I dropped my backpack on my bed, sank down beside it and bent to remove my black boots. I wasn’t hungry and was torn between taking a long shower or getting right to work. I wasn’t motivated. I wanted to marinate in thoughts of the weekend and relive every second. It has been so glorious.
I sank back on my twin bed and rolled onto my side, gathering my backpack up and hugging it for a moment. I closed my eyes, missing Jax.
The iPhone, that had dropped unheeded beside me on the bed began to ring and I reached for it without looking to see who it was. I was expecting to hear Jax’s smooth voice telling me how much he missed me but was instead assaulted with Gloria’s brittle tones.
“Good God, you’re difficult to get a hold of,” she said flatly. “I’ve been trying to reach you for two days!”
I rolled onto my back and pulled my knees up so that my feet were flat on the mattress. Any excitement that I should have felt dissipated into thin air, because of her shrill harping, and my need to talk to her. “I was out of pocket.”
“Mmm, yes, well, I assume it was with Jaxon, since I couldn’t reach him either.”
So, that was why his phone was going crazy on Saturday. Thankfully, it was silent on Sunday, no doubt because he’d turned it off. I inhaled a deep breath. My brain told me to keep who I was with to myself. I didn’t say anything, and she barely noticed, but her tone turned pseudo sweet. “You know, he’s only using you, Addy. I hate to see it happen again.” She sighed heavily.
My heart constricted slightly, though I told myself she was just being a snarky bitch.
“Did you have news about the manuscript?” I asked hopefully, ignoring her comment. After the weekend I’d shared with Jax, nothing was going to deflate the love I felt for him.
“Yeah, I’m really sorry, sweetie. It’s nothing that I can take on right now.”
My heart fell. “Really,” I said.
“Yes, I just have too much romance on my plate that I’m shopping, and half of my time is chasing after Jaxon to get his book. At least a few chapters. If you could help with that, maybe I could spend some time on your novel, give you some pointers to polish it, etcetera.”
Her haughty tone made me bristle. I sat up and scooted to the edge of the bed. “I’m not sure why you think I have any influence over him. He has his own mind.”
“He does, but I saw the way he looks at you, and as I’ve said, I’ve seen it before. Every semester,” Gloria lamented. I could almost feel her roll her eyes through the phone. “He’s always got some little hottie on the hook, promising her the moon, and then he dumps all that extra work in my lap just so he can get laid.” She sounded disgusted. “Ugh. Maybe if he were meeting his own deadlines, I wouldn’t mind so much, but… well, you get the picture. How can you blame him, really? He’s incredibly gorgeous, after all. It’s not his fault women fall at his feet in heaps.”
I could feel my heart beating faster and faster as her words sank in, it pounded inside my chest like it would fly from it. My eyelids slammed shut as my eyes started to sting with tears. I felt my throat begin to tighten up. It didn’t matter that my heart knew it was total bullshit, the possibility still stung. I tried and tried not to believe her words and remember how it felt to be in his arms. He was totally focused on me when he was with me.
Don’t fall for it, Addy, my mind screamed. She’s just jealous she doesn’t have him anymore. I couldn’t stand thinking of him with this cold woman. Thinking of him touching her, kissing her, loving her… hurt like hell. Worse than her words.
“You two dated, didn’t you?” I asked bravely.
She huffed in irritation. “We did way back when, but he’s too self-centered and pompous for me. Oh my God… if you ever make it big, just try to keep your head on straight and be humble. He’s so boorish and hard to deal with these days,” Gloria responded coolly.
It was probably more like hard to control, I thought. Jax did have an air of confidence about him, but it suited him, and he’d earned it. “I just think he’s so talented.” I tried to cover the truth.
“Eh… I think he may have lost his edge.”
“Maybe he’s just distracted.”
“Thanks to you. He has a signed contract to write at least one book a year, so he’d better get his shit together. He doesn’t have the luxury of being distracted, and I told the publisher he’d have pages to them by Christmas. You’d be doing his career a favor if you’d keep your distance,” she said, then quickly changed the subject. “Maybe I can get a publisher to sign you as a ghost writer. You know, it will help you get your foot in the door and you’d be working with some of the top editors. It would really hone your craft.”
“So, you’re not saying that my book is bad, just that you don’t have time to sell it right now?”
Her explanation sounded plausible, given how lackadaisical Jax had been about his book and what I’d heard about the evolution of the industry. Both obviously put her in a tight position.
“Oh, no, honey, but it’s a bit raw.”
I bristled. Why hadn’t Jax told me this if it were true?
“There are things you could learn and ways to polish it up. I’ve only read a couple of chapters, and I’d say it has real potential, but if you want to get in with some of the big publishing houses, they’re always looking for ghostwriters for some of their bigger names who have lost interest or can’t write as fast as they want to. Sometimes it’s a celebrity who wants to write a book but don’t have the skills.” She laughed. “There are a lot of reasons for it, but I do think it’s a very viable option for you. What do you say?”
“Um…” What Gloria was suggesting did sound like a reasonable path, and if Jax trusted her, then maybe I could, too. “If it won’t interfere with my last semester of college, and depending on what I’d be working on, it sounds pretty good.”
