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She laughs, almost cackling, when he finishes. I’m almost ashamed of that conversation, but I didn’t know him then. “Emery knows what women want,” I say.
Maya glances at him and smirks. “I bet he does. Though he looks a lot more like the prince than the beast.”
I may have ranted about how a pretty man does not make a good book boyfriend.
“More like if the prince and the beast had a baby,” I say. Then I pause for a moment. “How’d you know that I’d understand that?”
“BookDragonMaddie is my favorite ChitChatter. I might be biased since you sell a lot of my books, but I enjoy all of your videos. If I’d known you’d been to two of my signings, I’d have invited you to dinner already. I considered sending you a message this time, but it’s a little nerve-wracking to contact major reviewers like you.”
I’m flabbergasted. How could someone like Maya Hall be nervous talking to someone like me? I’m nobody. She’s a creative genius.
“You were nervous talking to me?”
She nods as she picks up her purse. “You have no idea how big of an effect you ChitChatters have on sales for authors. You can make or break our books. You can turn a nobody into a somebody, or you rip our books apart, and we can’t do anything about it. You’re one of the big ones, and it’s a little terrifying.”
That doesn’t make sense. One of her last books became a movie! I try to embrace that arrogance I manage at work. Imposter syndrome rears its ugly head, and I try to beat it away with a smile.
“Well, I guess we’ll just have to be nervous together. Now, what is this about pancakes for dinner?”
***
“And then they asked why she always tripped over herself.”
I can’t help but laugh. Maya is freaking hilarious. “How do you direct romance movies without having read a thousand romance books? Everyone knows that the awkward, nerdy girl gets the hot boss. It’s part of the rules.”
Maya grins. “Unless the boss is the fantasy at the beginning, and it’s really the best friend slash coworker she’s destined for.”
I nod to her. “True. The best friend trope is a classic pull away from the hot boss scenario.”
Em jumps into the conversation for the first time. “Now hold on. You’re telling me that the reader knows how it ends before they finish the first chapter?”
Em is dead serious as he listens to us talk about the books we love. “Of course. It’showthey get there that matters.”
“Exactly,” Maya says. “The ending is always, always, always a happily ever after between the two people in the meet cute. But why do they go from their first relationship into a happily ever after? What kind of delicious emotions do they experience during that journey? What kind of heartbreak do they experience to grow so that they can find the love they want?”
It's all stuff that I’ve talked about a thousand times, but Em is looking at me like I’m crazy.
I try to explain it to him in “man” terms. “Look, it’s like in a superhero movie. You know the superhero is going to fight the big bad guy. The bad guy is going to look like he’s impossible to beat. All is lost until something happens that was foreshadowed in the first quarter of the movie. Just an offhand comment that didn’t quite fit with the rest.”
Em blinks. “Wait. Does that really work? Is it always like that?” I glance at Maya, who’s already laughing.
I nod. “There are slight changes, but that’s pretty much the whole ending to every superhero movie.”
He looks like someone just told him that Santa wasn’t real. Like the magic’s all gone for him.
“Why do I always have that excited feeling? I’ve seen enough superhero movies since I was a kid that I should know that. It shouldn’t be surprising, but I always feel that bit of fear that it won’t work.”
Maya says, “Because they did a good job. Just because we know the ending to romance books doesn’t mean we don’t gush over them as we read them. At least when they’re well done. If there’s not enough ups and downs, it can feel a little flat, but a good romance should bring you tears of sadness and then to tears of joy. At least that’s what I try to do.”
He shakes his head and looks back at the few bits of pancake left on his plate. “I think I’ll just see myself out. You’re taking all the magic out of it. Now, I’m going to notice it next time, and it’s going to be ruined.”
I chuckle. “Nothing’s ruined, Emery. You won’t even remember unless I point it out, and I promise not to point it out.”
He huffs, and I grin at Maya. “You know what we have to do now, don’t you?” I ask.
“Make a video?” she asks.
I nod. “I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t tell everyone how awesome you are.”
