Page 57 of From Us, Forever

“Please, call me Evelyn, Ms. Riggs,” I replied as I sank down on the chair across hers.

“Great.” She gave me a warm smile. “Since we are on a first-name basis, please call me Nora.”

I matched her smile. “I appreciate you meeting me today, Nora.”

“Of course, the pleasure’s all mine. Now, let’s talk about why we’re here today.” She fiddled through the heavy stack of papers on her desk. “I apologize. I’ve been getting plenty of requests lately—a life of a literary agent.”

“That’s okay, please take your time,” I said in an even-toned voice, unlike the thud of my heart.

“Yes, here we are,” she mumbled as she laid what I assumed to be my manuscript in front of her while she wrote something.

I sent her the entire manuscript last week upon her request, instead of a few chapters.

I took it as a positive sign that she wanted to read the whole thing, which meant she must have liked it, right? It even had a bunch of highlights sticking out of it, so I had my fingers crossed.

“So tell me, Evelyn, what are your aspirations and goals as an author?”

I took a deep breath before answering, “Make someone’s day. I don’t want them to read my words for what they are but what they could be in their lives. May it be a moment of joy, sadness, or grief, I want them to feel everything and escape reality, even if it is momentary.”

She nodded. “Heartfelt. But we need to sell books for that to happen.” She raised her brow jokingly.

“Yeah, of course.” Nervous laughter spurted out of me.

She dropped the pen on the table and leaned forward, weaving her fingers together. “So Evelyn. I read through your work, and I must say it’s pretty spectacular. I’m very much impressed. It’s very raw and holds a lot of emotion.”

Excitement shot through my veins as my lips curved in a smile. “Thank you.”

“But let’s be honest here.” She tilted her head as she regarded me. “Emotions and teenage love hardly sell these days. Either you need to have a pretty big fan base, which, in your case, you don’t, or you need to clinch the points that sell, which you haven’t done either. Gone were the days when youwrote a story, hoping people loved it. Thousands of books are released every year, and most of them get tanked under the shelves. We need to make sure your book doesn’t too.”

I nodded.

“Now.” She handed me the manuscript. “We can go about it a couple of different ways. I highlighted the parts that needed to be fleshed out—marked in orange. So we take out those parts and sprinkle in a bit of the popular tropes so it is marketable.”

I flicked through the pages of her notes, frowning. “But half of this is marked in orange.”

“Sadly, that’s all we can do, Evelyn. Unless.” Her eyes shined with curiosity. “If you want to keep the story as is, we can, but we need to work out a different angle.”

“Different angle?” I asked, unsure of where she was going.

A saccharine smile lit up her face. “Well, if I’m assuming right, this story was inspired by your own love, right?”

I nodded, already feeling the queasy energy swirling up my gut. People dug up my entire backstory in a matter of days, and with it splashed all over the media, it was safe to assume that was where she got that little tidbit of information. It was also safe to assume that was how she found me.

“Perfect. Then you know how famous your boyfriend is. He’s got millions of followers, and most of them are women. So if we establish your social media presence with his help and get the word out that this is about both of you, the fans will love it, and your book will be a definite hit. What do you say?”

My fingers bunched around the skirt of my dress as uncomfortableness stretched between us. What did I have to say at this point? All my previous excitement jittered away inan instant as I realized what this meeting was actually about. It didn’t take me long to come to a decision. I knew what I had to do here.

“I’m going to have to say no, Nora. I thank you for your time,” I affirmed steadily, rising to my feet.

Her smile fell. “Evelyn, I get how you may feel about this. But this is business, and if you ever want to be successful, you need to walk around the bush at times. This is a great opportunity, and I don’t want you to miss it because of your ego. You can either make the book marketable or market it with the help of your boyfriend. You have a deal on the table. Most people don’t even get this far.”

“I know, and I thank you for explaining, but I’ve made my decision. I’m not going to scrape out half of my book and make it something it’s not, and I’m not using my boyfriend for anything.” My voice resounded with conviction, and her lips thinned with annoyance.

“You know you won’t sell a copy with this.” She pointed at the manuscript.

I smiled, which only made her lips thinner. “And that’s okay. My book is something I poured my heart into, and I’m perfectly fine if it doesn’t sell a copy. Because I’m not doing this for money, I’m doing this because I love it. I hope you understand. Goodbye, Ms. Riggs.”

Her snicker was lost on deaf ears, and I walked out of the room with my head held high. Every emotion that I poured into creating that story was mine. Every part of it was hauntingly beautiful, and I wasn’t going to change that for anything or anyone.

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