By any other name, p.22
By Any Other Name,
p.22
Mom, I think, I did it. I can feel you.
And now . . . I know what I have to do once my feet are back on the ground. I have to tell Noah. He’s the one I really, really love.
“For you, Lanie,” Cecilia says, turning the glider to the right with a pivot of the metal bar, “I present a special tour, of our most romantic allusions. Look to the right, and you will see Li Galli islands off the coast of Positano. This is where Odysseus resisted the sirens.”
I turn to see the rocky shoreline in the distance, the waves crashing on it. It’s breathtaking—and easy to imagine the sirens singing there. I think about Odysseus resisting the irresistible, lashing himself to his ship to keep from crashing, to live more life and have more joy. To make it to the place his epic meant to take him all along.
I want to tell Noah about all of this. About Li Galli islands. About lovely Cecilia and her boyfriend, the fan. About the Ducati, and the view from my hotel room, and his chic Italian editor. About how it feels to fly.
But it’s more than that. I don’t just want to tell Noah about these things. I want to share them with him. I want him here. I want Noah with me in the sky, where we can gaze out at the future—the golden, glorious, complicated balance of our lives.
* * *
I’m halfway back to the Bacio when I spot the silver Moto Guzzi V7 motorcycle in my side-view mirror. It’s a hot bike, sporty and refined—and with his vintage motorcycle boots, dark jeans, and suede bomber jacket, it’s easy to imagine the driver is as sexy underneath his helmet. When I glance back over my shoulder, he revs his engine, flirting.
“Not today, signor,” I mutter, wishing my life were so simple that I could lose an afternoon at a cliff-side café with an Italian stranger. But I’d be awful company, checking my phone every other minute, praying for Noah to call.
I try not to notice that the Moto Guzzi takes the same left turn I do onto Viale Pasitea. Or that he winds with me up the hillside growing steeper by the meter, and turns into the Bacio’s tiny parking lot behind me.
We roll to a stop at the same time under a flowering bougainvillea vine, parking beneath the breezy archway of the hotel’s street entrance.
Illicit tryst, I hear BD screaming from her Peloton back home, but that ship has sailed. I’ve got a speech to rewrite and careers to save. I’ve got a space in my heart crying out for just one man.
I climb off the bike, shake my hair loose from my helmet, fix my bangs. I’m trying to make it inside the hotel, through the lobby, and up the stairwell to my room, all without looking back at Mr. Moto Guzzi, when a familiar voice says—
“Nice weaves. Very smooth.”
I stop walking. I stop breathing. I turn around slowly, trying to prepare myself for something that can’t possibly be real. My heart is racing as Mr. Moto Guzzi climbs off the bike and takes his helmet off.
Noah gazes back at me, that mesmerizing look in his green eyes. The one that had me transfixed from the first time I saw him.
I feel everything at once—
Relieved to hear his voice. Bewildered that he’s here. Overjoyed to see his face, his lips, his eyes, and all that shiny, tugable hair. Flushed with desire. Scared that we’ve messed everything up. Hungry to put my hands on him. And that lightning bolt that’s always in me when Noah is around.
So this is it. This scary, inconvenient, exhilarating, stomach-tightening, I’ll-do-anything-for-it feeling is finally, really, really love.
“Noah.” I can barely breathe. “What are you doing here?”
He takes a step toward me. Still ten agonizing feet away. He looks so beautiful, squinting in the sunlight, shading his face with one hand.
“I forgot to tell you where to buy BD’s souvenir,” he says. “So I figured I’d come show you.”
I drop my helmet, my keys, my purse. I run toward Noah and jump. He catches me in his arms. He holds me close. Our faces tip toward each other, our lips on the verge of what my body is screaming would become the most spectacular kiss of all time, including the Etruscan period.
“Is it us?” I whisper. “Chapter One?”
“That depends,” he says. “How much of it did you want to edit?”
“Small changes here and there.” I smile. “I think it might be more realistic if Dr. Collins slaps Edward after he tells her the truth.”
