A Perfect Man by Cecilia Dominic

Author:Cecilia Dominic
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: College;Chick-Lit;Second Chances;New Adult;Writing Life;Graduate School
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2015-05-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Karen found Lillian and Samantha on the other side of the coffee shop, but before she could approach them, she needed to get her feelings under control, particularly the tight band around her chest and stomach, the world’s worst-fitting emotional corset. Sure, the insight that she wanted to escape from structure could be helpful, but now everything—the character sketches, the outline, the unfinished business with Marius, who had left her another voice mail with more excuses as to why he couldn’t send her the money he owed her—tightened the laces and squeezed her spirit.

Working with Seth? That felt worst of all. If it weren’t for him, she could just write and see where the words took her.

“Hi, ladies.” She tried to sound cheerful, but her own mood and the atmosphere at the table took her tone and changed it into something between mania and annoying perkiness.

“Hi,” Samantha mumbled. She stared at her coffee, her elbows on the table and her head supported by her hands.

“Samantha, what in the world is wrong with you?” Lillian put a hand on the other woman’s shoulder, but Samantha shrugged it off.

“Nothing.” The tear that dripped off the end of her nose and into her coffee said otherwise.

“Are you okay?” asked Karen, snapping into manager mode. “Do you need something?”

“I don’t know.” Samantha wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands and smeared mascara and eyeliner in raccoon stripes to her hairline. “Karen, why didn’t you just lie about outlining? It would have saved us all a lot of trouble.”

Oh no, don’t you blame me for your problems. I got enough of that from your stupid hero, Marius Weatherly. “Because I’m not that kind of writer. For me, it’s a free-flowing process. Outlining is for that literary stuff. Have you been doing it?”

Samantha shook her head. “I can’t. Not yet. The story is still too raw in my head and heart.”

“What do you mean?” asked Lillian. “It’s only a story.”

“Or is it?” asked Karen. “I was watching you as you read today. It looked like it could be something more than fiction.”

“If it is, it’s none of your business.” Samantha jumped up so quickly her coffee cup sloshed and tipped over, the dark-brown liquid racing to stain pants and bags. Karen noticed her leave amid the confusion and efforts to clean up the mess but elected not to go after her. She’d already been snapped at enough by their professor.

“What was that all about?” Karen asked Lillian once they were seated again.

“I don’t know. I wonder if she had an affair, but that doesn’t seem like her.”

“I can’t imagine it,” Karen said. Sure, Samantha had her passionate moments, but she appeared to have a firm boundary between acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

Lillian stared in the direction Samantha had disappeared to, her perfect pink lips pressed together. Not for the first time, Karen noticed Lillian’s very sparkly tennis bracelet, the huge diamond on her left ring finger, and the designer labels on her clothing and jewelry.

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