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I put the phone down again, breathing heavily.What was happening to me?This was a book within a book, and it was hard to keep up. It was my real life and then there were so many books and so much fiction mixed into it that my head was spinning.
I couldn't keep anything straight. I blinked, staring at the screen. My vision was now blurry with tears. My eyes stung with how surreal and personal this all was. It was the most dreamlike thing that had ever happened to me. And as icing on the cake, I was standing in a restroom stall. I looked at the words on the screen again.
Margaret's book was released to rave reviews. It made the New York Times bestseller list for five consecutive weeks, and there was still no sign of Ari. Margaret had even gone so far as to put a photograph of Isaac on the cover of her book, and still nothing. Ari had seen the book at newsstands out of the corner of her eyes, but she wasn't looking for it and didn't notice Isaac. She didn't see it until six weeks later when a copy of it was sitting on her assistant's desk.
"What's this?" she asked.
"Oh, it's a romance novel."
"Who's that?" she asked. She stared at the cover, getting lost in Isaac's piercing green eyes. She knew instantly that it was the man from the restaurant in Seattle.
"Who's this guy? I've met this guy," she said.
"Oh, his name is Isaac Alexander."
"Ari?" Kathy asked, coming into the ladies' restroom and startling me.
I needed to know what Ari in the book did next. I was hanging on to every word. I was so into the book that I gasped and choked at the sound of Kathy's voice. I could not respond other than to cough.
"Are you okay?" she asked over my coughing.
"Yes," I squeaked out. It took me five or six more coughs to clear my throat. "I’m fine," I added as soon as I could. "I choked on spit. What's up?"
"Eddie's here. He asked if you were here, but he's only got a minute before he has to leave for work. I didn't know if you were feeling okay…" she trailed off.
"Yeah, I'm coming," I said.
Chapter 6
It was noon when I finally got the chance to read the remainder of chapter fourteen. The following chapter switched to a different storyline, and I didn't have time to filter through it, so I had to wait until later to find out how things ended with the fictional Ari and Isaac.
Eddie came by the studio that morning which was odd since we weren't really a thing as far as his mom was concerned. He pretended to be bringing me a flier for his friend's art exhibit and asked if I could go with him to his car to get it.
I definitely felt like I had been caught when he came by.Did that mean I had feelings for the stranger in Seattle?I was torn and confused. My perception of reality was altered all day.
After Eddie left, it was busy at the studio. I had to step in to sub for three classes when a key teacher called in sick. There was no time in my day. I waited to go through the rest of the book that afternoon when I got home.
I read for an hour or so, scanning and finding only the parts that pertained to Isaac and me, and then I immediately called Sabrina. I didn't necessarily want to unload on her, but I had to call someone or I might have exploded.
"Did you read it?" was the first thing Sabrina asked when I called her. "I've been waiting for you to call. I didn't want you to be like me and put it off."
"W-what in the world, Sabrina?"
"Did you read it?"
"Yes. It was—"
"I went to see him earlier today."
"What?" I said. I had been talking when she spoke, so we talked over each other. "What?" I repeated, hearing a piece of her sentence.
"I went to that restaurant today. I saw that guy, Isaac. Good-ness. It's exactly like the guy in the book. He's got these gorgeous green eyes. I sat at the bar, and he took my order, and my heart was pounding the whole time. I could not believe this was the guy who stared at you. I can't believe you're Ari in the book. Are you sure you don't live in Chicago?"
I laughed. "Do I? I don't know, I might," I said.
"Really?"
"No. I live in Atlanta. And I'm not an ad executive. He had to know I didn't have a job like that. I told him I danced, and I had on an Adidas sweatshirt when we met."
