Page 14 of Up All Night
“Really? As job?”
“Yup. It’s my job.”
“Wow.” That was the reaction I was most used to from people. Most of the world is not used to people making a solid living off writing fanciful stories all day. Let alone the kindIwrite. “What kind?”
Here we went. “Romance. Love stories.”
“Aaaahhh.” Hadrian nodded again. “It’s important kind, yes?”
I laughed. “I guess so.” The wine got to me. I had every intention of flirting with this guy to begin with, but now? Thanks to Mr. Alcohol, and the fact he dared to saypractice English,I had no more fucks to give. “I write sexy romance books. Do you know50 Shades of Grey?”
His eyes bulged. Apparently, someone did.
“What?” Hadrian nervously laughed. “Yes, I know. You write like it?”
“Yup.” I pulled my own phone out of my bag and brought up one of my books on Amazon. “See?” I showed him my bestselling cover.
“Can I…?”
I dropped my phone in his hand. “Knock yourself out.” Meanwhile, I was gonna keep drinking this wine. Or knock it over, I guess. My movements were not entirely my own by that point. Luckily, Hadrian was too absorbed in my Amazon profile to give a fuck. (On the other hand… this hand was sticky. Ew.)
“Wow.” He kept laughing, not in making fun of me, but to keep from being too embarrassed to function. “Wow.”
I took my phone back. “You ever meet a writer before?”
“No way.” He shook his head. “Not like that.”
Want to know the other reason I didn’t feel shy about showing him what I did?
Yeah, my feminine wiles were back in action. I figured I had one last effort to see whether or not this guy wanted to sleep with me tonight, or use me for his English practice. If I could put any thoughts of sex into his mind? If I could make myself sound like I was down with talking about sexy stuff? That I wasn’t shy about two people bonking? Yeah. I would do it. Dude, we were on a date. Flirt with me!
(Unless this wasn’t a date, of course. Then he could get embarrassed as much as he wanted. Bye!)
We reached a lull in conversation. How exactly do you follow that up, anyway? Good job, Cyndi.
“So…” I said. “Do you live here by yourself?” Creeper Cyndi returns! In truth, I wanted to gouge whether or not we could go back to his place after this.
His demeanor returned to somewhat serious. “No. I live with my brother.”
“Your brother? He is from Greece too?”
“Yes, we came together.”
“How long ago?”
“Maybe six or seven years.”
“Do you have a big family?”
“Oh, yes. Many people. I have four brothers and two sisters.”
“Four brothers and two…” Here I was, only-child Cyndi.
“My grandfather had twelve children. My brother has six.”
“Wow. You live with all those people?” In Japan? Where the houses could hold maybe four people tops?
“No, no. Only with my brother. Everyone else is still in Greece. Some go to Turkey.”