“Pretty good?” She sounded aghast. “You’ll earn thousands of dollars while you are taken under the wings of the best in the business! Trust me, this will be very good for you. I’ll try to keep you in the romance genre, if that’s where you want to take your career, but a good writer should be able to write anything. I mean, every class you took in school wasn’t about writing romance, was it? You had to write other stuff as assignments, so just think of this as a series of assignments! Except you get paid! We’ll have several publishers clamoring for your novels, soon enough.”
I cocked my head to one side. She had a point. I couldn’t earn a degree in creative writing without a plethora of classes in multiple genres and at least I’d be making a living doing what I loved. “Where do we go from here, then?”
“Come by the office next week and I’ll have a contract ready for your signature! This will be great, Addy! I promise, I’ll get top dollar for your work, and soon you’ll be writing your own books.”
“How long do you think I’ll have to do that until I get picked up?”
“That depends on you, sugar! Just learn everything you can, do you best work, and make a lot of friends in the industry!”
“I will. Thank you for the opportunity, Gloria.”
“Of course! I’ll have my secretary call you tomorrow to set up an appointment. Have a nice night, doll.”
“I will. You, too.”
“Thanks, and um, don’t tell Jaxon about the ghostwriting opportunities. He’s arrogant enough to be above all of that, and he will be angry that I’m starting you out in the background, but he had it easy. Ladies love men who write romance, and all the houses wanted his stuff. He wouldn’t understand having to work your way up and he’ll be pissy to me about it. He’s already so difficult; you understand, don’t you?”
“That might be a problem,” I said, hesitatingly. “I’m not sure I feel right about lying to him. He’s been so supportive of my writing.”
“Why? I mean, if you’re not in a personal relationship with him, it’s none of his business and he’d only throw a wrench in things. He wants to guide your career and he brought you to me. I’m doing wh
at I feel is the best way to fast-track you, so he can suck it up. In two years, your career will take off and Jaxon Michaels will just be a blip in your rearview mirror.”
Not if I had anything to say about it, I thought defiantly. It was clear I had to keep my relationship with Jax away from Gloria.
At my lack of response, she continued, knowingly. “Unless you do have a personal relationship with him, which would be very bad for his position at NYU, and frankly, reckless of him.”
I was perplexed for a second. Didn’t she just say he did this every semester, yet a few sentences later he was acting recklessly? Yeah, right, I thought. Her remarks brought to mind the reason we were keeping our relationship a secret until I graduated, and Jax was not someone who would take push back sitting down. If he was upset, he might blow our cover, or Gloria might, and the last thing I wanted was to ruin his professional relationship with the university.
I cleared my throat. “No, we are only working together. You’re right. It’s none of his business.”
“Good girl. I’ll see you in a couple of days.”
She hung up before I could answer.
And just like that, I had something else I had to keep from Jax. No doubt she was probably holding my manuscript hostage until Jax got his completed. Maybe it would be better if I didn’t distract him. My heart squeezed inside my chest. I’d miss him, but I didn’t want him risking his contract because we couldn’t keep our hands off of each other.
I fell back on the bed as my phone went dark. My gut told me I should tell him, but Gloria was right. He wouldn’t want me to sign on as a ghostwriter and telling him would only make creating a little distance harder. He’d only champion me further and would most likely tell her that if they didn’t want to sign me, then fuck them. The problem was… he could fuck them, but I didn’t want him to, and I couldn’t risk any chance I had to publish.
Plus, I wanted to prove to him that I could make it without his help.
Sighing heavily, I picked up my phone and typed out a text to Luke.
I have to tell you something. Can we meet tomorrow before class?
Is it about helping me with my book?
Yeah, but I doubt you’ll want me to. There’s more to it, though.
Did Professor Michaels agree to make you TA?
If only that were the only thing that I had to tell him, it would be great, but how could I help him when I couldn’t even get my own book published?
My mind raced with ways to help Luke, and still get Jax to finish his book. Maybe after I had a couple of these ghostwriter jobs under my belt, then I could use that experience to help him, and perhaps if I confided in him what was going on with Gloria, he’d be able to motivate Jax, too. There had to be a way to work it all out. I quickly typed out my response.
No. I’ll explain tomorrow. I hope you had a good weekend.
Ugh. I should have seen that one coming.
You did. That’s why you wanted me to ask him.
Yeah, I’m a real shit, I guess. Are you okay?
I’m fine. I’ll talk to you about everything tomorrow.
Meet me in the lower commons thirty minutes before class.
See you then. I’m sorry if you got in trouble. You don’t seem okay.
I didn’t get in trouble! Stop worrying.
So, why did it feel like trouble, and why was I worrying enough for the both of us?
5
I walked into the building, speeding to my sex writing class so I could make sure Addison was alright. I didn’t come in through the back way as I usually would. I didn’t need to stop by my office, and I was scanning for any sign of Addison.
I’d called her via FaceTime and texted twice earlier in the day, but she hadn’t answered. After the glorious weekend we’d shared, my heart had been soaring, and now I was overly agitated and worried.
