‘If it’s so easy – if it only takes a day, a moment, a new dress and some shoes and a hairstyle that didn’t quite suit you – to transform someone into something that fits into my world, why on earth would it matter to me at all?’
My eyes drift closed the second he says it, as though I’m sinking into something soft and comforting and, most of all, obvious. Oh, it’s so obvious I could kick myself, but instead I do what I should have all along. I should have done it the moment I met him, or at the very least five seconds ago.
He flew hundreds of miles to make me feel better. He’s holding me and loving me and, more importantly, he wants me to be myself. He’s OK with me.
I am OK with me.
‘I love you, Janos. I love you for everything you are, and everything you’ve done. In all my life I’ve never met anyone like you. I didn’t think I deserved anyone like you. But you make me believe I do, every day.’
‘And do you know why?’
‘I think I can guess.’
‘Because it’s true, love. You deserve to be happy. And if I can, I will spend every second I have making sure you are.’
‘Even if I’m not fancy?’
‘Especially if you’re not fancy.’
‘And if I’m a fool, what then?’
‘I’ll make you believe again.’
‘I might be difficult.’
‘You always are.’
‘I could fight you, and run from you, and tell you I don’t really love you at all.’
‘And if so I’ll say what I always do, whenever you try to hide from me,’ he murmurs, against the side of my face. His lips are almost on mine and my lips are almost on his, and all I need is to hear it, before we finally kiss.
‘Say it for me now, then,’ I tell him, and he does, oh, he does.
He speaks the word as though it’s the sweetest sentiment in the world.
And here, now, it is.
‘Liar,’ he says.
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Copyright
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Copyright © Charlotte Stein
Charlotte Stein asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Ebook Edition © 2013 ISBN: 9780007530229
Version 1
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