I went to the lobby bar a few minutes later and found Lucy there. Her purple hair was tied back into a simple ponytail, showing her pretty, friendly face. The dye job was new, so I figured she’d done it for the signing. She looked fabulous. And totally happy, as she should be.
I waved and rushed over to her, pleasure unfurling inside. “Lucy!”
A huge grin split her face. “Hey, girl.” She hugged me.
I hugged her back. “So good to see you.”
“You too!” She looked around. “Your man seriously didn’t come with you? Or is he having a guys’ night too?”
“He’s…” I shrugged like it didn’t matter—that I didn’t care. “We had a fight.”
“Oh no.” Her face fell. “How come?”
“Long story. Let’s grab a drink first.”
She and I went into the bar, and were quickly shown to a table. I ordered a rum and Coke, she got a Long Island iced tea, and I started to unload everything. But trying to explain without letting her know Killian’s identity was tricky. So I fumbled a bit, then settled on labeling him “somebody famous.”
“Wait.” She lowered her voice, but the light in her eyes betrayed her excitement. “So you really are dating Killian Axelrod?”
How on earth did she know? I tried to play it off. “What makes you say that?”
“I saw the picture on your page, silly. But I thought maybe it was somebody who looked like him that your mom found.”
Well, if she already knows… “No, it really is him. And you can’t tell anybody, because he’s really particular about his privacy.”
“Okay.” Lucy nodded, but her lips twitched as though she could barely contain her excitement. But I knew her. She’d keep it a secret.
As I went on with the rest of what had happened between me and Killian, Lucy, God bless her, made all the right noises of sympathy and outrage. “What a dick. So you’re through with him? There’s no second chance?”
“None,” I said, then took a gulp of my drink so I could continue to pretend I was fine. It wasn’t as though I’d never broken up with someone before, but with Killian it was a million times worse. It was all my stupid heart’s fault! It had said that Killian could not only give me the romance-novel sex, but romance-novel everything. And my head was partially to blame, too. If I’d just stuck to true love doesn’t exist in real life, I wouldn’t be so down. “Men just aren’t worth it, Luce. The only thing that matters in life is what you can actually hold.”
“You can hold a man. It’s even nice, if it’s the right guy.”
“No, I mean like money and things, not a guy. And I don’t like the whole process of finding the right guy. Kissing all these frogs sucks. Not to mention it’s gross.” I knocked back the rest of my drink to wash away the imaginary amphibian taste from my mouth. Lucy didn’t get my unhappiness—or how nasty it was to deal with subpar men—because she’d gotten lucky with Blue. They’d been together since high school. So it made sense she’d believe in true love. “I’m going to go become a nun and write in some quiet, reclusive abbey.” I’d make sure to pick a place so remote that no groupies could ever visit. Or stalkers. Or celebrities, especially rock stars. “Somewhere in the Alps,” I added.
“Can nuns write about premarital sex?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t know. Probably. And I’m sure nobody would care very much so long as I paid…” I snapped my fingers, trying to think of the word and failing. “You know, the ten percent church tax.”
“The tithe,” Lucy said, laughing softly.
“Yes. That.”
“I know a better revenge.” She leaned forward. “Write him into your next book. He can be the villain. And not even a sexy villain, but a dumb, bumbling villain with a small and permanently limp penis.”
I chuckled weakly. Yeah, that was the most logical and realistic revenge. I’d done that to my dad in all my books, even though he didn’t know because he didn’t read my books and I never told him. So it hadn’t felt all that satisfying. And winning the bet hadn’t seemed to improve my satisfaction quotient either.
Killian could star in my next book as the horrible ex-husband of my heroine. Who was short, ugly, smelly and impotent. Coming up with a revenge character usually cheered me up. But right then, it didn’t make me feel any better.
Chapter Forty-Three
Emily
When I got up the next morning, I dashed to the door and opened it. The hotel had left a bag with four papers. This was the day Holly should have had the ads appear. I needed my trophies.
After all, I didn’t have much else to look forward to. Other than meeting my readers at the signing in three hours, that was.
My heart pounded as anticipation rushed through me. I flipped through the first paper, looking for the ad. Articles…more articles…some pictures… Ah ha!