Page 51 of The Write Track
A sound escaped, something like a whoosh, and I giggled even though I kept telling myself he wasn’t trying to be funny. He was purposely being weird to push Preston’s buttons. Icouldn’t help myself, though. There was just something about him.
“Horror movies are disgusting,” Daisy volunteered out of nowhere. “They’re misogynistic, and they’re full of sex.” She lowered her voice for the second part.
“Don’t you write romance?” Bree challenged.
“Clean romance.” Daisy gave her a dirty look. “Not all of us write smut to make a buck.”
Bree’s smile was feral. “Those of us who want to make money do.” She cast Hayley an apologetic look. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s true.” Hayley held out her hands. “I know I would make more money if I wrote sex scenes. I just always picture my mother glaring at me when I try to imagine what that would look like.”
“That’s because your mother was probably a good, Christian woman,” Daisy said knowingly.
“She was definitely a Christian,” Hayley agreed. “I loved her. She wasn’t always good, though.”
“It’s funny that you write clean romance when your boobs are always so ‘look at me,’” Bree noted, holding her hands in front of her chest to demonstrate.
“Excuse me?” Daisy sounded scandalized as she crossed her arms over her chest. “What did you just say?”
Preston made a throat-clearing sound that was meant to dissuade everybody from arguing. “Let’s not fight. There’s room for everybody here. People like different things.” His eyes landed on me. “I’m surprised you’re not trying to write horror. Wasn’t that always your dream?”
Nathan gave me a sidelong look. “Do you want to write horror?”
“Oh, well…” I shrugged. “One day.”
“That’s probably why you fell in ‘love at first sight,’” Preston offered haughtily, using air quotes. “You’ll make a nice steppingstone for her career.”
I glared at him. “I would never date somebody, let alone marry somebody, just because they could help my career. That’s insulting.”
“You were with me until it was no longer beneficial.”
I should have let it go. That would have been the smart thing to do. I was too irritated, though. “I was with you until I came home and found you in bed with your father’s secretary, playing Choo-Choo Magoo,” I shot back. “I didn’t leave because you couldn’t help me any longer. I left because you’re a terrible person.”
I’d done enough. I should have kept my mouth shut. I was on a roll, though.
“Also, your excuse that I wasn’t adventurous enough in bed was ridiculous,” I continued, knowing even as I was saying it that it would be a mistake. “You were terrible in bed, and the only reason you didn’t want to have sex with me is because I tried to train you—literally over and over again, for years—and you still couldn’t find the clitoris. Not that you ever went looking or anything.”
A deathly pall settled over the table.
Across from me, Bree broke into a wide grin.
Hayley pressed her lips together—I had no idea if she believed clitoris was a dirty word—and looked to be battling a smile.
Brody’s eyes had gone to the size of saucers.
Next to me, Nathan was smiling as if I’d just given him the best Christmas gift in the world. He slid his arm around my back, gave me a squeeze, and lowered his voice.
“Now, that right there was entertaining,” he whispered.
“You don’t think it was too much?” One surreptitious glance toward Preston told mehethought it was too much. Way, way too much.
“Nope. It was just enough.” Nathan reached for his beer with his free hand. “That was good stuff, Bellarino.”
I blew out a sigh. “He’s going to make me pay for it.”
“Not on my watch, he isn’t.”
Weirdly, I believed him.
