“What?” Frank’s eyes go wide.
“Yep, back in college.” Fuck, that’s been so long now. Fortunately, this memory is permanently burned into my mind. “I had this big engineering project that I was working on. I got it in my head that I wanted to build a pulley system that would…”Frank’s eyes start to glaze over. Yep, should have expected that one. I learned long ago to forgo the nitty-gritty details when it comes to math and physics. “Never mind, the details aren’t important. What’s important is that I needed a space high enough to test things. Most of the windows on campus didn’t open, for safety reasons or something.” Trust me, I tried everything to pry one open, but those suckers were sealed shut with super glue and screws. “So I thought I’d use one of the big elm trees on campus.” I’m about to get to the good part when the waitress returns with our food. I pause to thank her and take a few bites. As always, it’s incredible. This close to a marathon, I rarely indulge like this, but tonight is a meatloaf kind of night.
Frank starts with his french fries, savoring each one like it’s the best thing he’s ever eaten. Maybe it is. People give me crap sometimes about my food preferences, especially when I’m passing up donuts at work, but that’s nothing compared to his allergies.
After a few moments, I start back in on my story. “So, anyway, I managed to climb up and get my whole system going without issue. It worked perfectly, better than I could’ve imagined. Then, it’s time to climb down, and I can’t. I’m not sure what happened, but I couldn’t find any of the footholds I’d used to get up. No matter what way I moved, I couldn’t get myself down.” If I’m being honest, it probably wasn’t that high. If I’d jumped, I could’ve made it, but I was terrified at the time, sure that jumping down would lead to two broken legs.
“Let me guess, you called Matthias, and he came to your rescue?” Frank rolls his eyes, and I swallow the urge to tell him off over it. I’ll leave that part to Matthias.
“No, that would’ve been way too reasonable. I sat there feeling sorry for myself for hours. I was at my breaking point when it got dark, still trying to work out my own solution, when Matthias showed up.” I pause to take a few more bites,picturing the scene in my head. It’s burned into my mind, hard to forget the feeling of relief I got seeing him, second only to the sheer embarrassment. “When I missed our usual meet-up, he got worried and came looking for me. It’s a big campus, but he knew my usual areas, saw my pulley system hanging down from the tree, and figured out what happened. It took some work, but he was able to get some additional people and help me work my way down from the tree.” I wish that was the most mortifying moment of my career, but I’ve got a few worse stories. None of which Frank willeverhear. At least not from me.
“I bet you were thrilled,” Frank says, his mouth full of his chicken.
“Embarrassed is more like it. Even more so when Matthias took me back to his room and lectured me for over an hour about how I should’ve called someone and that no matter how stupid it is, the most important thing is that I’m safe.” It’s the first time I saw that side of Matthias, the overprotective version that would scour the Earth to save one of his friends.
“That sounds like the same talk I’m going to get.” Frank’s face flashes between a range of different emotions.
“Probably about right. Though yours will probably include more cuddles and kissing than mine did.” Frank’s face turns an unnatural shade of purple. I’m having way too much fun giving him shit. Hopefully, he knows it’s all in good fun, playful ribbing from a friend. I’ll check in tomorrow and make sure he heard it that way. I don’t want to risk him hating me.
“Eat up,” I say. “But not too fast. When we’re done, I’ll take you to Matthias’s house.”
“Oh, I’m not going there tonight,” Frank says, matter-of-factly. “I’m going to go home since he’s working.”
“Yeah, I texted Matthias. He’ll be waiting for you.”
OLIVER
“I don’t know. It still looks wrong.”
“Are you looking at it right side up?” Haskell asks. I have to pull my phone away from my face and look at it. Even though we’re not on a video call, I think he deserves a glare for that one.
“There’s only one possible direction.” Jesus. It’s a picture of a dragon, how else could I hold it? “I think it’s the color that’s throwing me off. You describe it as a dark ruby red in the manuscript, but this is more magenta.”
“Eh, I see what you mean. You think it makes that much of a difference?”
Yes, yes, I do. “The deep red gives it a strong presence and matches the preliminary descriptions you have for the rest of the series. If you change this one, you’ll have to change them all.”
Personally, I don’t hate the magenta. It’s pretty, but it’s not accurate. All the dragons in this series are supposed to be jewel-toned. There’s still time to change it, but I like the ideas he has. He’s pushing back about asking for changes because he doesn’t like dealing with the publisher. They’re lovely, but he’s not really what I would describe as a people person.
Fortunately, he’s also strongly against redoing work that he’s already done. Which means my argument is the fastest way to get him to change his mind.
“What about?—”
“Haskell, I can deal with the publisher. It’s an easy fix in the background coloring. It’s important that you like the cover. Your name is going to be on it.”
“You’ll let them know and get it fixed?”
“Of course.” That’s literally why he pays me, but I have to remind him of that fact now and then. “You won’t have to do anything until there’s a final product to review.” Um, let me take that back. “You can instead focus on finishing that draft you owe your editor before Christmas.” If Aaron somehow manages to come home with me, I’m not spending my precious time reading through his work or holding his hand while he tries to make the deadline.
“Right, it’s almost done.”
I roll my eyes. Yeah, I’ve heard that before.
“Great, well, if you want to put what you have in the shared folder, I can do a read-through, maybe do some of the formatting for you.”
“Oh, maybe.”
That’s code forit’s not actually ready. “Okay, well, you should probably get back to writing then. I’ll get the cover taken care of and loop you in when there’s something to look at.” It’s best to avoid sending him too many emails. Plus, the last thing he needs right now is a distraction.
