AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That’s when I hear his voice.
“—yeah, I’ve just finished it with her. For good.”
I freeze, my heels slapping against the stone path.
“No, I won’t miss her. Genuinely, Tess. It was good for what it was, but it wasn’t meant to last. All I feel now is relief.”
He’s quiet for a few beats. That’s when I recognize the name. Tess. His sister. Are they talking about me? It could be. It might be.
“Right. It was tiring hearing about all the wild ambitions she’ll never follow through on, too. Do you know she asked me to read a contract the other day?”
My heart stops.
Just flat-out stops.
It is me. It has to be. So, it was good while it lasted, was it? And I’ll never achieve my wild ambitions. Just like Caleb used to say. My fingers tingle, as if I've touched an exposed live wire.
Seems like I’ve misjudged someone yet again.
“Yeah, I know. I told her to stop—” he continues, but I can’t hear anymore. I turn around and race back up the path, toward the lobby and the waiting car.
This time, it doesn’t stop on its way to the airport.
Three Weeks Later
“Okay,” Becky says. She’s sitting on my couch, her feet up on the coffee table. Her cup of tea is perched on top of her giant stomach. “So, the two sisters who are always arguing. They are the real killers?”
“Yes!”
“Okay, I love that. I suspected them from the very beginning, you know.”
I chuckle. “Of course you did.”
She wiggles her toes. “This is great. I haven’t seen you this fired up in months.”
“It’s a great story,” I say. Maybe that’s just because I’m in the magical phase, only ten thousand words into a new story and a little too in love with my own vision, but I believe it this time. “And you know what? Up until theverylast moment, everyone will actually suspect the—”
“Businessman,” Becky says and winks. “I remember.”
“Well, I was thinking of changing him into this foreign banker, maybe in his sixties? He’s just made a terrible financial decision and comes to the island to hide.”
She frowns. “So he’s not going to be our girl’s love interest anymore?”
“No, not in that case.” I pull up my legs beneath me, sitting like a pretzel on my armchair. Then I reach for a blanket and studiously drape it across my lap.
“Eden,” she says.
I sigh. “Yeah, okay, so I can’t figure out the businessman character.”
“Because he’s based on the real person,” she says.
It’s not a question, but I nod anyway. “Yeah, inspired by one, anyway. It would have been awesome if I could still… If I could separate my own experience from the inspiration.”
“Maybe you can use your own experience.”
“Yeah,” I say. “It’s just… if I write him as the mysterious businessman my main character initially suspects, and then falls in love with on the trip, and they have this whirlwind romance and then he’s wrongfully accused, and they have to work together to solve the murder—”
“—and confront the murderous sisters and then ride off into the sunset together,” Becky says, nodding vigorously. “I love it so much.”
