Page 14 of For the Plot
“I know I’ve asked before, but the jokes haven’t been making you uncomfortable, have they?”
My heart filled with warmth at the genuine concern in his voice and in his eyes as he looked at me, and I smiled.
“I promise I would have told you if they did. But thank you for checking in about it. I promise this decision has more to do with me than with your jokes. It just got me thinking.”
“OK. Good.” He slung an arm over my shoulder, squeezing me to him while he rested his head on top of mine. “You know I love you like the sister I always wanted.”
“I know.” I snaked my arm around his back, hugging him in return. “Speaking of sisters, guess who you just missed?”
“Not possible, since she doesn’t exist.”
“She exists!”
“I don’t believe you!” Collins shot back in a sing-song voice as he stood.
“Just because you haven’t seen her yet doesn’t mean she doesn’t exist, you dork.”
Collins had a running joke that I was making Noah up since he had never been in the same room as her. With their extremely busy schedules—he was a firefighter and she was a pediatrician—their paths had just never crossed.
“Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“I have literally shown you photos of her before!”
“Um, Photoshop? Those are just pictures of yourself you’ve edited.”
I threw a pillow at him, but he ducked out of the doorway just in time, cackling as he went. Shaking my head with a smile on my face, I looked around at the explosion of clothing on thefloor. The smile slowly faded as what I was about to do tonight came back to me.
God, how was I going to do this? How would I even get James alone to ask? And then what would I do? I'd just say,Hey, James, I know we’ve been friends for years and we live together and we don’t want to date each other, but will you teach me how to have sex so I can get back to writing my smutty little books and then we’ll move on with our lives like it never happened?
Before I could spiral any further, my phone started ringing. I dug it out from where it was buried beneath a pile of shorts to see Lucy’s name flash across my screen. Honestly, with my internal breakdown the past few days, I had forgotten I was waiting for them to call me back about the extension.
Stealing myself, I answered the call and lifted the phone to my ear, injecting my voice with forced cheer. “Hey, Lucy!”
“Nikki! I’m sure you’ve been waiting for my update.” They got straight to business like always, and the familiarity of it all soothed some of my anxiety over what news they had for me.
“Just a little." My laugh was strained, and I gripped my phone so tight I was sure my knuckles had turned white.
“Well, I have good news for you. The publisher is willing to give you one last extension.”
The breath released from me on a sigh, my entire body loosening in relief at their words. “Oh, thank god.”
I could hear the smile in their voice turning serious as they continued, “Don’t get too comfortable now. They’re giving you this extension, but it’s yourlastone. If they don’t have it in their hands by December first, they’re canceling the book and dropping you.”
Three more months. I had three more months to figure my shit out and get this book written and turned in. I took a deep breath.I can do this. IknowI can do this. And now, I had a plan of action.
“Nikki?” With a start, I realized I never responded, so lost in my own head with relief.
“Sorry! Yes, I’m here, just doing the mental math.”
They chuckled. “Good. Did you think about what I said last time? Do you have a plan to get you out of this slump?”
I thought about James, and my face flushed as I tried to figure out what to say. “Um, yep! I have a plan I’m working on.” I chewed on my lip hoping they wouldn’t ask me for any further details, not knowing what in the world I would say to them if they did.
“Good! I’m proud of you.” I don’t know why they believed in me so much—god knows I’d done little to deserve it—but I was grateful for them nonetheless. “Now get back to it, yeah? I’ll check in with you soon.”
We hung up, and with a renewed sense of determination, I began going through my clothes again.
9
