Page 56 of Novel Problems

Forty minutes later, I flopped back against George’s desk chair. The words “[insert hot sex scene here]” in my manuscript had been replaced with the steamiest scene I’d ever written. And it had flowed out of me painlessly. No one could complain this one was wooden or lacking inchemistry. I chuckled to myself. While I had some regrets over not telling my parents about my success as an author, at least they’d never read this chapter.

I shut the laptop and snuck back into George’s room, reclaiming my position next to her and wrapping my arms around her warm body. What a perfect day. I was just drifting off to sleep when Max, who was now lying at the foot of the bed, began snoring loudly. I rolled onto my right side so my ear with unimpaired hearing was pressed against the pillow. With just my left ear exposed, the snores weren’t nearly as intense, and I relaxed into the warmth of George’s body.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

HANNAH

“Good morning! How did your writing go last night?” George, who’d been putting something away in the fridge, shut the door. She walked up to where I was standing at the entrance to the kitchen, a giant smile on her face, and kissed my forehead.

“It went really well. I think you might be my muse.” I wrapped my arms around her waist and looked up at her beaming face.

“Oh, really? Exactly what type of scene were you writing?” George’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

I giggled. “No comment.” I was pretty sure when George read the book, she’d be able to work out exactly what scene I’d been writing, as I’d liberally incorporated last night’s events.

There was a faint bang from downstairs.

“That must be the carpenters,” George said. “Can we please revisit this conversation later today? I’ve got to head down to the café. But there’s a pot of coffee on the stove, bread on the counter, and cereal andspreads in the cupboard. I’ve put an extra towel and toothbrush for you in the bathroom, and if you want to borrow any of my clothes, feel free. Just help yourself, and if you have any questions, you know where to find me.” George kissed me gently on the lips, gave Max a head rub, and started to make her way toward the front door.

“Oh,” she said, turning. “And I should check. Are you okay if I tell the café crew that we’re dating?”

A warm glow lit my belly at George’s use of the termdating, closely followed by surprise as her question sank in.

“Today?” I asked. It was exactly the sort of awkward conversation I’d put off until there was a pressing need to disclose the information.

“Unless you have any objections, that was my plan. I think it’s better to just get it over and done with before people start gossiping or feel like we’re trying to hide something.”

I stood in silence, thinking it through. While my gut reaction was to delay as long as possible, George’s reasoning was sensible. From what I’d overheard in Novel Gossip, Sapphire Springs’s gossip grapevine was just as bad as the rumor mills in the small-town cozy mystery and romance novels I loved. Word we were dating would almost certainly spread like wildfire as soon as we were spotted in public, making any displays of affection, so it made sense for George to get out in front of it and control the message. And while we were moving quickly, I felt serious enough about George already that I wasn’t worried about things fizzling out before they’d even begun. Since George was the one offering to tell the others—which made sense since she was their boss—I couldn’t think of any valid reason why she shouldn’t just tell them upfront.

“If you don’t feel comfortable, that’s okay, Hannah.” George stepped back toward me, her eyes soft.

“No, no,” I said, shaking my head and smiling. “That’s fine. I think it’s a good idea. I’ll see you downstairs in a little bit.”

I watched George leave with some regret, memories of last night flooding back. In a perfect world, I’d drag George back into bed, and we’d spend the day there. But we were adults with responsibilities, and today, those responsibilities involved us both working at the café. I poured myself some coffee, made toast with raspberry jam, and curled up on the couch next to Max to enjoy it. More bangs sounded from downstairs, and I wondered what the carpenters George had mentioned were up to. I hadn’t noticed anything in need of repair.

Once I’d finished eating, I investigated George’s wardrobe. The large quantity of button-down short-sleeve shirts and chinos made me chuckle. I couldn’t go downstairs wearing them, or the café staff would immediately get suspicious before George had the chance to debrief them. I found a plain black t-shirt and charcoal-gray pants and decided they would do. They were slightly too baggy, and I had to roll up the bottom of the pants, but given loose-fitting clothing was in right now, no one would likely notice. At least the outfit didn’t scream, “George and I slept together last night, and now I’m wearing her clothes.” Although, Romina would already be in the kitchen, so the chances of her not noticing me exiting George’s staircase were low. I frowned. Hmmm. Hopefully George was planning to talk to her early.

When I got out of the shower, George had messaged me.

Hope you’ve found everything okay. Romina is in aterrible mood this morning because the hollandaise sauce didn’t emulsify, so I haven’t told her about us yet. If you want to avoid her, there’s a fire escape out the back room window you can use (but it’s also okay if you just want to use the normal stairs!).

I smiled. Given Romina’s tendency for taking cooking failures extremely personally, I didn’t blame George for wanting to wait until she’d calmed down. I was also relieved there was an escape route that didn’t involve coming face to face with Romina in a bad mood.

The banging downstairs intensified. Itching to find out what was going on, I threw on George’s clothes, ran a comb through my hair, and went to the back room. Thankfully, the fire escape didn’t look anywhere near as rickety as the ones attached to my old apartment building in Manhattan, and I made it down without a hitch. I’d been planning to enter Novel Gossip through the back door, but I spotted a gate that let out onto the cobblestone lane behind the café and decided that way was safer to stay under the radar. Knowing my luck, Ben would arrive early, or Romina would leave the kitchen and notice me sneaking in the back. I went through the gate, walked back around to Main Street, and then let myself in through the front door.

The source of the noise was immediately clear. Floating wooden shelves were being installed on the exposed brick wall of the café that wasn’t already covered in bookshelves. Some of the shelves were long, others short, and they were being placed at different points up the wall, giving that section of Novel Gossip a cozy, eclectic vibe.

George, who was directing the carpenters on where to install the next shelf, turned around and grinned when she saw me.

I walked over to her and admired the shelves up close. “They look great! What are you planning to put on them?”

“Books, mainly. I might use the lower shelf for storing communal magazines, local flyers, that sort of thing. After talking to you, I realized just how noisy it can get here, so I looked into ways to reduce sound, and it turns out, happily, books can help. Since we can always do with more bookshelves, it seemed like a win-win solution. And I’ve ordered a rug for the armchair area and some rubber caps to put on the chair legs to stop them from scraping so loudly on the floor, which should hopefully help as well.”

Warmth flooded my body. “Oh, wow. That’s incredible, George.”

I still hadn’t found my damn hearing aid. I’d basically accepted that I needed to just buy a new one, but in between working at the café, writing, and spending time with George and her friends, I hadn’t had a chance yet. But even with a hearing aid, I knew I’d still find the background noise at Novel Gossip a challenge. The fact that George had gone out of her way, and invested money, in trying to improve things for me and other people who were hard of hearing meant a lot.

“It’s not much, but hopefully it will make it easier for you to hear things—and also for my patrons too. As the name Novel Gossip suggests, I want this to be a place where someone can enjoy a book by themselves or meet up with friends or family to chat, and if it’s too noisy, doing either of those things will be challenging.”

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