Page 193 - The Midnight Library

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Dinner with Dylan

La Cantina had hardly changed in years.

Nora had a flashback to the evening she had taken Dan there years ago,
on his first visit to Bedford. ey’d sat at a table in a corner and had too
many margaritas and talked about their joint future. It was the first time that
Dan had expressed his dream of living in a pub in the countr y. ey had
been on the verge of moving in together, just as Nora and Dylan apparently

were in this life. Now she remembered it, Dan had been pretty rude to the
waiter, and Nora had overcompensated with excessive smiles. It was one of
life’s rules – Never trust someone who is willingly rude to low-paid ser vice staff

– and Dan had failed at that one, and many of the others. Although Nora
had to admit, La Cantina would not have been her top choice to return to.
‘I love this place,’ Dylan said now, looking around at the busy, garish red-
and-yellow décor. Nora wondered, quiet ly, if there was any place Dylan
didn’t or wouldn’t love. He seemed like he would be able to sit in a field near

Chernobyl and mar vel at the beautiful scener y.
Over black bean tacos, they talked about dogs and school. Dylan had
been two years below Nora and remembered her primarily as ‘the girl who

was good at swimming’. He even remembered the school assembly – which
Nora had long tried to repress – where she had been called on stage and
given a certificate for being an exceptional representative of Hazeldene
Comp. Now she thought about it, that was possibly the moment Nora had
begun to go off swimming. e moment she found it harder being with her

friends, the moment she slunk away into the margins of school life.
‘I used to see you in the librar y during breaks,’ he said, smiling at the
memor y. ‘I remember seeing you playing chess with that librarian we used