“Well, it's not exactly making a ton of money.And Mom kind of let the place go over the years.”
“Let the place go?”Alex repeated.“I think it’s charming.I mean, sure, it could use a good cleaning, but once you make some space and organize it a little more, it will be awesome.I’d love to come back when you're open sometime.”
“You would?”Lilian raised a brow at that.“Doesn’t Manhattan have bookstores?”
Most of the younger faire workers lived in the nearby college town of Manhattan.Alex was a graduate student at Kansas State University, studying theater.A degree that clearly wasn’t wasted, as it had propelled her from a simple pirate wench to a queen in the world of the faire.
“Yeah, of course.But they're all new and shiny.”Alex perched herself on the tall barstool Lilian set by the counter and shrugged.“This place clearly has some treasure buried here.”
That got a laugh out of Lilian.“All right, Pirate Queen, you know you don’t have to make puns outside of the faire, right?”
She made two cups of pumpkin spice coffee, and they settled in to get to work.
“I think Margo was on to something with her idea for finding Mr.Brawn.We can make it like a dating game show, but with romance tropes,” Alex started.“That way, all you have to do is ask questions.The guys are all actors, so we can give them room to improv and act like fools.They’ll like that.”
“Okay.”Lilian sipped her coffee as Alex wrote down her ideas.She’d never been a fan of old dating shows.She’d seen one or two out of morbid curiosity, but watching people on television for thirty minutes only served to demonstrate the lack of real connection.It only cemented her love of romance books where the couples were always perfect for each other.“As long as I can stick to the script.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way, babe.Now, what are some romance tropes we can work with?”
“Well, we have a pirate, a Viking, a knight, and a Scotsman.”She stopped and groaned.“That sounds like the beginning of a terrible joke.”
“That’s good!That’s a joke we can use,” Alex cheered, writing it down.
They huddled together over Lilian’s open laptop and typed whatever came to mind.Lilian found herself pitching common romance tropes that Alex quickly turned into a line of dialogue.Not only was the pirate queen pretty and talented, but she was also whip-smart when it came to writing.
“You’re really good at this,” Lilian commented as Alex scrolled over the pages of lines they’d crafted.
Alex gave a sheepish smile.“Thanks, I really like writing scripts.Which is good because I need to produce a show for my master's.”
“What?”Lilian perked up.“You never mentioned that.”
Alex slumped over the counter in a defeated pile of mush.“Ugh, because I hate thinking about it.”
“Why?You do it all the time for the faire.”Alex had been one of the driving forces behind the pirate storyline for the season.Along with running acting classes.Now that she thought about it, Alex did a lot more around the faire than Lilian realized.No wonder she’d been in tears when Hawk suggested another show on top of it all.
“Yeah.”Alex sniffed dramatically.“But doing it for fun is so different than school.There is this extra pressure.Like it needs to say something profound, or they won’t give me my master's.”
“I didn’t realize it was so much work.”
“Everything is work at its core.”Alex straightened, her face set in determination.“But if it wasn’t hard, everyone could do it.Now let’s finish this up.What other tropes do you have?”
Lilian listed off some of her favorite tropes from the old school Harlequin novels and read them off.“Touch her and die.”
Alex’s brows narrowed.“What does that mean?”
“It means that at some point the hero threatens another person for touching his woman.”Lilian paused, her eyes widening at the woman beside her.“Have you… never read something where that happens?”
Alex grimaced.“No.I don’t really read these days.The last book I read was a vampire romance in high school.”
“No way,” Lilian said, closing her laptop.This was a serious conversation that needed her full, undivided attention.“You really haven’t read anything for fun recently?”
“No.School and the faire take up a lot of my time.”
She could understand that.The amount of reading she’d had to do as an English major had sucked the joy out of the activity.She’d been burnt out, and it took a long time before she’d found that joy again in reading without analyzing or the threat of having to write a paper.
“But you said you love bookstores.”
“I do, always have.I love books, it’s just…” She shrugged.“School gets in the way.When I’m not memorizing lines or doing TA responsibilities, I’m doing things for the faire.Being a grad student is not what I thought it would be.”
