Page 132 of Guys Can't Write Romance
Chad looked at Daisy, whose cheeks were as pink as his. “Your place?”
Daisy gave a big nod as she packed her laptop into her bag. “Oh, yeah.”
“I’m kinda digging this Daisy Meal Plan,” Chad said to Daisy in between bites of lasagna at her dining table. “I’m giving it the bachelor seal of approval.”
“I thought only microwave dinners and bar food qualified,” she smirked.
“I’m gonna make an exception, ‘cause this might actually be better,” he said, shoving another bite in his mouth. “Who’d have thought.”
Daisy rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure there was a compliment in there somewhere, so I’ll take it. You ready for the deadline tomorrow?”
Chad wiped his mouth with his sleeve and took a breath. “I think so. At this point, I’m pretty much just nitpicking the same sentences over and over.”
Daisy gave a big nod in agreement. “Me too. I’m kind of ready to just have it over with.”
“Yup. Same here.”
“Did you come up with a title for your book yet?”
“I think so,” he said. “What do you think of ‘A Ghost of a Chance’?”
Daisy nodded thoughtfully. “I like it. It ties in the ghost element with how nobody thought Brandon could write a romance. How’d you come up with it?”
“Some girl bet me a while back that I couldn’t write a romance novel. Kind of art imitating life.”
Daisy smiled. “I’m glad you proved that girl wrong. So what are we toasting to tonight?”
He stared at his wine glass for a moment as he considered this, then finally raised it. “To happy endings.”
She smiled, raising her wine glass and clinking it against his. “To happy endings.”
The day of the deadline for contest submissions finally arrived. Daisy and Chad sat in front of their laptops on his makeshift coffee table that afternoon, staring hesitantly at the ‘submit’ button on the contest’s website. Chad had already checked three times to make sure he’d attached the right manuscript, and not the one with the slime monster. Daisy had done the same, triple-checking to make sure she hadn’t attached a draft with Ethan in it- er, boring Rick.
“You ready?” Daisy asked, her free hand finding his.
“I guess. You?”
“I think so. Let’s do this.”
“On the count of three?”
She nodded, squeezing his hand.
“One…” he began the countdown, “two… thr—”
“Woah. Wait,” Daisy cut in.
“What is it?”
“What if they hate it?” she said.
“They won’t,” he said, giving her hand a comforting squeeze. “And if they do, we’ll pull the fire alarm and turn the sprinklers on during their banquet.”
She laughed, the nervous tension vanishing from her eyes. “Okay, let’s do this. One… two… three.”
They pressed the ‘submit’ buttons at the same time, and a moment later, a page popped up with ‘submission received’ across the top.
“We did it,” she said, releasing her breath as the moment slowly registered.
