The Proposal

by Jasmine Guillory

didn’t walk all the way over here to find out how my business is going. How are you? How bad is it?” Nik

“Today there’s no particular mission other than seeing if I can find a book I’m in the mood for. I have stacks of brand-new books at home, all of which I was excited to read when I bought them, but now . . . none of them seem quite right to me.” He nodded. “Yeah, I know how that is. All of the books that you have are sad books when you’re in a happy book mood, or vice versa. Or dense when you want a page-turner.”

He looked at her like her body was a joy to behold, like he couldn’t wait to touch her, kiss her, like he was lucky to be here with her without any clothes on. Damn right he was.

are married people in L.A. People arrive in L.A. in serious relationships or already married, that’s the only way

Good God, sometimes it felt like all of society was complicit in trying to make life harder for women.

WAS THIS WHAT LOVE WAS? Being happy when you thought about someone; wanting to never stop thinking about them, even when you were fighting; having every damn thing in the grocery store remind you of them, from diapers to sour cream; wanting to be a better writer and friend and person because of how they were and how they made you feel; wanting to be with them, all the time, even though you kept fighting it.