Beach Read

January and Shadi talk all through the night as the storm continues in waves. Shadi has had a bad history with falling in love with the wrong men and is happy that she can finally be the one comforting January instead. Shadi says it’s time for January to fall in love. All this time she’s known January, January has never fallen in love. January brings up Jacques, to which Shadi replies, “with him, you never fell, Janie. You marched straight in” (338). January and Shadi confirm their love for one another. They fall asleep as dawn breaks, the storm clouds lingering.

January wakes up to pounding on the door. It’s still storming outside. Gus pleads with January through the door to come outside and talk to him. January thinks carefully about what to do, then realizes she’s strong enough to handle whatever Gus has to tell her.

By the time she goes to the door, the knocking has stopped. Shadi applauds January’s decision. January rushes outside in the pouring rain to see that Gus is gone. His vehicle isn’t in front of his house. She panics, thinking she has let him go and has missed her opportunity to speak with him. January cries. When Gus’s porch light flickers on, she realizes he’s home. Gus opens his door and steps outside again. Upon seeing January, he moves towards her, both of them now soaked.

Gus suggests they dance in the rain. January laughs, and they dance. She asks what happened to his car, and he explains it’s stuck on the side of the road for now. January asks if that was Naomi. Gus says yes. She wanted to talk, so they went next door to the bar. Naomi wanted to get back together with Gus. She stopped seeing his roommate a while ago. She said she wanted to work things out. Gus tells January that he thought about it and thought it might work between them. He gave himself time to consider it, and he could really see himself being with Naomi again. They continue to dance.

January’s heart is broken, but she holds strong, listening to Gus intently. Gus tells her to look at him and holds her tighter. He clarifies that he loves her and would rather be with her than Naomi. He says he doesn’t feel claustrophobic when he’s with her, and he wants to prove to her that he can love her forever. They continue to dance in the rain, vowing to be happy-for-now even if they are unsure about their happily-ever-after.

It’s nine months after their dance in the rain. January’s book sold three weeks before Gus’s, but Gus’s sold for more money. Both are satisfied with the works they’ve completed, and neither has used a pen name. January’s book, The Great Family Marconi, was not published by the same company she wrote her romance books for, but she already has her next romance novel in the works. Anya is satisfied with the work and hasn’t dropped January as a client.

January has sold her dad’s house and gotten an apartment in town, but she spends most of her time at Gus’s house. January describes the winter in town and how magical it all is to her. She understands why her dad loved it so much.

On the day of Gus’s birthday, instead of a party, he and January sit on the beach and read each other’s books. The next day, they go back to the beach for more reading, and January finishes Gus’s book first.

Gus’s book, The Cup is Already Broken, still takes place in a cult. However, there is a romantic plot in which the two romantic leads are able to escape. Unfortunately, true to Gus’s style, the book ends with the two characters dying, distracted by a meteor while driving through the woods. January is not disappointed by the lack of happily-ever-after but amused by it. She sees it as true to life: “doing everything you can to survive only to be sabotaged by something beyond your control, maybe even some darker part of yourself” (353-54).

January relates this ending to cancer, heartbreak, lust, and loneliness. She finds solace in the fact that the two characters were distracted by the meteor’s beauty and were able to enjoy their last moments before crashing into a truck. She lies down in the sand and lets tears trickle as she watches the sky. Gus asks her what’s wrong and wipes the tears from her cheeks. January asks what happened to Gus’s happy ending. He explains that it was happy for the characters as they’d ended their story with no regrets, having won their battle against the cult.

January relates this ending to her father’s death; he died in his sleep after a regular night, comfortable at home and happy with her mom. January went home to visit her mom for Christmas and was able to get her mom to talk about her dad more than before.

Gus insists that January wrote a happy ending because the daughter’s love interest, despite being married to someone else, is clearly going to end up with the daughter eventually. They joke about both failing their objectives, then head back to Gus’s house. When they arrive, Gus leads her into the darkened house. He flips on the light, and their family and friends jump out to surprise them. Gus pulls a piece of paper from his pocket, on which he has written “MARRY ME.” January accepts. The book ends on her acknowledging that happily-ever-after is an ongoing process of happy-for-nows strung together. She is happy with Gus and doesn’t worry about the future.