by Cat Johnson
“… heading out to sea. I want you to… the editor…rewrite the scene… internet here is down.”
The fuzz was replaced loud and clear with a dial tone as Brad stood helplessly by.
He hung up the phone, got the number off of the caller ID and called back only to get the usual message saying the cellular caller he was trying to reach was unavailable.
“What did she say?”
He hung up the receiver and glanced at Alyssa. “Good question. I lost the call but I think she said I should re-write the scene and email it to her editor because the ship’s internet is down.”
“So do it.” Alyssa looked way too excited at the prospect.
“I can’t do that.” The full horror of the situation began to hit him.
“Sure you can. You read up to the missing scene, right?”
He nodded.
“Then you know that scene is a pivotal moment in the relationship between the two main characters.”
His rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I guess.” If you could believe that anything like this story could really happen, that is.
“So you can see how the hero is not as mercenary as he seems. He really cares about the heroine. And the girl, she really is attracted to the man, but she thinks that he’ll never want a woman who sells her body for money. So you just fill in what’s missing. Half the words are already there.”
“No way. I can’t write three pages of a sex scene even with half of the words already there.” Brad tried to keep his voice down, very aware that everyone in all the neighboring cubes was watching his interaction with Alyssa very intently.
He still didn’t know what to do about Maria’s file. Maybe he could just write her editor a note of explanation. He just hated to let Maria down.
“Brad, I’m sure you can.”
“No, I really can’t.” He hoped his tone left no further question,
Alyssa’s eyes opened wide. “Oh… I’m sorry, Brad. I should have realized… You’re gay.”
“What?” Alyssa his dream girl thought he was gay? He’d have to correct that misconception immediately. “No, I’m not. Definitely not. That’s not it.”
“Well if you’re not gay, then what’s the problem?”
He wished she’d stop saying that word so loudly. “I just wouldn’t feel comfortable rewriting someone else’s work…”
“But she asked you to. And half the words are already there. I told you, I read these books all the time and it’s like a formula. You understand formulas, you write computer code.”
“It’s not the same.” Brad frowned.
“Sure it is. Besides, how can you let Maria down? She’s counting on you. Disappointing her will severely sully your nice guy reputation.”
That was a low blow, playing on his nice side. And was she actually batting her eyelashes at him? Damn it, it was working too.
He scowled. “All right, I’ll do it.”
Alyssa’s face lit up and she unleashed a killer bright smile on him. Brad shook his head at his own behavior. He was such a sucker for this girl. He’d probably jump out the window if she asked him to.
“I can’t do this here. What if someone saw?” He glanced around the close confines of the cubicles.
“So go home. The day is pretty much over.” She glanced at her fancy red watch.
“Over? It’s not even two in the afternoon yet.”
“And you’ve been literally sleeping here all week. I think you can leave.”
He did have his boss’s permission to take the day off. “Yeah, I can. But what about you? You talked me into this. You’re going to help me, Miss ‘I read romance novels and you can definitely write one’.”
“I’d love to help. You go home and start. I’ll meet you there after I get off work. Just leave me your address.”
Holy crap. Alyssa Jones in his apartment and she actually looked keyed up about it. He tried to remember that this wasn’t a date. She was excited about the damn book, not about seeing him.
He leaned over and scribbled his address and phone number on a sticky note, shaking his head as he handed it to her. He had a feeling he was going to be very sorry he agreed to this. But right now he had mundane things to worry about, like that his apartment was a total mess and Alyssa with the Sexy Voice would be there in just a few hours.
Brad sped home and flew around the three-room apartment like a whirlwind. He vacuumed, washed dishes, picked dirty laundry off the floor and dumped his accumulated mail into a paper bag that he stashed under his desk. His place had really gone to hell with all the late hours he’d worked this week.
At least the massive cleaning kept him from being nervous about having to write this sex scene, with Alyssa of all people.
He finally got himself showered, only to realize that his laundry situation was pretty dire. He threw on a pair of old gray sweatpants and a clean white t-shirt that said “Byte Me” across the chest, then sat down at the laptop to begin his scene before Alyssa arrived and found that he hadn’t done a thing yet.
“Okay, here we go.” Brad laid his fingers on the keyboard.
Now what? He remembered back to his freshman composition class in college, a required course even for computer majors. What had the teacher said about writer’s block? Just get something, anything down on the paper, even if it sucks and you can always fix it later. Armed with that sage advice, he let out the breath he had been holding and began to type.
Chapter 4
Alyssa stood at Brad’s door and stared at it. This had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now she felt weird. In spite of the fact that secretly she had always wanted to write a romance novel, it would be extremely strange writing a sex scene with a guy she hardly knew. She’d even started a novel back in college. It was still just scribbles on a yellow legal pad that currently sat gathering dust in a manila folder in the bottom of her desk drawer, but the dream was still strong. That was something she’d never even told Jane.
At least being at Brad’s kept her away from her own apartment and Jake the Shit. No way she could be tempted to let Jake in again if she wasn’t even there. With that resolution firmly in mind, she rang the bell.
