Page 128 of We Met Like This
“But…” she said, seeming to know there was more.
“But I’ve known Oliver for over three years. She can’t hold him hostage over a six-monthrelationship. He’smineto call dibs on, not hers.”
“Damn straight he is.”
“I guess I need to talk to her. Tell her how I feel. And then give Oliver the chance to explain himself.”
“Howdoyou feel?” she asked.
I picked up a stray kernel of popcorn from beneath the coffee table and turned it slowly in my fingers before depositing it into the bowl. Then I met her expectant stare. “I love him.”
She smiled and let out a small squeal.
“But love doesn’t always conquer all,” I said.
She rolled her eyes. “You can no longer rep romance.”
“In romance books, everything works out. In real life, I’m not so sure.”
“How many editors have you heard back from?” Sloane asked several days later. I had met her at her office so we could go to lunch together. Apparently, these were things I did now that I was in charge of my own schedule: lunched at restaurants near Sloane’s work.
“They’ve only had it for one day,” I said. The first two days after Kari had announced she wanted to be my client had been spent creating and signing contracts and putting together a list. Kari had lots of opinions about both.
“I know it’s only been one day, but this is Kari Cross we’re talking about. Nobody has saidanything?” She looked nervous, like she thought Rob had called all the editors at every publishing house and instructed them not to touch me with a ten-foot pole. Okay, that wasmynightmare. I was projecting.
“I’ve had one response. It was something like,Kari Cross is writing what now?”
She cringed.
“I know.” I picked up a crystal paperweight with a video camera etched into the side and raised my eyebrows at her.
“Like I said, I have nothing in this office I would save in a fire.”
I set it back down and she grabbed her purse off the chair. “You ready?”
“Yes, I’m so hungry.”
“Are you worried at all?” she asked.
“About selling Kari’s book?”
She nodded.
“No, you know how slow publishing can move.”
“Almost as slow as Hollywood,” she responded.
“Exactly. It’s going to happen. Like you said, this is Kari Cross.”
She waved to a coworker near the front as we headed outside. “And what about that other thing we talked about? What are you going to do about that?”
“What other thing?”
“That tiny revelation you had about being in love?”
I wanted to talk to Oliver. I was hoping with everything in me that what he had to say would be enough for me to get over the hurt that still lingered over the lies he told. And maybethat thought was why I was stalling. As much as I missed him, I worried that it wouldn’t be enough. That no matter what he said, I wouldn’t be able to trust him again. And that thought broke my heart all over again. “I don’t know.”
The rest of the week I counted in messages. Every day something new from someone new.
