‘Let me guess? Girl meets boy. They fall in love. La-di-dah-di-dah, they live happily ever after?’ Sylvia put her hands on her hips and shook her head with a wry smile.
‘Something like that,’ Lorelai mumbled, hiding the book under the table so her grandmother couldn’t see that that was exactly what she was reading.
‘Those stories are wonderful to escape into,’ Sylvia said gently,‘and you should enjoy as many of them as you wish. But that’s not how love works in the real world, sweetheart. Love is messy and complicated. Listen, let me tell you a real love story.’ She sat down at the table. ‘Have I ever told you how I met your grandfather?’ she whispered, mischievously. Lorelai shook her head and stifled a laugh behind her hands. ‘Well, your grandfather was engaged to be married when I met him.’
‘No!’ Lorelai gasped.
‘He was. Poor girl. I did feel bad for her. She was sweet but your grandfather’s heart wasn’t in it. He was working at a big newspaper company and I was their new receptionist. Before I knew it, I couldn’t shake him off. He was always turning up for something or other.’ Sylvia puffed out her chest and lowered her voice to do her best impression of her husband. ‘“Have I got any mail? How about now? Can I borrow a pencil?”’ She laughed. ‘He’d walked three floors down just to ask to borrow a pencil! Of course, I knew he was engaged and so I always dismissed him, although he never came out and said he was interested in me. To be honest, I was too distracted to pay him much mind. I’d not been sleeping well around that time, but even so, I knew what he was up to. The problem was so did his fiancée. One night she turned up to meet him after work. Straight away she was eyeing me up and as soon as I told her my name, she slapped me clean across the face! In front of everyone! Goodness knows what your grandfather or anyone else had said to her about me but clearly it was enough for her to slap me. Well, she broke off the engagement and I lost my job because of it. So I left and I thought I’d never see him again.’
Twelve-year-old Lorelai leaned in, eyes wide, knowing there was more to come.
‘So anyway,’ Sylvia continued, ‘I manage to get myself a job as a receptionist for a dentist on Harley Street and, one day, Doctor Gill says he has a spare ticket for a show in London that he now can’t go to. I snapped it up. I love a bit of theatre, me. What he didn’t say was that I’d be sitting next to the person he was meant to be going with.’
‘And it was Grandpa?!’ Lorelai squealed.
‘It was your grandpa.’ Sylvia nodded, smiling at the memory. ‘He apologised all night about me losing my job, but I wasn’t having any of it! That poor woman he was engaged to! My heart went out to her. She must have been so humiliated. I stayed for the show, which was marvellous, but I got out of there pretty sharpish and lost him in the crowds on Shaftesbury Avenue. I didn’t see him for a few months and then, one day, I’m walking along Oxford Street and someone steals my purse! Pinches it right out of my hand and runs off with it down the street. Someone starts chasing after them and manages to wrestle the bag back off them. The mugger got away, but without my purse. And who was it who rescued my purse and brought it back to me?’
‘Grandpa!’ Lorelai exclaimed.
‘Grandpa, would you believe it?! So I begin to think the universe is playing a little game here. I believe that things like this always happen in threes so I thought, how about I see if one more coincidence happens before I give in and ask him out for dinner.’
‘And it did? Of course it did because I know how the story ends!’ Lorelai clapped her hands together.
‘Yes, darling. It did. As you know, I love my photographs. I had a beautiful camera that I used sparingly. Only took photos I really wanted to take and I’d get the roll of film developed when I had the money. Well, I’d been waiting for a roll of film to come back fora while and when I finally got it, I was excited to see a specific picture I’d taken in Trafalgar Square of one of the lions covered in pigeons. On the day I’d taken the photo, I’d been so focused on getting the lion’s head in the shot that I hadn’t realised someone had been sitting between the paws of the lion eating his lunch.’
‘No! You’re joking?!’ Lorelai’s mouth dropped open.
‘I’d taken a photo of your grandpa without realising. After that, I couldn’t deny it any longer. The universe was pushing us together and I tell you something, my darling girl, the night that we finally went out to dinner was like…magic.’ Sylvia had a faraway look in her eyes.
‘I thought you were trying to convince me that love at first sight doesn’t exist?’ Lorelai asked.
‘All I’m saying is that your books make it sound so simple. Your grandpa and I had lots of highs, but we had lots of lows, too. Books end at happily ever after but the rest of the story, what happens next, is long, hard and can be incredibly bumpy. But if you really love each other, it’s all worth it.’ Sylvia gave Lorelai’s hand a little squeeze.
‘And was it? Worth it?’ Lorelai looked at her grandmother, her eyes full of hope.
‘Darling, there’s not a second of my life with your grandpa I’d change. Not for all the riches in the world.’
‘Grandma, you’ve done aterriblejob at convincing me real life isn’t like my stories. That sounds like a fairy-tale romance to me.’
The following year, Lorelai kissed Arthur Trent and she realised that a fairy-tale romance was something she would never have.
Nineteen
‘So what did Grayson say?’ Joanie asked. She and Lorelai were in The Duchess storage room.
‘When?’
‘When you went after him, obviously!’ Joanie gave Lorelai a playful shove.
‘Well, I didn’t actually…’ Lorelai’s words fell away as she opened the door and began to retreat from the room.
Joanie caught the door before Lorelai could escape. She threw her weight against it, pulling it out of Lorelai’s grip, and slammed it closed. ‘Lorelai Sanderson. Are you telling me that you didn’t go after him, that you didn’t try to explain the misunderstanding? That, after all the messages you left him, and a pep talk from not only me but Riggs as well, that when he finally turned up…you gave up?’
Joanie looked furious. She rarely lost her temper and it was even rarer for Lorelai to be on the receiving end.
‘I haven’t given up! I’ve just… I’ve…’ Lorelai floundered.
‘Lorelai Sanderson,’ Joanie growled.