Was she ill? Was she having second thoughts about us? My mind wouldn’t give me a break. It wasn’t like her to not answer my calls.
I ran an impatient hand through my lightly gelled hair, then pulled on the cuffs of my expensive white dress shirt which I’d paired with a sharp navy-blue Dior suit and a vibrant, but tasteful, blue, green and white patterned tie. I always cared about my appearance, but I took more notice today and chose a pocket square in the green shade from the tie. I wanted to inspire Addison’s heart and libido the way just her slightest glance inspired mine. I smiled to myself as I made my way through the commons of the building toward the lecture hall. My anxiousness made me arrive early, though I chastised myself what I’d do for the twenty-five minutes until the start of class. No doubt drive myself crazy unless I could get in touch with Addison. I’d been happier then I’d probably ever been after our time together, but after so many unanswered calls and messages, I was nervous. I didn’t get nervous, I reminded myself.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a couple sitting huddled together on one of the wooden benches that lined the outside of the hall. Normally, I wouldn’t have noticed because there would have been the hustle and bustle of students everywhere, but it was still several minutes prior to class time, and less active than when I usually arrived. The young man seemed to be comforting the young lady, his back was to me, and his head bent toward her. I couldn’t see the face of the girl because his arm was around her, but there was something familiar about him, but I couldn’t get a good enough look at him from across the large lobby.
His light teal plaid shirt rang a familiar chord, but then, I had many students, and probably more than one of them had a shirt like that. There was a black backpack at the girl’s feet, and a red one beside the man. I felt a pang of sympathy for them, maybe because of my own unease of the moment.
My phone rang as I entered the main hall and made my way down the stairs to the platform. Immediately, my eyes went to the area of the room where Addison usually sat, but all of the seats were empty. I continued walking and pulled out my phone.
“What is it, Gloria?”
“You know what it is! I need something from you, Jax. I can hold them off for another month, but that’s it. I need that manuscript!”
“God, I’m so fucking tired of this conversation. I said, I need a break.”
“No, you give me a break, Jax! This isn’t just your career, but mine hangs in the balance, too. I’ll lose all credibility and we’ll both be sued. If you don’t give a damn about yourself, think about me for a change! I told S & S I’d have three chapters to them by Christmas to keep your contract valid, but even that’s taking advantage of them. What the hell am I supposed to do?”
“Renegotiate it,” I growled.
“Coming from someone who doesn’t have to deal with that shit! It’s not that easy! There are millions of writers out there, Jaxon! Your little protégé, for example. What a great example you’re setting for her! You’ll just teach Addison she can violate her deadlines whenever she gets into a mood, and we both know that’s utter bullshit! Great lesson, Professor.” Her snarky tone grated, but if I were honest with myself, I had to admit that Gloria was right. I was being selfish.
I climbed the stairs to the platform and placed my brief case down on the desk. I ran my fingers along the edge of the worn wooden surface and my head fell forward. I’d allowed myself to be distracted from writing for the first time in my career. Maybe it was my growing feelings for Addison, or perhaps it was my apathy for my agent, that did it. Bottom line was she didn’t deserve this.
“Jax? Are you still there?”
I nodded, though she couldn’t see me. “Yes, I’m here.”
“Look, the holidays are coming, and maybe I can get them to wait a couple more months, but I doubt it. They’re pressuring me weekly.”
I inhaled deeply. “I’ll try to get something done.”
After a beat, Gloria responded. “Good. Thank you. Why don’t you go to the cabin over Thanksgiving?” I had already planned on taking Addison there, but I knew I wouldn’t get any work done if she were with me. She
should inspire an amazingly romantic story, but instead, all I wanted to do was drown in her. Gloria read my mind. “Alone,” she said sternly.
“Alright,” I acquiesced.
“Really?” Excitement laced her tone.
“Yes. Maybe I’ll take an extra couple of weeks and leave early. My T.A. should be able to handle it. Maybe I just need to get out of the city.”
“Good boy,” Gloria purred, relieved. “Just let me know when you’re leaving, and I’ll try not to bother you, too much.”
“Work on selling Addison’s manuscript.”
“I have! I submitted it to Hatchette and to S & S. They’re reading it.”
“Even without reading it yourself? You said...”
“I know what I said, but why should she suffer just because I don’t have time?” She broke in. “If you say it’s great, it’s great!”
Relief flooded me. “Thank you, Gloria. I appreciate it. I’ll call when I’ve made some progress.”
“Thanks for finally coming around, Jax. We’ll get this back on track. Marcia will be absolutely thrilled!”
The timing was shitty, given what I was feeling for Addison, but Gloria was right. How could I counsel her on how to be a writer when I wasn’t even producing a book of my own?
The door to the auditorium opened, and I glanced up. Luke was walking in with a few other students. I noticed the shirt and the red backpack and instantly the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Was Addison the woman he was huddled around? Heat started to flood the skin on my chest and creep up into my face.
SMUT UNIVERSITY: A sexy novella serial, Part Three Page 5