by Charish Reid
“Be that as it may, the Three-Week Initiative might work. Kowalski is giving us three weeks to come up with innovative programs to attract incoming freshmen. They have to be low-cost of course, but also something that generates excitement.”
Paula fixed her mouth and sighed. “What have you come up with, Vicki?”
Victoria grew excited. “Okay, so I’m thinking of a library internship for the English department students. We’ll partner with the Farmingdale Public Library to give students a real-world learning experience that can carry over to graduate school or outside of academia. What do you think?”
There was a pregnant pause that made her tense. Victoria needed to know that someone liked her idea before she busted down President Kowalski’s door. When Paula finally spoke, she gave a pitying smile. “Girl, I think that’s a great idea. A library internship is going to help students get a leg up in any discipline they choose.”
Eyeing her smile, Victoria leaned forward. “But?”
Paula’s shoulders slumped. “But I worry that you think you always have to save someone. It’s like graduate school all over again. Reggi and I had to talk you off a ledge every time you piled too much on your plate. The president’s problems aren’t your problems and you don’t have to work yourself into a lather over mismanaged funds.”
Victoria frowned. “I’m not working myself into a lather.”
“You don’t see it until your elaborate plans are near the end. Afterward, you tell us that you’ll never work that hard on bullshit projects. This is not your problem.”
She shook her head. “That’s where you’re wrong, Paula. Pembroke’s problems are my problems. I chose this path because I wanted to teach and research. If my school goes under, how am I supposed to do either?”
“I get it, girl. I have the luxury of not needing this job, so I take it for granted. But you’re going to work yourself into an early grave if you keep this up. Being the mule that Zora wrote about is not sustainable.”
Victoria swallowed. Whenever Paula made literary references during debates, she meant business. Throwing Zora Neale Hurston into the conversation made her both irritated and hesitant to defend her school. Sure, Victoria liked pulling her weight, sometimes even a couple extra pounds, if it meant tasks got done and boxes got checked. But if history was any indication of how this project would turn out, she might want to pace herself. “I hear you loud and clear,” she said. “But I’m going to try my best anyway.”
Paula reached out and took her hand. “And that’s what I love about you,” she said in a softer tone. “Your work ethic is something I’d like to bottle up and take twice daily. But I just wish you’d rest.”
Victoria squeezed her friend’s hand. “I’ll rest when I reach my goals,” she said with a chuckle.
“Bitch, please.”
Victoria pulled away. “We’ll see if any of this actually gets off the ground. Today, I’m supposed to have a meeting with a librarian and he’s already going to be late. I don’t know how that can bode well.”
“Aww, he’s probably an elderly dude who’s just trying to make his way across town,” her friend said with a grin.
Victoria didn’t get the sense that John Donovan was a doddering old man. The tone of his email suggested that he might be closer to her age. Originally, she addressed her email to the library’s aging director, Howard Wegman. She was surprised that it was Donovan who replied to her. He was terribly informal and familiar with his message, making her nervous. What if he doesn’t take the project seriously? What if he is incompetent? “He also informed me of an overdue library book,” she said.
“Stealing books, are we?”
“No, I definitely returned it,” Victoria said absently. She wondered what she had been doing several months ago that would warrant a missing book. “I just find it weird that he would put that in an email regarding our meeting today.”
“Did he sound mad?”
“No,” Victoria said slowly. “He wrote it with a wink face emoji.”
“Hmm.”
“Is that a good ‘hmm’ or a bad ‘hmm’?” Victoria asked.
Paula shrugged. “Depends on what the book was.”
She sighed and averted her gaze. “For the Duke’s Convenience.”
Paula burst into laughter. “Goddamn, Vicki...”
“I definitely returned it.”
Her laughter had not yet abated as she wiped tears from her eyes. “Oh my god... You are still reading that shit? That’s why the p-word is foreign to your virgin ears!”
“It’s titillating without the vulgarity.”
Paula doubled over. “Oh man, I needed that,” she said, taking a breath. “It feels so good to laugh.”
“You’re welcome,” she said in a dry voice.
