Page 52, “The Persuasion”
Janos suggested that we meet in the apartment on the Monday after New Year’s to discuss the details, which would give me time to think about what such a room might look like, he said. I woke up in the middle of the night before the day of the meeting with my head feeling as if it had been cracked open with a pickaxe. I told Tonin to postpone, slept until nearly noon, missed my first two classes ever, and a session with my adviser.
“Next Tuesday,” Tonin said that night at dinner. “Janos is raring to go.”
“Oh, I can’t next Tuesday.”
“What’s wrong with next Tuesday?”
“It’s my mother’s birthday and I never like to do anything complicated that day.”
“OK, Wednesday.”
“Not Wednesday. You know how crammed Wednesdays are. That’s the day we put out the paper. How about February?"
Tonin stood, put the dishes in the sink, and left the kitchen for his study, closing the door hard enough behind him that the china in the antique cherry hutch rattled. I skipped our afternoon coffee date and had dinner with a friend. He was already asleep when I went to bed. When I got up the next morning, he’d already gone and I found a note on the kitchen table:
MJ—you can pretend that
this is not forever but you’re only fooling yourself. Janos coming this
afternoon. I love you, silly girl.
