Aaron frowned and leaned forward, lowering his voice so no one around them could hear. "Evie, what boundaries is he pushing?" She never gave him a straight answer to that question,but she must have looked uncomfortable enough for him to guess. "Does he hurt you?"
She shook her head quickly. "No! Of course not." She fidgeted. "He sometimes forgets I'm uncomfortable with things and pushes a little. That's all."
"Right." Evie knew Aaron didn’t believe her, but there was nothing he could do without proof. Alex was the Golden Boy with Thorn and Tommy, even though Nissa and Cole sided with him.
**********
At the beginning of January, Evie finished her novel, a fantasy about a half water nymph and half Shadow Caster named Adria, who had her hydrokinesis stolen from her as a child and was sent to live with her Shadow Caster father and brother in the hopes she had some latent umbrakinesis that could be developed. Instead, Adria ends up embarking on a quest with a Shifter to recover her stolen water powers from the Mage who took them. Evie sent the manuscript to several publishing companies, hoping someone might be interested.
She hadn’t told anyone about her writing. If she managed to get published, she’d let everyone know, but if there wasn’t any interest, she wouldn’t have to answer any questions about it.
A few days after sending out her manuscript, she joined Thorn and the other contractors in the conference room first thing in the morning for a meeting that had appeared in her calendar two days prior. Tommy walked in, closely followed by a girl who didn’t look old enough to vote.
"Ladies and gentlemen." Tommy grinned as he stopped in front of his chair. "I would like to introduce you to Dr. Willa Harris, our new psychologist and behaviour analyst. Willa just graduated from Yale and has doctorates in psychology,sociology, anthropology, humanities, forensic psychology and behavioural science. She's also only twenty-one and graduated from high school at fifteen."
There was a moment of silence as everyone stared at the girl, and then Cole let out a low chuckle.
"So you're smart."
"Gifted is the term that keeps getting thrown around." Willa smiled, and Evie thought she was absolutely adorable. She had long mouse-brown hair, big brown eyes, a button nose and a short, boyish figure. "I've always been fascinated by human behaviour and wanted to learn about people and why they do the things they do. I'm really excited to be working here. It’s an incredible opportunity to observe a wide range of personalities."
Her excitement was infectious, and Evie could see everyone smiling warmly at her. Tommy went around the table and had everyone introduce themselves. When Thorn finished the introductions, Tommy told them to see Lana to get their first scheduled appointments and excused himself and Willa, saying he had a lot of paperwork to go over with her.
“Evie, can I get you to create a page on Umbra so people can schedule appointments with her as they need to?” Tommy asked, smiling at her.
Evie nodded and made a note to add it to her to-do list for the day. “Yep, will have it done by the end of the day.”
“That’s my girl.” He turned to leave, his hand on Willa’s shoulder, guiding her gently. “Remember, monthly meetings are mandatory to keep track of your mental health,” he called as he left the room.
Chapter Fifty-Four: Free Again
Evie watched the mid-March rain hit the window of her office, lost in thought. Alex had been living in her apartment for a little over four months, and while things had improved for the first couple of months, by month three, he had become sullen and withdrawn. Any inquiries into whether she had done something were met with a stiff shake of his head and mutters about being stressed at work as he left the apartment, claiming he was working overtime. That part was genuine. Vanessa had been off for two weeks with pneumonia, and Alex had been covering both his job and hers.
Usually, Evie would be understanding, but she wasn’t sure why he was taking all his stress out on her while still managing to laugh and joke with Thorn and Tommy and head out to clubs with his friends. She was over it and over the relationship, and she was trying to figure out the best way to end things.
Her cell phone rang, and she reached for it without looking.
“Hello?”
“Am I speaking with Evie Stanley?” The voice was bright and perky, but Evie didn’t recognize it. Figuring it was a telemarketer, she closed her eyes and sighed softly.
“You are.”
"Hi Evie, my name is Marise Latille, a publishing agent at Emperor Publishing. I just finished reading your novel and lovedit. I do think it could be expanded on, though. It's a lot for a single book. Would you consider turning it into a series?”
Evie sat up straight, her heart racing. She pulled the phone from her ear to look at the screen. Emperor Publishing. Not a joke. She reached down and pinched her thigh, hard. The phone still said Emperor Publishing. Not a dream either. She put it back to her ear.
“Sorry, I just had to pinch myself.” Her voice shook, and Marise let out a bright, delighted laugh at her honesty. “Oh, wow. Yes, I could do that easily. I had to cut so much from my original drafts. I could probably write five novels.”
"Wonderful. Is this your cell number?”
"Yes, it is." Evie got to her feet and began dancing around her office in excitement. She loved her novel, and they wanted to turn it into a series. She had almost forgotten she’d even sent the manuscript out. It was well past the six-to-eight-week timeline they had given her, but Christmas had probably slowed everything down.
"Great. I'll send you my email address. I need a broad outline of the series and a more in-depth outline for the first two books. Once I have those, I'll take it up the chain, and we'll go from there."
"Okay, I can get them to you in a few days! Thank you so much!"
"Have a great day, Evie. I'm looking forward to hearing from you."