After just a moment, the door flung open and there stood Brad, looking flustered.
“Good, you’re here. I have no idea if I’m doing this right.” He left the door open for her and walked back to the laptop across the room. When she didn’t follow him immediately, he turned back toward her. “What’s the matter? Come on in. We have a lot to do.”
In total shock, all she could do was stand and ogle Brad. Brad the Geek was not such a geek anymore. She even found her mouth was hanging open. Alyssa closed it firmly at that appalling discovery. Somehow she got herself pulled together enough to at least walk into the apartment and push the door closed behind her. He stood next to a table where the laptop was set up and stared back at her.
He seemed to be expecting her to say something, so she finally said, “Your hair. It’s different.”
“I didn’t have time to dry it. I’ve been working on this stupid novel you convinced me to write since I got out of the shower.” He groaned and raised his hands to his blondish-brown hair.
He was about to run his fingers through the loose sexy curls that currently framed his face in place of the usual frizz when she sprang forward.
“No. Don’t touch it. You have beautiful curly hair when you let it air dry. Never brush it or touch it too much or—God forbid—use the hair dryer unless you have a diffuser. You’ll ruin the curl and just get frizz.” She walked closer now. “Do you use any product? You need a leave-in conditioner and maybe a curl enhancing gel.”
Alyssa had to stand on her toes and reach way up to touch his hair. He was tall. Really tall. She liked tall men.
She swallowed when she realized she was still touching him and lowered her hand. “Do you need me to write the products you should buy down for you?”
“No, I think I can remember it. Can we work on the book now, if I
promise not to touch my hair?” He lifted one brow as he smirked.
“Make fun of me if you want, but you look much cuter with curly hair.” She shrugged, walked over to the computer and sat down.
Focusing her attention on what he’d been writing, she tried not to think about how cute his ass looked in those tight gray sweats or how he actually appeared to have nice pecs and biceps in that tight white t-shirt. Even his glasses didn’t look so bad at the moment. They made him look smart and sexy at the same time, like the male version of a hot librarian.
She looked up to find him staring. “What?”
Were her naughty thoughts written all over her face?
“You think I look cute?”
Oh, boy. She had said that, hadn’t she? “Oh, get over yourself and come show me where you started.” She focused on the screen and dismissed the question, but she didn’t miss his smile.
~
Brad had what he knew was a stupid-looking grin on his face that he couldn’t seem to erase just because Alyssa with the Sexy Voice had said he looked cute. Just because his hair had dried curly. Well, if that were all it took, he’d throw his hairdryer away the minute she left tonight. But right now, they had far bigger things to worry about, like this damned sex scene he’d tried to fix. He was really nervous about doing it to begin with, but to have Alyssa sitting here reading it, especially right after she said he was cute—well, that was practically unbearable.
He reached over her and scrolled to the page where Maria’s writing ended and his began.
“There.” He pointed to the spot and held his breath as she read. He stood behind her and read along, just trying to imagine what she could be thinking about him as she came to each nearly obscene sentence.
“Stop reading over my shoulder and go get me a drink of water or something. You’re making me nervous.”
“I’m making you nervous?” Brad snorted and stalked into the kitchen, slamming the cabinet door as he took out an empty glass. He took as much time as he could filling her glass with ice and water, but all too soon he was back in the living room nervously trying not to hover over her again as she read.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she sat back in the chair and looked up at him. “This is amazing.”
It would have been more of a compliment if she didn’t appear quite so surprised, but still, he was shocked.
“Really? But, I need your help. I mean I don’t know what it feels like…you know…to be a woman.” Brad felt his cheeks grow hot.
“Yeah, I know. There are a few things I would change. Like, you didn’t describe her…um…orgasm very well.” She actually blushed at the word.
At least they were both blushing now.
“Well I was trying to fit it into the words that were already there. This whole thing is like one of those word jumbles you find in the newspaper. It’s not so easy. You give it a try and see if you can fix it.” He stood, arms folded.
She breathed in deep. In sweatpants that wouldn’t hide anything, Brad tried desperately not to watch her breasts rise and fall beneath her snug black turtleneck.
~
Alyssa tried to ignore Bradley on the other side of the room while she typed. It was only a few paragraphs, but she kept second guessing herself and revising what she had written. Finally, she couldn’t prolong the inevitable any longer. He was going to have to read it eventually.
“I’m done. See what you think.” She rose, totally freaked out at the thought of the newly hot Brad reading her description of what an orgasm felt like.
“Where should I start reading?” He sat in the chair she’d vacated and glanced up.
With him sitting and her standing, she was practically eye level with him. She noticed exactly how blue his eyes were behind those wire-rimmed glasses of his.
“Just start from the beginning of your scene.” His eyes met hers for a moment. She felt herself blush again. Brad took a deep breath before he broke his gaze away from hers and went back to looking at the screen.
“Hey, you want a beer instead of that water? There’s some in the fridge.”
“Yeah, okay.” Why the hell not? Maybe she could relax a little.
She walked into the kitchen, taking note it was pretty clean for a guy’s place. In the fridge she found the usual for a bachelor’s apartment—bottles of beer, a few cans of regular soda, a kind of crusty looking bottle of ketchup and a container of leftover Chinese food.
