Page 8 of Not in My Book

“You’re right. It’shilarious.” Logan grinned. “God, that was so entertaining. Remind me to sign up for workshops with you and Aiden from now on.”

“He was being a dick, and I wasn’t going to stand for it,” I said defensively.

“To be fair, you started it,” Logan said.

“Hey!”

“You did! Ilovethat you started it because it’s usually Aiden that starts these fights, but today it was totally you.”

Embarrassment flooded me. I looked to Tyler and Jess. “You don’t think Ida is going to hate me for starting it, do you?”

“No,” Jess said reassuringly. “Add/drop just ended; there’s no class you could move into. She might dock your participation grade or something, but I think you’re fine.”

“Let’s just go to Peculiar.” I sighed heavily.

Since I loved romance and I loved Jess, I got Logan to keep talking to me as we walked toward Peculiar Pub, giving Jess some time alone with Tyler. Every so often on the walk over, I heard her giggle.

The more I’d gotten to know Logan and Tyler over the past few months, the more they’d become really great friends. Tyler was always so serious and stoic, every word out of his mouth thoughtful, like in his writing. He wrote contemporary fiction that read like poetry and instantly captivated you. It was easy to see why Jess liked him so much.

Logan, on the other hand, was Tyler’s exact opposite. Logan wore every emotion and thought on his sleeve. He had no filter and didn’t care. He wrote horror comedies and was able to make our skin crawl on one page and have us bursting into laughter on the next.

The Peculiar Pub was aptly named: At the front there was the bar with plenty of room to stand around and talk, but toward the back was a different vibe, with booth seating and bottlecaps lining the walls. Once we had asked the bartender for the most peculiar drink on the menu, and she brought us a raspberry cheesecake flavored beer.

“I’ll grab the first round,” Tyler said. “The usual for everyone?”

We nodded as he walked off to the bar, and Jess’s eyes lingered on him.

“You know,” Logan said thoughtfully. “I think my favorite part of class today was when Aiden said vibrator.”

“Oh my God.” I hung my head low.

“You know, I’ve never had a vibrator. Do they usually come with coasters?” He looked between Jess and me, waiting for an explanation.

Jess reached across the table to smack him playfully and said, “Shut up.” She paused. “No. They don’t.”

Tyler returned with our happy hour drinks, placing margaritas in front of Jess and me and beers for him and Logan.

Logan sipped his beer and said, “I wish you two would fuck and get it over with.”

I coughed, chocking on my drink. “What?”

“Well, there’s anobviousamount of sexual tension between you two. You guys would probably be nicer to each other if you would just have sex. Then you wouldn’t hate him so much.”

I shook my head vehemently, nearly gagging at the thought. “No one would want to hear his complicated metaphors as dirty talk. Besides, I don’t hate him because I’mattractedto him.”

Logan’s eyebrows raised. “So youare?”

“No.” I blushed. “I hate him because he’s elitist about romance. Right, Jess?”

Jess nodded in solidarity. “He’s harshest whenever we submit our stuff. We’re only a few weeks in, and he’s found something wrong with all of Rosie’s chapters.”

“But not yours,” Tyler said, frowning. “He’s not as harsh to you as he is to Rosie, and you write romance too.”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” I declared. “I want to enjoy tonight with my friends and not have to think about Aiden at all.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll drop it,” Logan said. “Tyler, what happens next in your book? I want spoilers, I have to know.”

We chatted for a while about everyone’s projects. Now that I couldn’t transfer out of Ida’s class, I had to stick with my current plot line. No restarting my novel or testing out new chapters. I didn’t have time to dwell anymore—I had towrite.Especially now that Ida wasn’t the happiest with me.

---