Glass Slippers, Ever After, and Me by Julie Wright

Author:Julie Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shadow Mountain Publishing
Published: 2019-08-06T19:04:50+00:00

Chapter Twelve

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Unless it’s a poisoned apple. Then you might feel bad that you didn’t spend enough time cultivating a better relationship with the guy you’re going to need to save you from dying.”

—Charlotte Kingsley, The Cinderella Fiction

(The “Be Healthy” Chapter)

Aside from that brief time during his false-alarm engagement, Anders had always been a part of my daily life. Fortunately, that continued after our little talk. Things went back to normal. Nothing really changed. Yet, everything changed. When we were together, my stomach filled with the fluttering people always talked about when describing a significant relationship. When we weren’t together, my brain could only think about being with him. Or planning the time we’d spend together when I was with him. Or texting him. Or thinking about what I wanted to text him.

Even better was the fact that he didn’t act needy. He gave space where space was needed. And it turned out I needed a lot of space. I had thought—and hoped—that once I’d crossed off all the to-dos on Toni’s first list, that would be that. It wasn’t. She made new lists. She made new lists all the time. She spent months making me feel like her social media slave. Hundreds of advance reader copies had been printed and distributed at the book expos Melissa had talked about and the final edits had been turned in, but my plans to start writing a new book during all the free time I’d acquired by quitting my job had been put on hold. Lillian, who had become my direct messenger voice of reason, kept telling me that this time before the book released was the eye of the storm—the only time I’d have to myself until after my scheduled tour was finished. She reminded me to push back when needed. Toni, however, seemed to have absolutely zero concern about my personal time. Thankfully, Anders was patient. He acted like he didn’t mind the time Toni occupied in my life. He affirmed over and over that he understood how important this book’s success was to me.

I stole moments where I could, managing to sneak away every now and then to go with Anders on one of his photo shoots. He loved taking photos and then manipulating them digitally into art. Several of my writer friends who were going the indie route for publishing had seen Anders’s work when I’d linked to it, back when my social media accounts really belonged to me. He’d taken quite a few jobs from them and had produced some amazing cover photos for their books. He didn’t take on all the work offered to him—only the jobs that spoke to him on some artistic level.

One of those jobs required photos with a woodsy fantasy feel. His client had been on my short list of dependable beta readers for years, so he’d asked if I’d like to come along for the shoot.

“What are you wearing?” he asked when he appeared in my doorway to pick me up.

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