The Love Interest

by Victoria Walters

Being surrounded by books all day was quite simply my idea of heaven.

But what kind of man made me swoon? ‘Definitely tall, dark and handsome…’ I whispered to myself as I put the books away.

I try to avoid him as much as I possibly can.’ ‘Why? He looked like someone right out of a romance novel to me. Tall, dark, handsome…’

Opening up the door, I called out, ‘Honey, I’m home,’ – our usual greeting now I’d moved in. ‘Honey, we’re in here,’ a voice called back, which stopped me in my tracks. There was no mistaking that Irish accent.

‘Actually, I read it a couple of years ago. After you got drunk at Dan’s birthday party and talked for an hour about what a great book it is.’

‘Reading romance doesn’t make you hard to please. It gives you standards. Why shouldn’t we wait for someone special and not settle down with just anyone? Why shouldn’t we want someone to treat us well and be romantic?’

The problem is your standards mean you end up reading a book alone in your room every night.

‘You don’t think that we’ve set the bar too high, do you? That because of our love of romance novels we’re too hard to please?’ ‘I think we expect the bare minimum and that’s a stretch for most of the men out there today. Nope. We don’t need to settle. I know what real love is like and that’s what we deserve.’

I inhaled and exhaled a calming breath and reminded myself that I would soon be surrounded by books that I could buy, and that made me a feel a lot better about everything.

‘So, if a man wants to kiss you in the rain they have to give advance notice so you can tailor your makeup accordingly?’ Aiden whispered back. As the light was so dim and he couldn’t see, I let myself smile at that. ‘I’d allow it as a spontaneous moment.’