One True Theory of Love

by Laura Fitzgerald

  Delighted, Ahmed reached to hold her hand. “For some reason, it sounds so much less sappy this time around.”

  “I thought so, too.”

  They fell into their teenage, dopey-grinning snow-globe bubble of love, and Meg knew everything would be okay between them—for now, and hopefully for a heck of a long time beyond now. For forever, if such a thing were possible.

  The moment was broken by Henry, who flung himself at Ahmed and hugged him, and by Jonathan, who stood back and watched. Meg went to him.

  “I’ve got to catch my flight,” he said.

  Meg nodded at the man she used to love, at the man her boy would grow to love. “You’d like to stay in touch with Henry, I take it?”

  Jonathan burst forth with the same smile she’d fallen in love with all those years ago. “He’s an awesome kid. You’ve done a remarkable job with him, Meg.”

  Ahmed stood and joined them, a tricky feat with a nine-year-old boy smothering him with love. Jonathan extended his hand.

  “Jonathan Clark,” he said. “Next time I’m in town, I’d like to buy you a cup of coffee. We have a few people in common and we should probably get to know each other.”

  Ahmed shook Jonathan’s hand, and here, in this small corner of the world if nowhere else, men were shaking hands and meaning it.

  “I’d like that,” he said. “I know a great little coffee shop we could go to.”

  “He fell in love there,” Henry said. “With my mom.”

  Meg woke in terror that night from the same horrible nightmare, the one in which Henry disappeared into the ocean. When will it stop? she wondered, and knew the answer—never. This particular nightmare would go away, but life would bring others. The best you could hope for was to have someone in your life who knew you—who really, really knew you and loved you in all your complexity and in spite of all your flaws. Someone who’d support you so you wouldn’t be alone as you struggled to survive your nightmares.

  She got up and made herself a cup of warm milk and honey, and then she called Ahmed, even though it was three o’clock in the morning.

  “I keep having these nightmares,” she said when he answered.

  “Do you want me to come over?” he asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Meg said. “I just wanted to hear your voice. To know I’m not alone in the world tonight.”

  She told him about the nightmare, and then she told him more about Jonathan’s visit. She told him how she’d finally deposited the hundred-thousand-dollar check from Jonathan and how she was going to buy back her father’s baseball-card collection from a dealer in town. She’d tracked him down earlier that day, and the collection was mostly intact, with the exception of a few cards he’d sold online. He’d been confident he could find some Pete Rose cards for her, too.

  “I want to buy a present for you, too,” she said. “I just don’t know what. Tickets to Venice?”

  “Don’t buy me anything,” he said. “Write me a letter, instead.”

  “Really?” Meg was delighted by the request. Letter writing was such a lost art. “You want me to write you a love letter?”

  “Write anything you want,” he urged her. “Tell me a story. Tell me what’s in your heart and on your mind. Make it the letter of a lifetime, and sprinkle it with your fairy dust.”

  After they hung up, Meg pulled out her rose-colored linen stationery from her little secretary desk and the nicest pen she could find and made herself a cup of tea and dimmed the lights and set herself up at the dining room table.

  Before she began, she checked on Henry and found him smiling in his sleep. She straightened his covers to protect him from the night chill and kissed his forehead and whispered an I love you, hoping he’d hear it all the way into his dreams.

  Back at the dining room table, she lit a candle. She sat, blew on her tea, and wondered how to start.

  Write anything you want, he’d said.

  Meg thought of her mother and her father and their broken-down marriage, of furniture salesmen and women with beehive hairdos. She thought of Lucas and Marita—the comfort he’d brought her and the don’t-run stone she’d passed onto him. She thought of Henry and Violet and the secret place they went to. She thought of their kiss, and of Jonathan’s advice to Henry: Be as good to her as you can possibly be. She thought of Amy and David and chocolate raspberry mousse cake and scribbling poetry on laundry room walls and of honoring one’s dark side. She thought of Amy’s advice: Men don’t want you to have a past. They want to believe your life started the moment you met them.

  In a way, Meg felt her life had begun—again—the moment she met Ahmed at LuLu’s that one Saturday morning. But she did have a past, and it was something to be honored, not denied.

  It took Meg a long while to come up with her opening line—beginnings could be so hard. As could middles. As could endings.

  Sometimes it seemed that everything was so hard.

  But just because something was hard didn’t mean it wasn’t worthwhile. Easy was for wimps, not for people like them.

