By Any Other Name

by Lauren Kate

That’s the thing about romance. Its prospect can make even the most curmudgeonly blush.

“The first few years of parenting is like watching the man you used to want to fuck twenty-four/seven be slow-motion Frankensteined into a pastiche of every quality you loathe—

I realized that expectations are rarely rooted in reality, and maybe all the monk was talking about was acceptance. Maybe relationships truly begin with acceptance of who the other is.

“So,” BD says, “have we gotten to the part yet where Lanie is a free agent in southern Italy? Because those men … mamma mia! And we all know how she feels about chest hair. Lanie, honey, the Italian word for morning-after pill is pillola del giorno dopo. Say it with me—

know life is ephemeral, and we only get to do it once, but some true things—like this embrace, like the best love stories—live on.

The idea of revision is also at the heart of their romance. I think for many relationships, when one or both people change, it can feel scary, undesired. But as a writer and an editor, Lanie and Noa(h) understand what’s beautiful about change. They don’t expect each other to stay the same as they were in the first draft. They welcome the different versions each of them will become.