“Ever since that first time we talked on the phone and you said you were working on the floor. And then you stretched out. It was before we FaceTimed, and I only heard your voice, but I imagined you stretched out here, my work, my characters, my thoughts spread around you… It was just such an awesome vision.”
“I remember,” I said, my voice rough and deeper than normal.
He pushed away from the door and went down to his haunches.
“I never forgot,” he whispered and crawled to me, papers crinkling under his knees, skittering away under his hands as he made his way to me. “Do it,” he said. “Lie back.”
I did. And it was crazy erotic having Billy Montrose make love to me on his office floor with the sound of his life’s work crunching around—beneath—us.
It was later that same night, as he was helping me clean up the mess we’d made (and had no guilt whatsoever about) that I came across notes about Aidan Colly for a book just namedGPin his notes. I recalled aGPfolder from the day I’d opened all his docs, but it was one I hadn’t gotten to before he came in and blew a nut.
“Aidan Colly?” I asked him. “You’re doing a sequel?”
His face, so clear and at peace moments ago when he’d been inside me and looking down into my eyes, turned troubled, and I instantly regretted the enthusiasm that must have been in my voice. “I didn’t think I’d seen any notes on a sequel before,” I added, looking around, putting a no-nonsense tone into my voice. Like my heart wasn’t pounding with the thought that my author lover was going to continue on with my favorite literary character ever.
“There aren’t many,” he said. His hands stilled on the papers he was collecting and he placed them on the carpet, then stood up, zipping up his cargo pants as he did. He crossed to his desk and sat down as I continued on with the reorganizing. I didn’t like that he’d pulled away, but honestly, I wanted to put the papers back in the order I wanted. This wasmygiant jigsaw puzzle after all.
I waited for Billy to come to terms with whatever ghost Aidan Colly represented to him. And to talk about it with me.
“It seemed the easiest route to go at the time. It wasn’t what I necessarily wanted to write next.”
“No?” I said, but kept my attention on the work, not looking back at him.
“No. In fact, I think I startedSkylarkfirst. But thenFollyhit and everybody loved Colly, and I knew I could clean up with a sequel. I didn’t know at the time how much money I would end up seeing withFolly, so that was foremost in my mind. I wanted to be able to support myself as a writer.”
“Well, you’ve accomplished that,” I said lightly.
“Yeah, I have. So far.”
I thought I’d lost him, but I kept on working, letting him sift through his demons like I sifted through his notes.
“When we soldFolly, my agent insisted on a one-book deal, even though we got offers for two, and even three books. She said because of the price thatFollywent for at auction, that the publisher would put so much promo behind it that it couldn’t help but do well. And then we could negotiate for a killer deal for the next book.”
“Sounds like she was right,” I said, my back still to him.
“She was. It’s not her fault that I haven’t been able to cash in on that by completing a second book.”
“Is that when you switched fromSkylarkto the sequel?” The piles were all straightened and I turned to face him, though I stayed seated on the floor. I had put my clothes back to rights, but I knew my hair and swollen lips showed the past hour we’d spent in each other’s arms.
But he wasn’t looking at me. His gaze was fixed out the window, even though the shades were down.
Slowly, he began to nod. Still looking at the window he said, “Yes. We weren’t counting onFollydoing so well with the critics. We knew it would do well the first few weeks out because of what the publisher was putting behind it, but then…once more and more big-hitter reviews came in…”
“You moved to the sequel.GP?”
“Gangster’s Providence. But I didn’t get very far.”
“No?” I asked, though his number of files on his computer was answer enough.
He shrugged, and his gaze finally fell to me. “Follywas a coming-of-age story. How many times does someone come of age?”
“I don’t know. It seems like it could be once. Or for other people, it could be all the time. People change. What they grow into changes.” I looked away from him, his gaze was too intense. It felt like he knew more secrets than I had revealed.
Would ever reveal.
“Yeah, that’s true. But, I didn’t want to do that to Aidan. I left him in a good place at the end ofFolly. And yes, other challenges will most certainly come his way, but I didn’t want to manufacture them just to cash in on him. It sounds crazy, but it kind of felt like I was…betraying him, you know?”
I nodded. Yeah, I did know. Though I—and any other Billy Montrose fan—would love to read aGangster’s Follysequel, I did kind of like the idea of Aidan Colly staying forever as we left him.