“Hey, grab me one too,” he called from the other room.
“Sure.” Her snooping was done anyway. There wasn’t much more to look at unless she started opening cabinet doors. Alyssa walked back to the living room, bottles in hand.
He smiled that cute little smile of his when she handed him the beer. “Thanks.”
Why hadn’t she ever noticed how cute this guy was before? She took a slug of her own beer straight from the bottle. Maybe she could like a Brad instead of a Jake.
While he read, she wandered around the apartment. She absently glanced into his fish tank at the few exotic looking fish swimming around. She’d tried having fish once. That hadn’t gone so well. She perused his CD collection and was surprised to see it was heavy in old classic rock. She’d expected some sort of computer generated techno junk. His DVD collection yielded no surprises though. Nothing but sci-fi movies, all in perfect order and alphabetized, just like the CDs.
Strolling back to the table, she spotted a set of barbells hidden under the futon that doubled as a couch. That explained the biceps and pecs. She fought the urge to take another glimpse at Brad’s chest muscles. She finally looked up from her snooping and noticed he was done reading and was watching her poke around in his stuff.
Embarrassed, she scrambled to take the attention off herself. “Well? What do you think?”
“It’s good.” He wasn’t really making eye contact—and was he blushing? Oh, God. She’d gone too far with the description.
“Um, really?”
He nodded. “Yeah. It’s really good, but you did more than just fill in missing words. You kind of rewrote it.”
“You did too.” She frowned, defensive.
Looking guilty, he sighed. “I know. I had to, it didn’t sound right otherwise. And I just couldn’t stand that word turgid she kept using. Now I feel really guilty. Maria’s going to be pissed.”
Alyssa shook her head. “Brad, you’re doing her a huge favor even emailing her editor in the first place. That’s not part of your job description. Besides, I think it’s more important to send out something that’s written well than just some crap that happens to fit into the words that were left after the coffee spill. Don’t you?”
“I guess so. It does sound better, I think. I mean I don’t read these things. What do you think? Should we should send it?”
“I think so. No, I know so. Send it. Right now before we change our minds.” She nodded, sure of her decision.
“All right.”
Alyssa came to stand next to Brad for support as he grabbed the sticky note with the editor’s and Maria’s email addresses. He typed a quick note, then pushed send and let out a big breath.
“That’s it. It’s gone.” He glanced up at her with uncertainty. “Are you sure we did the right thing?”
“Yes, I’m positive. Good job.” She held out her beer for a toast.
He raised his bottle and clinked it with hers.
“Yeah. You too.” He paused for a second. “Hey, I’m starving. I was going to order a pizza. Do you want to stay?”
She glanced down at the near empty bottle in her hand. “Yeah, I think I better. I’m such a light-weight, this beer went right to my head.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What do you expect? I bet you didn’t eat anything besides those few bites of sandwich at lunch today.”
Brad was correct, but she didn’t admit it. He rose and grabbed a portable phone off the desk. She noted that he dialed the number for the pizza place from memory. Single men must order a lot of pizza.
He covered the mouthpiece with his hand. “What do you want on it?”
“Whatever you want.” She shrugged.
“So extra anchovies is okay then?” He looked devilish. At her look of horror, he laughed. “Just kidding.”
Well, look at that—Brad the Geek had a sense of humor. She considered that as she sat down on the couch and listened to Brad placing the order. “Hi, yeah. One large sausage and pepper pizza delivered…oh and add on a can of diet soda. I’ll give you the address.”
Alyssa turned to him with amazement. He’d ordered the diet soda for her. There was plenty of regular soda in the fridge, but he knew from lunch today she liked diet and she barely knew this guy. She doubted Jake even knew what she drank. Her gaze took Brad in one more time from curly blond head, to sock-covered toes. There was definitely something to be said for nice guys, especially when they were smart and tall with such a nice ass.
Chapter 5
Thirty minutes or less later, Brad sat cross legged next to Alyssa on the carpet with the pizza box open in front of them on the coffee table. He was more than happy to see her chowing down on her second slice.
“Hey, Brad? Do you have a girlfriend?” Alyssa broke into his thoughts.
He tried not to look surprised at her question. “Um, no. Not right now. I was dating this one girl for about six months, but we called it quits a few months ago.”
“Your decision or hers?” she asked.
Boy, she didn’t pull any punches. He considered his answer. “Mutual, I guess. Why?”
She shrugged. “Just wondering. You’re such a nice guy.”
Nice. Great. Nothing a guy likes to hear more.
“Thanks.” He managed to keep the sarcasm from his voice.
Alyssa tried and failed to stifle a yawn, looking embarrassed. “I’m sorry. It’s not you. I just haven’t really slept in like three days.”
“It’s okay. I understand. Believe me. You relax while I clean this up and then I’ll drive you home. I don’t want you driving yourself. You might fall asleep at the wheel.”
She got up off the floor and sank into the cushions of his couch. “You don’t have to drive. I’ll be okay in a few minutes.”