Slowly, playfully, Noah turns his cheek to me. I lay my hand gently on his skin. It’s warm and pleasantly rough where he hasn’t shaved since New York. He leans into my touch. He presses his lips against the center of my palm and I shiver with how much I want those lips on mine.
“The scene is who I want us to be,” he tells me. “The whole book is who I want us to be.”
I rise on my toes. I move my hands around the back of Noah’s neck. I press my lips to his. He meets me with tenderness, then with passion, cupping the back of my neck and pulling me closer. He tastes like cinnamon.
The seam between our bodies tightens, and it feels just like I fantasized it would—exhilarating, satiating, part-itch, part-scratch, brand new, and such a very long time coming.
“So,” I say, “how’d you like to go to your first launch party tonight, Noa Callaway?”
“I’ll go anywhere,” he says, and kisses me again. “So long as you go with me.”
Acknowledgments
With thanks to Tara Singh Carlson, who knew, among other things, that this book shouldn’t be about the CIA. To Sally Kim, for the insight into Noa Callaway. To Alexis Welby, Ashley Hewlett, and the terrific team at Putnam. To Laura Rennert, strong and elegant. To Morgan Kazan and Randi Teplow-Phipps, for the party on Forty-Ninth Street. To Erica Sussman, for tortoise intel. To Maya Kulick, for The List. To Shivani Naidoo, Courtney Tomljanovic, and Lexa Hillyer, for a million city rambles. To J Minter, original pseudonym. To Alix Reid, original boss. To the Author Mail crew. To inspiring breakups. To my family, love’s example. To Lhüwanda’s chin. To Jason, my kosher ham, who kept after me to write this one. To Matilda and Venice, for giving me the love I write toward.
By Any Other Name
Lauren Kate
A CONVERSATION WITH LAUREN KATE
DISCUSSION GUIDE
A Conversation with Lauren Kate
While you have written multiple books, By Any Other Name is your first romantic comedy. What inspired you to write this story?
In my twenties, I had a spectacular breakup during a cliffside motorcycle ride on the Amalfi Coast. Friends and family have been asking me to write about it for years, but until recently I couldn’t see beyond the heartbreak. I didn’t want to write a book about eating Ben and Jerry’s while Facebook-stalking my ex . . . delicious as that era was! So I started thinking about other aspects of this character’s life—like her job in publishing—that might see her through the darkness.
When I found a professional crisis to echo her personal crisis, it made me laugh. I’ve never written a comedy before, but this story refused to take itself too seriously. I mean, being dumped on the most romantic trip of your life is pretty funny.
Do you feel you are like Lanie in certain ways? How did you come to craft her character?
To prepare for this book, I cringed my way through diaries from that decade of my life. The details—a woman working passionately in publishing, dating thrilling but all-wrong men, summoning friends to emergency brunches, and seeking advice from a well-dressed grandmother—were there to be lifted, but I didn’t intend to make Lanie as deeply me as she became on the page.
Autobiography has never appealed to me. Fiction is making stuff up. But this story demanded it. Then again, if Lanie is me, she’s me from a bygone era, not me now, with two kids and a mortgage. I was glad to go back and visit her.
New York City is such a presence in this story that it almost feels like a character in and of itself. Where did you pull inspiration when crafting this setting and all the specific places Noa and Lanie visit?
Like Lanie, I showed up in Manhattan with a duffel bag and a dream. I was young and broke, which cast a glamor on the city. When mere existence is hard-won, the places you visit, like the Gapstow Bridge, feel legitimately magical.
Living in a great city changes you; I’ve gone through a metamorphosis each time I’ve moved to one. Lanie is evolving because of changes in her life, yes, but also, more simply, because she’s part of pulsing, vital place like New York.
What was your favorite scene in the novel, and why?
Lanie’s first in-person meeting with Noa Callaway. She goes into the scene so earnest and enthusiastic, wearing her grandmother’s Fendi suit. She ends up having an existential crisis in public and throwing her career and personal life into chaos. It’s IRL gone majorly awry. And after a long quarantine of online-only encounters, I can relate.