“Girl, you were always averse to ‘vulgarity,’ as you like to call it. I’d hate to think that the prim, rule-abiding girl inside you doesn’t want to get her back broke with some great dick. Also, did it ever occur to you that John Donovan might be flirting with you?”
Victoria frowned. The idea had not occurred to her. “That’s not professional at all.”
“People get by all the time without being professional. How do you think I got here?”
Victoria sat back in her chair. Comparatively, the two friends had always stood on opposite sides of what one would deem “professional.” Paula and her cute afro, jeans, and sneakers attracted others with her charm and humor. Things seemed to come easily to the one member of The Write Bitches who always remained herself. Even through grad school. Regina and Victoria stayed in line, choosing fields that required giving up a piece of their personality. Reggi had gone for a career in banking, even though she was an editor for the university newspaper, while Victoria was aiming to make it in academia. Her four years at Pembroke had been devoted to making tenure and she was determined to fight tooth and nail for it. “I’m not here for that, Paula,” she said. “I plan to stay the course. I’ve got an outline and everything.”
Paula gave her a knowing smile. “She’s got an outline and everything... Baby, it might be time to let your hair down.”
“My hair is fine right where it is.”
“True,” Paula said, narrowing her eyes. “Did Reggi do those braids? Because they look hella cute.”
Victoria rolled her eyes. Her head was still aching. “Forty dollars and you have to bring the bundles.”
“Okay, that’s what’s up.”
She smiled. No matter how she disagreed with her friends, they could always switch it up and make light of most situations. “I’m going to wait for Donovan in my office. I’ll talk to you later?”
“Sure,” Paula said, returning to her screen. “Let me know if I need to bail you out of book jail.”
Don’t miss Overdue Love from Charish Reid, available February 2020 wherever Carina Press ebooks are sold.
www.CarinaPress.com
Copyright © 2019 by Charish Reid
Introducing the Carina Press Romance Promise!
The Carina Press team all have one thing in common: we are romance readers with a longtime love of the genre. And we know what readers are looking for in a romance: a guarantee of a happily-ever-after (HEA) or happy-for-now (HFN). With that in mind, we’re initiating the Carina Press Romance Promise. When you see a book tagged with these words in our cover copy/book description, we’re making you, the reader, a very important promise:
This book contains a romance central to the plot and ends in an HEA or HFN.
Simple, right? But so important, we know!
Look for the Carina Press Romance Promise and one-click with confidence that we understand what’s at the heart of the romance genre!
Look for this line in Carina Press book descriptions:
One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all t
he romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!
Find out more at CarinaPress.com/RomancePromise.
Find out more at CarinaPress.com.
We think you have a good book in you!
Are you writing in the below genres? The Carina Press editors want to see your manuscript.
We Are Currently Acquiring
Most subgenres and all heat levels of romance:
• Contemporary
• Erotic
• Paranormal & Urban Fantasy
• Science Fiction & Fantasy
• Romantic Suspense
• Historical
• Your subgenre here. See our submissions guidelines!
We want to reaffirm our commitment to inclusion and representation in our publishing program and extend a specific invitation to Black authors, authors of color, disabled authors, LGBTQ+ authors, and other traditionally marginalized and underrepresented voices. We strive to make our list one of inclusion, and are working hard to build a catalog that is more representative of the romance reading public.
To learn more about our submissions guidelines, please visit: bit.ly/write4cp
All submitted manuscripts receive a thorough editorial review and a response in approximately 12 weeks.
Get the latest on Carina Press by joining our eNewsletter!
Don’t miss out, sign up today!
CarinaPress.com/newsletter
Sign up and get Carina Press offers and coupons delivered straight to your inbox!
Plus, as an eNewsletter subscriber, you’ll get the inside scoop on everything
Carina Press and be the first to know about our newest releases!
Visit CarinaPress.com
Other ways to keep in touch:
Facebook.com/CarinaPress
Twitter.com/CarinaPress
ISBN-13: 9781488055119
The Write Escape
Copyright © 2019 by Charish Reid
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 22 Adelaide St. West, 40th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, Canada.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
www.CarinaPress.com