  Dear Ahmed, she finally began. And then she smiled. It’s easy to look at men and think they’re idiots.

  Laura Fitzgerald is also the author of Veil of Roses (Bantam, January 2007). A native of Wisconsin, she lives in Arizona with her husband, who is of Iranian descent, and their two children. Her favorite part of being an author is interacting with readers and attending book clubs by phone and in person. She can be reached through her Web site at www.laurafitzgerald.com.

  One True

  THEORY of LOVE

  LAURA FITZGERALD

  A CONVERSATION WITH LAURA FITZGERALD

  Q. Tell us how you came to write One True Theory of Love.

  A. Second chances can be times of great reinvention, or they can be total hell, and they don’t bring with them the guarantee of a happy ending. At its heart, One True Theory of Love is a story about second chances and the courage they require.

  I got the idea for the novel when I was in Wisconsin visiting book club members who’d read my first novel, Veil of Roses. As I got to know the women over the course of a few hours, I was struck by how many were in the midst of major life changes: divorces, new relationships, retirements, job switches, kids finally out of the house, deaths of loved ones. People can respond to such changes passively or actively, and those who experience them actively ultimately ask themselves: Well, who am I going to be now?

  That becomes the central question Meg faces as she decides whether or not to pursue a relationship with Ahmed.

  Q. One True Theory of Love can be described as a romance, but it’s unlike most romances in that the focus isn’t just on the couple but also on the other people who have a stake in the success or failure of the relationship. Why did you choose to explore the romance from this different perspective?

  A. I guess because Ahmed isn’t the goal for Meg. Instead, he’s her reward—if and only if she can become the bold and openhearted person she truly wants to be. To do that, she needs to honor her past, deal with her fears and insecurities, value the complexity of other people as well as herself, and finally—no small feat—she must summon the courage to take a leap of faith, knowing she may or may not get her happy ending.

  Meg has so much at stake. First, her self-concept. She doesn’t want to let herself down. At the same time, she’s a fiercely protective single mom who has created for her son, Henry, what is in many ways an admirably safe and happy world. She’s well aware that he will one day judge her by the choices she makes regarding Ahmed, and she wants to be sure she’s making the right choices for the right reasons.

  Since pretty much everyone in the story is in the midst of seizing or denying or needing a second chance, how they all go about it enables Meg to use them as a barometer for how she should face her own second chance.

  Q. The novel also explores the impact of the protagonist’s previous marriage on her newly evolving romance. What about that idea intrigued you?

  A. As do most of us,
Meg wants to avoid making the same mistakes in her future that she made in her past. She was sucker punched by her first husband’s betrayal, which was particularly difficult for her because she’d let her entire self-image be defined by who she was in relation to him rather than who she was as a person in her own right. When we meet her, she’s happy, healthy, and strong—but it’s been ten years since her marriage fell apart and she still doesn’t have a sense of her role in that failure. If she can’t figure that out, how can she know she won’t screw it up again?

  Q. Your first novel, Veil of Roses, also featured a character with an Iranian background, the protagonist, Tamila. Surely that’s not a coincidence?

  A. In its earliest version, One True Theory of Love was actually an international-espionage thriller, in which Ahmed (now the main character’s love interest) was drawn into a U.S.-Iran conflict against his will.

  It was quite a departure from Veil of Roses in every regard, and ultimately it became clear—again, as I met with readers—that what they appreciated most about Veil of Roses was that it was a quick, lighthearted read that also had some emotional heft to it. It went down easy but wasn’t frivolous. To make my next book similar, I decided to change it radically.

  The story’s gone through more drafts than I care to remember, and pretty much all that’s stayed from that first one is Ahmed, a basically good guy who happened to have been born in Iran. I’m pretty sure I’ve written my last Iranian character . . . unless this turns out to be a prequel to my international-espionage thriller!

  I should also mention that my husband is Iranian-American, which I’m sure played a part in my choosing to write about Iranians.

  Q. One True Theory of Love is your second novel. Did you suffer from the dreaded “sophomore slump”?

  A. I didn’t experience “sophomore slump”—thankfully. I love the story and characters, so every day spent writing it was both a pleasure and a challenge. I wasn’t always sure of the ending, but I knew it would be a satisfying one, and that helped me write through the parts where the characters suffered. Storytelling really is both an art and a craft, and when I ran into problems, I referred back to my knowledge of the craft and usually found what I needed there.

