“Nothing.”
“Lies.” I placed a kiss on Melanie’s forehead and then looked down into her eyes. “Talk to me.”
It wasn’t a conversation I necessarily wanted to have with her here but I wanted to calm Melanie’s racing mind down. She was happy one moment, then sad the next. I knew her head was flooding with questions and scenarios, just like mine was.
“It’s nothing. I’m just thinking about how I never expected to be here. To hear my daughter laugh like this again, with someone else besides me or family.”
“Well, I’m glad she’s enjoying herself. Are you?” I tried to slate the question back toward Melanie but she was silent again.
We both sat there watching Amelia eat her food as we picked at ours.
We were carefree before but now you could feel the tension in the air. Something was going on with Melanie but she wanted to hide it from me. He face was solemn as she watched Amelia and for the rest of the night, she refused to look at me.
When I went to grab for her hand, she let me but the squeeze I gave it was met back with a limp hand. I didn’t push, letting her hand go as she picked up Amelia, to carry her back to the truck. We’d spent hours at the food truck park, eating more than just the nachos. Crepes and cotton candy thad filled us all the way up.
It was the most fun I’d had in a very long time but I could clearly see by the time I helped Melanie and Amelia into my truck, that the night was more about Amelia than it was about Melanie and me. As much as I wanted to respect that, I still had dire questions that I wanted answered.
Melanie had said she wanted us to date, like I did, but did she understand that it meant I wanted us to become exclusive as a whole and make her mine? Did she know that I meant that I always wanted Amelia with us and not just exclusively tonight because she didn’t have a sitter?
I wanted us to be more open about what us dating meant to each of us. But more than that, I wanted to open up to Melanie about what I thought our future looked like. I wasn’t sure what Melanie’s plan was for the future, but I wanted to find out sooner rather than later.
Fourteen
Move this here,shade this.
Change font because that does not look good.
Needs to move up a little.
Perfect!
I clicked away on the keyboard trying to work on one of the last covers I needed to make for the day. We’d gotten slammed with a new series from one of our first clients we’d ever published and there was no way Max was going to say no to her.
Hell. I wouldn’t have said no to a ten-book series from one of New York Times Best Sellers that we helped launch.
Maggie Jones was known widely across the Young Adult Fantasy genre and she was now expanding into Adult Fantasy. Even though she hadn’t published in the last two years, that didn’t make a lick of difference to us. Maggie knew how to create stories and moving into the adult genre meant more creative freedom with what she was able to do and what I was able to create for her. We didn’t have to be cautious of what we put on the cover or in graphics, we could show off exactly what it was she was going to give her readers.
She’d already planned out all ten books and has finished four of them. I’d been working on graphics all day and was finishing the last cover tonight. I’d started to work on promo and teasers, but was planning on finishing them tomorrow. It was my top priority at the moment, burying myself in the photos and overlays I needed to create the perfect scenes for each book.
It was ethereal but also had a hint of darkness, which was exactly what Maggie was looking for. After the fourth book, she told me she trusted me enough to finish the series without her consent on what the covers looked like. I felt proud in that moment and busted through the rest of the covers, not taking a break even for food.
I clicked the save button and exported the last file to my computer, putting it in the series folder I’d created. I shot an email over to Maggie with the files to get her feedback and suggestions on anything she wanted to change.
I leaned back in my chair, finally looking at the time to see it almost ten and the only light in my office was coming from my computers.
Shit.
I’d been going at it for over twelve hours working on these covers. My stomach grumbled and I knew not eating was going to come back and bite me in the ass somehow. Plus, it wasn’t like I had any food at home.
Fast food drive thru it was again for me. It wasn’t a habit I liked to make but this week had been long hours in the office and getting out late. I pulled open my side drawer, taking my phone out for the first time today to see six missed calls from Melanie. I checked my voicemail but there was none, only a few texts that each said hello.
I’d talked to Melanie last night until we both fell asleep again. I hdn’t brought up the other night at the food truck yet though. Ever since that night, it’s felt like everything had gone back to normal.
She’d come and visited me yesterday at work, bringing me lunch. We spoke every morning and every night. The only thing different was today. I’d ran into work when I heard from Max that Maggie wanted to publish again and I forgot to message Melanie.
I dialed her number, waiting for her voice to fill the phone but nothing. Just a beep and an automated message for her voicemail. I hung up and called again but this time it went straight to voicemail.
“Hey love. I’m just trying to call back. Is everything okay? I’m just getting off work now.” I hung up. My attention quickly went from Maggie’s covers to how I could get to Melanie’s house as fast as possible. Something seemed off and I wanted to make sure everything was fine before the night ended.
