Page 8 of For the Plot
“What’s up, buttercup? I wasn’t expecting you to still be up.” I flopped onto the couch next to her, throwing my feet up on the coffee table. She glared at me, looking between my face and the shoes on the table. I rolled my eyes, kicking them off onto the floor. “Better, your majesty?”
“Please, you menace, we don’t have to be royals to not put shoes on a coffee table.”
I ignored her valid point and instead nodded at the TV, raising my brow in question. Curiously, her cheeks flamed red, and she sunk deeper into the blanket.
“Oooh, juicy drama! Tell me!” I rested my chin on folded hands, fluttering my lashes at her. Nikki tried to fight the smile forming on her lips, and I tried to ignore the way my chest warmed in approval at getting a positive reaction from her.
“Be quiet, I’m trying to watch my movie.” She shushed me before turning back to the screen and pretending to watch. She definitely didn’t need to watch; she could probably quote the entire thing from memory. I reached over her to grab theremote, my elbow accidentally brushing her breasts as I went. I quickly leaned back into the couch and paused the movie, hoping my face didn't show a blush. I turned to her expectantly.
Nikki huffed in exasperation. “OK, you just have to promise you won't laugh at me.” She set her ice cream bowl on the table.
I gasped in mock outrage, a hand to my chest. “Laughat you? I would never!” She stared, unamused at my antics. “Besides, of course, all the times I have laughed at you before. And probably will again if we’re being perfectly hone—” My words were cut off when she hit me in the face with one of the couch pillows. “Fair enough, please continue.”
She looked down at her hands instead of speaking. I sat quietly and waited, knowing she would start speaking when she was ready.
“I tried to hook up with someone tonight.” She looked at me tentatively, like she was searching for reproach or judgement. Why she thought I, of all people, would judge her was so beyond me it hurt my feelings a little bit. But all I did was nod in encouragement for her to continue, ignoring the twinge I felt at the thought of her hooking up with someone. Wait, no, I felt no twinge. There was no twinge because there were no feelings because she was myfriendand that was it.
“It, uh, didn’t go well.”
“What a relief. I would hate to see how you reacted if this is what you looked like after agoodexperience.”
She glared at me. “Jackass,” she mumbled under her breath before continuing. “I came by The Sleepy Siren after Collins and Will convinced me I should try hooking up with someone to get me out of my slump.”
So Ihadseen her tonight at the bar. It made me feel slightly better that I wasn’t seeing her in places she wasn’t. I tried ignoring the way that made me feel, and tried to focus on Nikki’s feelings instead of my own.
“Why in the world would you take advice from them?”
“I know." She grinned wryly. “I definitely learned my lesson there.”
“For real, though, why would they suggest you try a hook up and why would you actually do it?”
She stiffened. “Why is me hooking up with someone so wild of an idea?”
“No, no, no, that’s not what I meant.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to gather my thoughts and not put my foot in my mouth again. “I meant why would hooking up with someone help with your writer's block, and why would you go do something you don’t really seem to want to do?”
A deep sigh gusted out of her, and she seemed to deflate. She picked at the skin around her nails rather than looking back at me. She mumbled something under her breath I couldn’t hear.
“What?” I ducked down, trying to get closer to hear.
“I said, I need to have sex so I can write!”
I blinked in confusion.
“You all know I’ve never had sex, but you don’t know that my writer's block is because I got called out in a viral review on social media for having ‘unrealistic sex scenes’ written by ‘someone who seems like they’ve never actually had sex.'” She used air quotes as she spoke, voice cloaked in frustration.
I choked on my own breath as I took in her words. “I see…”
“I told you not to laugh at me!”
I raised my hands in defense. “I’m not laughing!” But I was biting my lip to hold back the grin trying to break out across my face.
“I will throw another pillow at your face, I swear to Princess Buttercup.”
At that I did finally break down laughing, and it only took a moment for her to join me. “So they all found out the big secret, huh?”
“It’s not like I was out there lying saying I’m some sexpert or something! Sometimes being a romance author is so weird. In what other job, besides sex work of course, do people question you about your sex life? With sex workers, their life is their work, so I know it’s a little different, and of course writing smutty romance or erotica has crossover with sex work, but that’s a whole other discussion. But man, sometimes readers have so little respect for authors as people. The amount of invasive questions romance authors get about their sex lives is so gross. If it’s not offered freely, it’s none of your damn business!”
“Damn, seriously? That’s so messed up.”
