Page 18 of I Won't Be In On Monday

I look up and see that he's staring at me. There's an amused look in his eyes. "So, Miss Juniper, what do you write?"

"Currently, I'm writing a romantasy book."

"Oh, romance. That's cool," he says, grinning like a fool as he stares at me with a knowing expression. "Like, that sexy romance stuff or..."

"No, not romance. Romantasy."

He frowns. "Romantasy? What does that mean? Romance geared towards men or something?"

"No." I laugh. "Romance and fantasy mixed together."

"So, what, a dragon falling in love with a human or something?"

"Not really. Perhaps there's a book like that, but that's not what my book's about."

"I see. Are there dragons, though?"

"There may be a dragon or two." I grin. "And some elves."

"Elves. Wow."

"And a secret closet."

"A secret closet? Tell me more." He stands up and runs his fingers through his hair, then bends down and picks up a box with hundreds of vinyl records. "Hold on. I'll be right back." I watch as he leaves the room with the box, and I listen to his footsteps as they go down the hallway.

I'm actually enjoying his company. I'm surprised at the fact that he's inquiring about me. I expected him to do his own thing and leave me to take care of the room by myself. I didn’t expect that we would actually engage in conversation with each other.

"Okay, I'm back," he says, looking back into the room and groaning again. "This looks like a bomb shelter after World War II."

"I mean, I think those shelters probably looked better than this."

"Ouch," he says, laughing. "So tell me more about this book full of dragons and elves and secret closets."

"Well," I pause. "I am still writing it, so I don't know exactly where the story's going."

"What do you know so far?"

"Well, so far, there's a regular girl. She's human."

"Cool, cool."

"And she moves to this new house in the countryside after her parents die. She's living with her grandma."

"Oh, that's sad."

"Yeah, so she's missing her parents, and one day, her grandma says, 'Why don't you go up into the attic and find some old photo albums?' So she goes up to the attic and while looking for those photo albums, she finds this really old armoire that's really beautiful."

"Sounds cool."

"So, she opens it and steps inside, and she's transported to another world."

He stares at me. "Go on. Sounds really interesting so far."

"Are you just saying that?" I look at him questioningly. Am I boring him, or is he really enjoying hearing about my book?

"Not at all." He shakes his head. "So what happens next?"

"Well, she enters this other world, and it's like nothing she's ever seen before. She's immediately nervous and scared, and she's actually hiding in a closet in the new world."

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