NiceGirl@PublisherMark Really?
PublisherMark@NiceGirl Yeah. I suspect she already has someone else on the go.
NiceGirl@PublisherMark Comes home smelling of another cat?
PublisherMark@NiceGirl Doesn’t come home at all some nights. Always out catting around. *Sniff*
NiceGirl@PublisherMark She doesn’t deserve you.
PublisherMark@NiceGirl Well, I’m open to offers. You sound like a nice girl…
NiceGirl@PublisherMark Hey, ‘nice’ is my middle name. Actually, it’s my first name.
Claire had another sip of wine and relaxed back against the sofa, feeling warm and tingly from their flirting. This was so much more fun than spending the night in a packed, noisy bar, random guys hitting on her with cheesylines. Okay, there wasn’t even the chance of a snog but the upside of that was that she didn’t have to endure the tedium of standing around for hours in uncomfortable shoes, bored to death, shouting herself hoarse to be heard over pounding music. Chatting to Mark, she felt she was experiencing a little bit of the London literary life she had always dreamt of. She was grateful that the internet gave her access to it in some small way, but it also made her yearn for the real thing – socialising with people who cared about the same things as she did and shared the same interests, finding a boyfriend who belonged to that world, maybe meeting Mark himself…
She drifted away from Twitter to reply to some comments on her blog, and she was in the middle of typing a reply to one when a direct message popped up on Twitter. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw it was from Mark and she felt a little spark of pleasure, almost as if he had touched her.
PublisherMarkHi! Could we meet up IRL? I have a proposition for you.
Claire’s heart was pounding as she read the message. She felt excited and a little nervous. She had never expected their flirting to carry through into real life.Had he really meant it about getting that room, she wondered, simultaneously thrilled and appalled. It took her a while to decide on a noncommittal response.
NiceGirlWhat sort of proposition?
PublisherMarkIt’s about your blog. Would like to discuss doing a book. DM me your email address if you’re interested.
Claire experienced a fleeting twinge of disappointment, but it was quickly replaced by elation. Mark was interested in turning her blog into a book. This could be huge! It was her dream to be a published author. Maybe Mark was about to make her dream come true.
She sent him the anonymous email address she used for blog purposes, and then she waited. She had expected him to email her immediately, but the minutes ticked by and nothing appeared in her inbox. He seemed to have disappeared from Twitter. She scrolled back through her timeline and found that his last tweet had been when he was chatting to her. She would just have to be patient, she thought, trying to busy herself with replying to comments on her blog and chatting to other people on Twitter and Facebook. Finally, she decided to step away from the computer for a while, and went to the kitchen to make dinner: a watched inbox never delivered.
She had just made sauce and put pasta on to cook when she heard the email alert on her laptop and raced back to the sofa. It was from Mark with the subject:
Proposition
She was almost afraid to read it, hesitating for a few seconds before clicking it open.
Hi, NiceGirl,
It was good to chat this evening, and thanks for the email address. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I was meeting some friends on the Heath for a run.
So, here’s the thing. As you know, I’m a big fan of your blog, and I’d love to publish a book based on it, if you’d be interested in doing that. I think we could sell a lot of copies. Perhaps we could meet up to discuss it, ifyou’re willing to reveal your true identity. It would be great to meet you in person.
Hoping to hear from you,
Mark x
Claire scanned the email rapidly, barely able to take in what it said. Then she read it again, analysing every word and nuance. The tone was less chummy and a little more formal than when they were chatting on Twitter, which was only to be expected when he was contacting her in a professional capacity. But he had signed off with a kiss, and there was nothing proper or professional about that. She was going to meet himin the flesh? and he was interested in offering her a book deal! She squealed with delight, hugging herself as she read the message again. Then she jumped up and did a little dance around the living room, glad her mother wasn’t there to witness it. There was no way she’d have been able to explain her behaviour, and it was nice to celebrate a little, even if she was alone. She poured herself some more wine and raised the glass to her laptop in a toast, then sat back down and composed herself to type a reply.
Hi Mark,
I would love to do a book based on the blog. It would be a dream come true for me! It would be great to meet you in person. I’m in Dublin (Ireland, not Ohio). But I would be happy to come to London to meet you, if that suits.
Thank you! You’ve made my day/week/year!
All the best,
NiceGirl x
She agonised for ages about how tosign off – should she use her real name, or sign off with a kiss like he had. In the end, she decided to hold off revealing her true identity, at least until they had hammered out the details a bit more. But she didn’t want to seem stand-offish, so she went for the kiss. A couple of minutes later, a reply came back.
