Cameron, Chelsea UnWritten

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.But I’m not going to get into some crazy fake relationship with this guy.It wouldn’t be fair to him.”“But he’d never have to know! That’s the beauty of having a pen name.” I shook my head again and we kept walking.Raine sensed my reluctance to talk about the subject further, so she told me about a funny customer at the bank.In addition to providing amusing anecdotes, her job provided us an endless database of names.We walked until we couldn’t stand the heat anymore, and then retreated to the comfort of our air-conditioned apartment.I checked my phone for messages during lunch a few days after our middle-of-the-night walk and saw Marilyn was getting antsy via a forwarded message from our agent.I called Raine right away.We both took our lunch breaks at the same time, so we could contact each other about ideas, or writing, etc.She worked in the city, so it was too far to drive to come and eat with me, which would have been ideal.“Have you seen that email from Hugh?” I said.She sighed and the sound echoed.“Wait, are you in the bathroom?” I asked.“Uh, no.No, I’m not.” She definitely was.Granted, the bathroom at her branch was lovely, and even had fresh flowers in it.But still.“Whatever.Not important.Hugh is getting restless.We have got to do something, Raine.At the rate we’re going, we’re going to have to write, like, ten thousand words a day to get this thing done.I’m starting to freak out a little.” Normally Raine was the one that liked to freak out, and I kept a cool head, but I was tired, and I was out of ideas and I didn’t have any solutions.Other than Raine’s insane idea.“Well, I can’t help you right now.We’re dealing with some stuff here.” She sighed and I could tell she wasn’t happy.“What kind of stuff?”“You know I can’t tell you because I’d have to kill you,” she said, but I just rolled my eyes.“Raine.”“Okay, fine.One of the employees was caught setting up fake loans and using the money to buy drugs.The cops just arrested him, so we’re doing damage control here and I sense a lot of meetings coming up.We’ve got one this afternoon.And once it goes public, we’re going to have to deal with all the customers.Just freaking kill me.”“No, I like you.I don’t want to kill you.Even though I could.And make it look like an accident.” She laughed.“True.We both could.One of these days our search history is going to tip off the NSA and then we’re going to be in trouble.” It was a valid worry for a writer.Often, we had to research things like hiding a body, or which poisons were tasteless, or how to make a fake ID.We’d looked up all of those things at one time or another.“Listen, I have to get back to work.We’ll talk tonight.Don’t forget, we’ve written a lot of books and haven’t failed yet.Just tell Hugh that we’re working on it and we’ll have pages for him soon.And throw in a smiley face.And you might want to send him one of those Edible Arrangements.You know how much he loves those,” Raine said.She was right, he did love those.But we had a tendency to send them when we were getting behind and wanted him to extend our deadline.We might have to think of a different tactic.I spent the rest of the day in a bad mood, and it wasn’t helped any when a kid ended up puking in the reading corner, all over a stack of brand new books.Madeline saw that I was frazzled, so she helped me clean up the area and dispose of the books.“Do we have it in the budget to replace them?” I asked as we tried to air the puke smell out of the room.She nodded.“Sure, we’ve got a little bit in the emergency fund and I think this qualifies.Plus, the capitol campaign is starting in another month, so we should be able to squeak by until then.” The upside of a library was that you could borrow the books for free.Downside was that books still cost money, and we didn’t charge anyone for them.So we had to rely on donations and fundraisers and dwindling money from the government.Plus, with the advent of ebooks, fewer people seemed to want to deal with physical books.Some heralded it as the death knell for libraries, but those people just made me want to laugh.Libraries weren’t going anywhere.“Good,” I said, writing down the titles so I could replace them before rubbing the bridge of my nose.I could feel another tension headache coming on.One of the many joys of deadline time.“You still tired, Blair? Are you sure you’re not getting sick? I’m a little worried about you.” She leaned against the desk and fixed me with her stare.Lesser mortals had withered under her scrutiny, but I was used to it.“Oh, I’ve just been suffering from insomnia lately.”“Have you tried tea?” I nodded.“Yeah, I just need to get things in order.They’ll calm down soon.” God, I hoped so.If we could just make a breakthrough with this one scene we were working on, then the rest of the story would fall into place.“Okay, well let me know if you need a few days off.It’s been a while since you took a vacation, and we all need some time every now and then.” She patted my shoulder and I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile.“Thanks, Madeline.I’ll be fine.” I’d gone through this before, but I’d been better at hiding it, I guess.Maybe I would have to start doing those energy shots, even though they were so bad for you.She gave me a severe look before she went back out front.Resting my head on the desk, I resisted the urge to scream.“Having a rough day?” A sexy British voice said.I inhaled for a moment before I raised my head.Nope, not a hallucination.He was there.Wearing a suit with a silky black tie, his hair slicked back and a smile on his face.It was the smile of a man who knew a lot more than he’d let on about.A smile of secrets and naughty things whispered in your ear.I roused myself and hoped I didn’t have any makeup smeared on my face.What a great day for him to see me again.When I was tired and looked like crap.“Um, yes.I mean, no.I mean, I wasn’t sleeping or anything.” Great.That was exactly what I wanted to say.My brain was in so much pain right now.“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” he said, leaning close and giving me a conspiratorial wink.God save me from British men in suits who wink at me.I laughed a little breathlessly and stumbled as I got to my feet.“Are you here by yourself?” I asked and then mentally chastised myself for asking such a ridiculous question.“No, Drake is in the lavatory with Ada.” Oh my God, he even made the bathroom sound sexy.“Oh,” I said, unsure of the proper response.What did I do now? How should I proceed? My thoughts were foggy and wouldn’t settle on one course of action [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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