  The hardest part about writing this book was telling the story in a simple manner while honoring the complexity of the characters.

  Q. What do you hope to write in the future?

  A. Time will tell what my next book will be. I’m very intrigued by mother-daughter stories and the changing nature of such relationships, especially in moments of challenge, so that will likely be a part of my future writing. Also, I think I’ll always be interested in stories of reinvention—women whose lives change radically (whether they’d prefer it or not).

  Besides writing more women’s fiction, I plan to spend the next few years writing books for teenage girls (YA fiction) and some middle-grade fiction. Middle-grade fiction interests me because no one loves a good story more than a child. I’m very impressed with the quality of some of the writing for this age group and want to contribute to it. A good story is such a gift to give a child.

  In my YA fiction, I’ll be exploring the same sort of questions I do in my adult fiction: how do you define happiness, and what are you willing to do in order to live a happy and fulfilling life? In the moments that really matter, how do you act courageously, in a way that honors who you want to become? It can be quite difficult being a teenager today, and I think good fiction provides not only solace and support, but also an escape from the pressures found in the real world.

  Q. What writers do you most admire and enjoy? Are there any who have had a particular influence on your work?

  A. I appreciate any writer who keeps me turning the pages, and if I can find one who makes me feel something—who makes me laugh or gets me choked up or just gets me in the gut—they go on my must-buy list. Jonathan Tropper’s writing is laugh-out-loud funny and I particularly appreciate how he very deftly turns a humorous moment into a heart-felt one. Elizabeth Berg is a writer I go to when I want to feel good about the world and when I need to be reminded of the power of kindness. Her stories have a ton of heart. Both Tropper and Berg have given me many hours of pleasure in the last few years.

  Other fiction writers whose work I admire include Kent Haruf, Richard Russo, and Dennis McFarland. For nonfiction, I enjoy Tracy Kidder and Frank McCourt. Bill Carter’s Fools Rush In is the book I’d grab in a fire if I could save only one.

  Q. Are you in a reading group? What’s that experience been like for you? What have you read in the last year that you just loved?

  A. I’m in a book club with about twelve of the coolest women I know, and our meetings keep getting rowdier and more provocative as the years go on. Some book clubs are quite focused on analyzing the books they read, but we’re much more interested in the drinking and eating that goes along with our book discussions. The books we read often spark topics of conversation, but as much as anything are just an excuse for us all to get together once a month. A recent book that generated a good discussion is The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine. We also found much to discuss in Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven.

  I’m also in a mother-daughter book club with my ten-year-old daughter, and I treasure how books bring us together and provide us with ways to discuss the increasing complexities of her life.

  Q. What do you hope readers will take away from One True Theory of Love?

  A. I simply hope readers close the book feeling their time has been well spent, in whatever way they define that. If they are looking for a fun read, I hope they find it. If they are looking for comfort or an escape from the real world or for a book that makes them think—I hope they find it.

  QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

  1. What’s your reaction to the novel? Did you enjoy it? Were you emotionally engaged? What aspects did you like best and which least?

  2. Do you agree with the first line of the novel: “It’s easy to look at men and think they’re idiots”?

  3. What do you think are Meg’s greatest strengths as a character? What are her weaknesses?

  4. Jonathan blindsided Meg by leaving their marriage when she’d learned she was pregnant. Was he just a louse, or are there hints about Meg’s own failures in the marriage? When he reenters Meg’s life, has he changed?

  5. The author explores the impact of an old relationship on a newly developing one. Draw from your own experience to discuss some other ways in which new relationships are shaped and constrained, and made better or worse, by previous relationships.

  6. Meg learns that her father, whom she relies on for advice and guidance, has been misrepresenting himself with a major lie. Compare Meg’s view of her father versus the reality, and discuss possible reasons for his behavior. Have you known men (or women!) who have behaved similarly?

  7. Meg prides herself on her close relationship with her son, Henry. Do you think she’s a good mother? Is there anything about her parenting that you would either emulate or do differently?

  8. Meg’s mother, Clarabelle, is making changes in her life now that her marriage is over. What do you think of those changes? What kind of mother do you think she was to Meg and Amy? What kind of wife was she to Phillip?

  9. Do you agree that Ahmed is a pretty terrific guy? How do you see his and Meg’s relationship evolving after the book ends?

  10. Do you have a theory of life similar to Meg’s Hokey-Pokey Theory of Life? Has it served you well?