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I looked up and smiled. "Hopefully, wrinkles and a ferocious reader list for my new series. Then the wrinkles can be tackled with Botox."
Meagan plopped down in the adjacent seat, looking at all the books and notes spread out in front of me. "Still struggling?"
"Just with one damn character," I replied, closing my laptop. "Is it noon already?"
Meagan nodded, taking a sip of her drink. "I'm on break, but I don't have long. I'm still in the mode of not wasting a moment so that I can be around my best friend."
I smiled. "I know. But I promise I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. Not even on a book tour. This book is far from done. Besides, London was great for college, getting a book deal, and learning the industry, but I'm a California girl."
Meagan lifted a brow. "And you think I believe this has nothing to do with that dude you were seeing over there? Didn't you two date for like a couple of years?"
My lip twitched, and I took a gulp of coffee. "Yeah. His name was Nolan. And we dated for three years and fourteen days to be exact."
"You still refusing to tell me what happened? Acting like that part of your life wasn't incredibly influential in keeping you far away from me all that time."
I sighed and set my laptop on my notes. "He broke up with me for the same reason guys don't make it past the first date. Because I am choosing to wait on sex until I know it's right. Just to avoid the drama and stress that comes from adding sex into the equation. He was super supportive until he wasn't."
"Did it come out of nowhere?"
I sneered. "Does it ever? No. Looking back, he had become increasingly persistent and then increasingly distant. So, I shouldn't have been surprised when I found out he was shagging his dentist. I always thought he went to the dentist a lot, but he had amazing teeth and the perfect smile, and I figured it was important to him."
"And what did he say when you caught him?"
I rolled my eyes, staring across the room. "That he couldn't keep waiting. That he had proven himself to me. And I asked him if sex was so important that it was worth losing everything else we had together."
"What did he say?"
I glanced around. "Well, considering I am here, alone, single, spending all my time looking at pictures of dead bodies and watching interviews with serial killers, I would say he didn't care as much about me as I had hoped for. What is it about sex that turns people into assholes? If you don't have it, they turn into cheating jerks. You do have it. A whole other set of complications arise. I'm just going to bury my virgin ass in my work and one day purchase a small loft in London and fill it with cats."
Meagan snorted into her coffee. "I won't let that happen. My best friend will not be the cat lady. Screw him. I don't want to see you hurt, but I'm glad you came home. There are plenty of assholes right here in San Diego."
Giggling, I shook my head. "That makes me super excited to face singledom in San Diego. It’s better than moving back home to LA with Mom.”
Meagan finished her espresso and stood up, leaning forward and kissing me on the top of my head. "I'd love to stay longer, but I walked, and I have to get back to work. What are you doing on Saturday?"
I motioned out the window. "I have that book signing across town for my last series. I'll probably be there until like eight."
"Oh yeah," she said. "You want me to come?"
I shook my head. "No, it's fine. I'm used to these things. Besides, you deserve to chill on your day off. My best friend is a badass now, getting focused on her future. I'm all about it."
She smiled at me and blew me a kiss. "Text you later!"
When she left, I looked back at my pile and picked up my laptop, opening it to the main character's page. I glanced out the window at a cute dude walking by. He reminded me of Meagan's brother, and my mind was filled with thoughts of him in an instant. And though my thoughts were definitely not platonic, my mind shifted, carrying over his traits to my character page.
I began typing away, eager to get the sketch down before I lost the image in my head. Within minutes, I had a full page of dialogue, and I was quite pleased with myself. As I read it over, however, I realized that something was missing. It needed a touch of romance, something that would make the reader feel the connection between the two characters.
I bit my lip, pondering how I could add that extra something. And then it hit me.
My fingers started typing, and line by line, an actual character was forming. This character, though, was Guy. He was handsome, strong, and down to earth. Also, he had a sense of humor and a perfect smile. It wasn't a full character description because I didn't know the grown-up Guy well, but it was definitely a start. He would make the perfect main character, not to mention he would be going through similar situations as he was in real life. Well, at least some. I really hoped he didn't end up in a torture chamber at any point, held captive by a masked serial killer with a penchant for brain teasers. That would just be too much.
I sighed dreamily as I looked at the screen. I had to admit, Guy was pretty darn perfect. And he was all mine. Well, at least in my story he was.
As I continued to write, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if Guy were actually my boyfriend. If he were really mine and we got to experience all those cute couple things together. Things like going on dates and holding hands and stealing kisses in public. Or maybe even something more than that. Like waking up next to each other every morning and falling asleep in each other’s arms every night.
I allowed myself a moment to daydream about what it would be like to be with Guy before shaking my head and getting back to work. I had a story to write, after all, and daydreaming about my best friend's brother wasn’t going to get it done.
I sat back with a smile, loving when that happened. When a moment of clarity pumped through and I knocked out something I had been fretting over for weeks. Still, in the back of my head, Guy was there. Not the character in my book, but the handsome one who stood in his sister's kitchen, hiding like I wanted to from the crew partying in the other room. I definitely would have had a better experience hiding with him, but that was against the rules.
