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“Oh.”Smile, Archer, smile.“Thank you!”
The girl on the right opened a copy ofWheelsshe had on her, and sure enough, it was already signed and already had a drawing of his main character scribbled on in green marker. He cringed, but he tried not to let it show. He hated looking at his old work, andWheels—panned the Internet over for its “contrite” and “clunky” story, the one comic story he’d ever written himself—was the worst offender.
“Gini?” he said, reading the book inscription.
She shut the book and giggled. “Heremembered!” she gushed.
Oops. Is it too late to tell her I read the book inscription?
George leaned over and whispered, “Just a few minutes with each, if that’s okay?”
“Oh, right.” Archer shook his head. “Do you want a quick drawing…?” He looked up, waiting for the other one to tell him her name.
“Becca,” she said, her lips souring just a little. “Sure. Derek’s cat please.”
Archer laughed. He hadn’t even meant for the animal to be that cute, but it was a fairly frequent request. He wrote a note thanking Becca for her readership and signed his name, grabbing a brown Sharpie to start the sketch of Lina, The Mystified’s (Derek Diggerson’s) feline friend.
“Um,” said Gini, “I asked this last year, but… Are you married?”
Archer’s pen stopped moving. “No…?” Why was he framing it like a question?
Gini squealed and glomped onto Becca’s shoulder. Becca rolled her eyes. “But there was a woman in the ‘Reserved’ section who doesn’t work here…”
“That was probably hismom,” insisted Gini.
“Theotherwoman, the one spilling out of her top.”
Archer sputtered. Actuallysputteredout loud. It wasn’t even like Brielle wasthatbusty. Yet he clearly wasn’t the only one drawn to her cleavage.
Gini looked over her shoulder, wincing. “Oh. She’s not there anymore.”
Archer’s heart sank—not that he expected her to leave without saying anything to him, even if she had another ride home. It would make Monday awfully awkward if she did.
Archer quickly finished up Becca’s drawing and slid it her way, smiling again. “Thank you so much for your support,” he said, blowing on the page to help dry it. He winked. “Maybe I’ll see you next time.”
Becca cradled the book to her chest, beaming, stepping slightly aside to let Gini through. Gini reached into a tote bag she had over her shoulder, rifling through what easily looked like half a dozen books, and plunked the latestThe Mystifieddown in front of him. She slid her signed copy ofWheelsbehind that, looking up at George. “They said we had to limit it to two copies signed, and at least one had to be bought here.” She dug into her tote and waved a receipt around. Archer noticed an identical copy of the latestThe Mystifiedstill in her tote as she shifted things around. “So I was hoping you could sign myWheelsa second time?”
Pushing down his feelings of disgust at his own work (without which, he reminded himself, he was unlikely to have gottenThe Mystifiedgig), Archer smiled and reached to putWheelsatop the pile to get signing it out of the way.
Gini actually leaned forward and placed her hand atop his as he did. “You don’t know how many times I’ve readWheels. You don’t knowhow muchit means to me.”
Archer cleared his throat and tried to gently pull the book closer to him to free his hand. “I’m so glad to hear. Thank you.” He’d gotten a few messages from people like that, especially other people with disabilities, which, he had to admit, made him feel just a little bit proud, despite the problems with the work.
It took some doing, but Archer did manage to free his hand and open the book. “Which character should I draw this time?” he asked, writing a second note on the page across from the first.
“Do you want to get coffee after this?” asked Gini.
“Gini!” Becca slapped Gini’s arm playfully.
“What?” Shrugging, Gini readjusted her tote bag strap. “I want to tell him how much the book means to me, and this guy who works here keeps staring daggers at me, so I figure we should step aside and let the rest of the line get their autographs.”
Archer just stared up, shell-shocked. He’d be lying if he didn’t admit he’d seen afewfans online talk about him being attractive—if he didn’t admit that made him feel good, despite everything, even led him to daydream about a gaggle of hot fangirls surrounding him, and Becca and Gini weren’t that bad-looking at all, far from it—but he’d never had to deal with these kinds of compliments outside of the comfort of his own head. If he’d detected flirting at any of his previous signings, it didn’t really mean much because no one had outright said anything.
“I, uh, have plans,” Archer mumbled. He quickly scribbled a squirrel—it was important to the plot ofWheels, and he’d already drawn Todd, the main character—and blew on it before sliding it back to her.
“How about another day?” asked Gini, undaunted. Her eyes sparkled. “I live just a couple of hours away.”
“You live a couple of hours away?” asked Archer, opening up her other book to write an inscription. His usual “thanks for your support” message seemed awfully dull and dumb in this situation, but he scribbled it anyway. “And you came all this way?”
