AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shake my head as I stare out at the waves as they break along the shore. White caps splashing spray into the air as the moon shines its own spotlight on the world.
“I’m getting tired, Jared. It all just seems heavier than it used to, if you know what I mean.”
He nods without looking up from his paper. “Gotta find a way to shake off the weight or it’ll break you.”
I try to stand tall while I’m here, while the weight doesn’t seem quite as heavy. That’s why I come here. I can decompress and let go of everything that’s weighed me down. Jared lets me do whatever I want, and I leave him alone most of the time. It’s one of the perks of owning the place without actually running it.
Every other time I’ve come here, I’ve felt relieved almost immediately, but this time the weight doesn’t fall away as fast or as completely. I need something more than just the sound of the wind and waves.
I step out to the balcony that juts from the tower in a full circle. My feet know the path as I stare in front of me and just walk. Like the world circling the sun, I go from light to darkness back to light. My steps are rhythmic, a metronome ticking the time for the thoughts that race through my mind.
And my thoughts revolve around Madison Carter. I didn’t feel this way until last night. That momentary break from my world of stardom and expectations made me remember what it was like before I became Emery Brooks, before the smile on my face was as fake as my excitement.
They say that ignorance is bliss, and I know it’s true. If I could forget the feeling of sitting at her dining room table and drinking cheap wine, I would. But I can’t because, like this lighthouse, it was a shining star amidst the darkness.
A darkness that’s still better than the alternative.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. Who’s messaging me at this hour?
No one. It’s a notification from ChitChat. Madison posted another video, and I smile as I stop walking to click the notification. In this one, she’s wearing a pair of sleep pants with pandas on them and a tank top that says “I’m not single. I’ve got a hundred book boyfriends.”
Her pretty brown hair is tied up in a bun with little strands sticking out the sides like she doesn’t care at all what she looks like. Music plays as she mouths the words to it and words pop up, a quote from some book. I don’t understand the draw to these videos, but I click over to her profile to see the enormous list of them. Hundreds, maybe thousands.
And then I find one that isn’t like the others.
Madison’s laying in that giant chair in her living room, her feet propped up on one side and her head resting against the other armrest. Instead of music and lip syncing, she begins talking.
“I want to talk about something that bothers me. I miss how things used to be for readers.” She holds up a tablet and says, “This is the most wonderful thing a reader could have, a portable library you can carry in your purse. With one of these, you’ll always have something to read.”
She puts the tablet down. “But it’s not the same as holding the book in your hands. You don’t get the smell or the feel of the pages. Getting lost on a screen and getting lost in a book are different. I read on a tablet nearly every day, but that’s purely for convenience. When I’m in a mood, and I need some comfort, the tablet gets put away.”
She sits up and turns the screen to look at a pile of books on the coffee table. The camera gets right next to the spines of the books before turning back to face her. “I’ve read these books so many times that their spines are breaking. And guess what? I don’t care. I love them. Those characters are like family. I trust them, and they each bring me back to a different place in my life.”
She grabs one of the books and holds it up. “Chronicles of Narnia will always help me remember to be strong, to be better than I think I am right now. It was my first foray into magic, and it’ll always be my favorite. I think that’s why I love Christmas so much.”
Switching books, she holds up a different one. “Huckleberry Finn reminds me that there’s more to life than just going to work. We all need to find an adventure now and then because the people you meet on them will change you, even if you only know them for a few days.”
The third book she holds up is a hardback that’s nearly falling apart. “Now this is my official comfort read, even if it is a fairy tale. Beauty and the Beast is the ultimate bookdragon story. A girl that falls in love with a beast who doesn’t know how to be the prince he was born to be. I know everyone’s writing retellings, but I think they miss the mark.
“It’s about falling in love withwhoa person is instead ofwhata person is. It’s the fact that you know Beast’s time is running out, but he doesn’t push her. He doesn’t even force her to stay with him. At the same time, he’d do literally anything for her. He’s willing to die to keep her from pain. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.”
I barely pay attention to the last few seconds of the video. I’m too stuck on her favorite book. Beauty and the Beast. It just doesn’t make sense, and maybe that’s why she told me I wasn’t the kind of man that women wanted. I’d never have given up anything for a woman before, much less die for one’s happiness.
I frown and slip the phone back into my pocket as I stare out into the darkness of the night sky, with only the moon as my companion. Full and silver, she stares out at the world with me, and I wonder what it’d be like to have someone love so much that you couldn’t stand a single moment of their pain.
I sigh even though I know what I have to do. No, I don’thaveto do anything. This is something I want to do. Even if it’s something I’d never have done before I met Madison Carter.
Chapter 12
Madison
My second Monday morning is different from the first. I’m ready for it this time. I don’t even bother going into my office today, instead sitting with my project group in the idea room as we wait for Emery to walk out of his office for the morning “meeting” if you can even call it that.
I’m not part of his cult, and I don’t plan on ever becoming part of it. He’s a man, just like all the rest. He may be cleverer than most, but he doesn’t deserve the god status that so many people here seem to give him.
So when he walks out of the office, I do as everyone else does, but I don’t let myself pay much attention to what’s happening. I’m here to sell Bronze Goddess self-tanner, not worship Emery Brooks, the man who kissed me in his office.
The man I still can’t stop thinking about.
