Page 58 of The Fear of Falling
It isn’t fair how beautiful this man is, especially because I still don’t have any idea what his parting emoji from last night means. What if Sadie’s comment about the “I love you” emoji is right, and he just picked the wrong one? There’s no way, but what if…?
He starts rummaging through totes and boxes, like he’s taking stock of everything we’ve shoved into the storage closet. “There’s a lot of good stuff in here.”
Including you. He’s repping that shirt so well that I want to sneak a picture and put it on our socials. He could sell everything we’ve got by standing there and looking pretty.
“I’m thinking we could do something with all of this and generate some buzz for R&Q and help get the ball rolling.” He has a look on his face that is much like the one he had when we were talking to Phillip Rogers, like his focus has fully shifted into marketing mode. He looks…excited. More excited than he’s ever looked.
He really loves his job.
I can’t help but smile as he gathers up a few bookmarks, a copy ofPomegranates, and a tote bag, setting them on top of a box. He scans the shelves again and picks up a novella froma different author, as well as a couple of stickers. “We could make it a whole social media campaign,” he mutters, practically talking to himself now. “I could reach out to some of my contacts in other states to do the same thing, so it isn’t just here in Utah.”
“Do what, exactly?” I ask, tilting my head.
Benson’s eyes widen, but then he grins. “Little Free Libraries,” he says, dumping all of his treasures into the tote and holding it toward me. “For one. Put swag bags in a few of them around the country and let your followers try to find them.”
That’s a pretty good idea. “And for another?”
Pulling up a box to sit next to me, Benson bites his lip as he keeps grinning. “I’ve been thinking about the R&Q brand, particularly last night.”
“Did you sleep at all?” I almost reach up and touch his face. Now that he’s up close, the dark circles under his eyes make him look exhausted. It’s worse than the day after he arrived.
“Not even a little bit,” he says with a chuckle, apparently in a great mood despite his lack of sleep. “Hence the coffee.”
“That you didn’t get to drink,” I say with a wince. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I’m pretty sure he means that. Or maybe he’s so tired that he has no ability to regulate his emotions and he’s stuck on happy. “Anyway, brand.”
I grin. This sleepy and excited version of Benson is fun. “What about it?”
“You’re still new enough that you don’t have something that defines you aside from being Dani’s publisher.”
“We mostly publish fantas—”
“But what makes you different from the other fantasy publishers?” He grabs another copy of Dani’s book and holds it in front of his chest, once again making me want to take a picture because dang, this man could sell water at a public drinking fountain by standing next to it and smiling. “What sets Rose & Quill apart? I’ve been studying other publishers, both similarin size and at a scope you should be aiming for, and I’ve been coming up with some ideas for how you might differentiate R&Q from your competitors beyond the quality of your books.”
His words surprise me more than I expected them to, though this is the sort of thing I should have expected from a consultant. Either I’ve been taking too much of his time brainstorming marketing ideas and haven’t given him a chance to do his job, or he was especially busy last night.
“Oh?” I say breathlessly. I don’t know if I’m overwhelmed or excited to hear what he’s come up with. It’s probably a mixture of both.
Benson studies me for a moment, and then he chuckles and grabs my hand. “Okay, relax. Most of the concepts I’ve been working on have stemmed from your ideas.”
My cheeks heat. “Really?”
Nodding, he squeezes my fingers in a way that helps me feel more stable. “Of course. If you were doing this on your own, you would have already done most of these things because you’re a natural marketer.”
He doesn’t explicitly say Eric has been holding me back, but…
Unexpected tears prick my eyes, and I tilt my head down before Benson sees how much his words mean to me. I focus instead on our hands and the way he so easily laced his fingers between mine without any hesitation, like he did in Italy. If he really wanted to keep a professional distance between us, he wouldn’t do this.
I clear my throat. “So, what else could we do with the swag?”
“The other day, you brought up mentorships as you bring on new authors, but what if you went beyond that?”
I look up. “What do you mean?”
His smile has turned softer. Warmer. I’m pretty sure this closet has exactly zero ventilation because it’s a million degrees in here and all I can smell is Benson’s clean scent. All I canfeel is his thumb rubbing mine. “I mean you could go further than helping authors you’ve acquired. You could have your established authors, like Dani, host seminars or workshops for aspiring writers and give them the tools they need to get picked up by a publisher, whether it’s you or someone else.”
“But wouldn’t that be helping our competition if they go elsewhere?”
