenly and looked directly into my eyes, “Tell me something.”

“What?”

“On a scale of one to ten, how much do you wanna go to prom?” He asked, looking serious.

Even though I was shit talking about Prom and all that, I sighed and decided to tell him the truth.

“A zero without a date, a hundred with a date,” I answered in all honesty.

He nodded like he got it, “Well then.”

“What?” I asked again.

Nathan took a few steps to get close to me, then he said, “I'll take you to prom.”

*****

A/N: *screams*