What do you feel lies at the heart of Lanie’s and Noa’s characters? What do you think is the true success to any relationship?
A successful relationship is at ease with the heavy and the light. I wanted to explore how Lanie and Noa(h) can have a stimulating intellectual argument one moment, burst out laughing the next, and share each other’s grief in the third.
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.
Have you ever experienced writer’s block like Noa? If so, how did you overcome it?
I’ve never not experienced writer’s block, but my most profound confrontation with it came after my daughter was born. I remember driving in my car, listening to a story on the radio about a beekeeper, and weeping because I wished I could just be a beekeeper. Writing felt impossible that day. I see now that 70 percent of that was sleep deprivation, but the other 30 percent was struggling to acknowledge that I had become a new person when I became a mother.
I think this is similar to Noa(h)’s traumatic experiences. When a writer goes through a shift that apocalyptic, it can feel like you suddenly have to learn to write all over again.
Is there a certain trope in romance books that you just can’t get enough of? Maybe even a guilty pleasure that never gets old?
The build-up to the first kiss always thrills me, the emotional foreplay of establishing chemistry with another person, and then seeing how long you can stretch it out before you get together. (The longer the better.) I still think about my extended flirtation with my husband—all the enchanting obstacles in our way, how we knocked them down month by month, one karaoke night or creekside stroll at a time, until eventually it was just the two of us in front of a fireplace, leaning in for a kiss.
Lanie’s dream is to travel to Positano, Italy. Have you ever been there, or is there a dream destination you’re excited to visit in the future?
Positano was the site of my spectacular breakup—and in an early draft of the book, it was the site of Lanie’s breakup, too. When I cleared away this failed relationship from this story, there was space for Positano to take on a deeper meaning—for her mother, her career, and Noa(h).
What would you like readers to take away from By Any Other Name?
I hope it feels like meeting a friend for lunch, one you haven’t seen in a while but with whom you can pick right up where you left off. I hope this friend makes you laugh and feel less alone, and that you leave with a little more faith in love.
What’s next for you?
More novels—some in genres new to me, some in familiar modes, all where love and wonder are alive.
Discussion Guide
Discuss how Lanie’s and Noa’s childhood experiences shaped their trajectories in life. If they had different experiences, do you feel they would have chosen the paths they did? How has your upbringing helped shape your life—your passions, future goals, or even your values?
What are the top 5 characteristics on your Ninety-Nine Things list that you want in a partner?
While By Any Other Name is a romance, it also feels like an ode to New York City. Where is your favorite place to go in New York City, and if you’ve never been, where would you most like to visit?
Lanie goes above and beyond in order to help Noa(h) with his writer’s block in order to secure a promotion. Have you ever similarly done something out of the ordinary for your job? If so, what and why did you do it?
Create a title of your love life based on this Noa Callaway–inspired prompt: Ninety-Nine Things I _______ About_______.
In your opinion, what about Noa speaks the most to Lanie? Inversely, what do you think draws Noa to Lanie’s personality?
What would be your perfect meet-cute with a potential romantic interest? Were you able to carry out this dream in real life, and if so, was it everything you expected?
What was your favorite scene in the novel, and why?
Lanie has a type A personality, which at times can be both good and bad. Do you relate to this character trait? Why or why not?
What’s your favorite book, and why? How has that book changed your life?
Before she passed, Lanie’s mom said to her, “Promise to find someone you’ll really, really love.” What does this mean to you? What is your definition of love?
Were you surprised by the ending?
Photograph of the author © Christina Hultquist
Lauren Kate is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of nine novels for young adults, including Fallen, which was made into a major motion picture. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages and have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. She is also the author of The Orphan’s Song, her debut adult novel. By Any Other Name is her second adult novel. Kate lives in Los Angeles with her family.
VISIT LAUREN KATE ONLINE
LaurenKateBooks.net
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Lauren Kate, By Any Other Name
