I spend the next couple of hours with a smile etched on my face. I think I might love this book, not something I cansay about every first draft I’ve ever written, but this one, it has the sparkle. The it factor. We were able to find joy in writing it, and that joy is evident on the page.
What’s also evident is the way Nick and I were able to seamlessly merge our voices, the way they complement each other, never competing or speaking over each other. It’s like we were meant to be writing partners from the very beginning.
When I find myself reading a sex scene, one that Nick wrote on his own and that I haven’t read yet, I bolt up straight in my chair. It’s the spiciest thing Nick has written in a long time, and it heats my blood just reading the words on the page. And then my brain can’t help but imagine me and Nick, and I have to take a short break to go pour myself a glass of wine.
The book is full of banter and wit, and yet my heart aches when the characters think they’ve blown their second chance. I know I’m the one who wrote the breakup, but I read it with fresh eyes and see how it’s not really a breakup, more like a little pause. A chance for these characters to take a breath and really commit before they find their way back together.
And they do find their way back to each other because Nick has written the ending. A gorgeous grand gesture and a reconciliation and an epilogue that clearly proves our couple will live happily ever after.
I wipe the tears from my eyes and swig the last of my wine.
It’s almost midnight, and I don’t want to disturb him or wake him, but the need to talk to him outweighs anything else.
I hit his name in my contacts. I don’t know what I’m going to say, mostly I just need to hear his voice.
“Hey, Jess.”
“Hi.”
There’s a moment of awkward silence.
Okay, so we’re not off to a brilliant start, but it’s late.
“I got your package.”
“Yeah?”
It speaks to the weight of the moment that neither of us makes the requisitepackagejoke.
“I love you,” I blurt out, unable to keep the words in any longer. If I’m being totally honest, I’ve been feeling them for longer than I would like to admit. If I’m being totally honest, I never stopped loving him in the first place.
“I love you too, Jess.”
I release the breath I didn’t realize I was holding, suddenly with a greater understanding for the characters I’ve been writing for so long. “I miss you, and I wish you were here. I wish we were going to be spending Christmas together.”
“Well, you’re in luck then.”
There’s a knock on my front door and since it’s late and I live alone, my first instinct is to grab the baseball bat I keep in the hall closet.
But then I realize there’s only one person who could be on the other side of that door.
I still check the peephole, just in case.
I open the door with a smile, ending our phone call and tossing my phone who cares where. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
A second later I’m in his arms, my face buried in hisneck, his grip on me so tight I almost lose my breath. But I only squeeze him back tighter.
He pushes the door closed behind him and lets me go, putting just enough space between us that he can take my face in his hands. “I’m so sorry, Jess. I was a total idiot, for a lot of things, but mostly for not just talking to you.”
“I really wish you would have, but it happened and it brought us to where we are today. I’d much rather focus on the future.”
“Me too.” Nick leans in and presses a soft kiss to my forehead. “I want to focus on building something new with you, but I’ll always regret the time we lost, that I let stupid career concerns cost me the love of my life.”
“I assume you’re referring to me?” I poke him in the stomach and grin.
“Obviously.” He pulls me in closer. “I know I messed up, and I know a lot has happened in the five years we’ve been apart. But I never stopped loving you, Jess, and I never will. Do you think you can give me another chance?”
