The Arrangement

“He told you?”

“Well… he showed me,” he said quickly. “A photo of you, that is. So I knew what you looked like.”

I hesitated. “Alright.”

“Anyway, could I buy you a coffee?” He held out his arm, gesturing to a nearby shop with a sign that said Drip Drop. It struck me right away as a weird name.

“Uh… sure. Okay.” I forced myself to relax a little. “Actually, I was just about to grab some.”

Jay’s smile widened. He looked like he had about thirty-percent too many teeth for his mouth. “Perfect!”

He led the way, then held the door for me as we entered the shop. I inhaled instinctively, filling my nostrils with the rich, delicious scent of good coffee.

“Gotta love this place,” Jay winked. “They just opened.”

We ordered. Jay paid. I thanked him as we sat down, at one of those really high tables where you usually need to climb into your chair.

“Sorry again for just pulling you off the street,” Jay said again. He let out what would’ve been a nervous laugh, only it was missing the nervousness. “Dumb luck I guess.”

I examined him through the steam rising up from my latte. Jay was sharply dressed. Nice shoes. Good hair, though it was streaked with grey. His beard had flecks of grey also, almost in streaks rather than an overall salt-and-pepper look.

“So… you wanted to talk to me?”

He sipped his black coffee and smiled. All those teeth made him look like a caricature of himself. “Yes.”

Weird alarms were going off now, but I did my best to quiet them. This was the guys’ publisher. Nathan’s dad’s best friend. He was their biggest fan right now. And their best ally.

“So… have you read any of the books yet?”

I hesitated, unsure of what to say. He wasn’t asking me about Nathan. He wasn’t even asking about me.

“Some.”

“Awesome!” Jay said. “How are you liking the story so far?”

“It’s great,” I said truthfully. “Fast-paced. Lots of action. Lots of intrigue too, which makes you turn pages.”

“Turning pages is the trick,” Jay concurred. “If you can do that as an author, you’ll always be successful.”

I nodded in agreement, still wondering what his angle was. Then he told me.

“What about the more… recent chapters?”

“Recent chapters?”

“Yes,” said Jay. “The guys brought them over yesterday. I’d told them the main characters needed love interests in the story. That was two weeks ago.”

I shook my head slowly. “I didn’t read anything about love interests.”

“No?”

“No.” I shrugged. “Maybe they hadn’t finished those chapters yet.”

“Maybe,” Jay allowed. He was looking at me a little differently now. Like he was considering me, or trying to determine if I were lying.

I wasn’t though. In everything I’d read so far, none of the main characters had any sort of romantic involvements.

“So… yeah,” he said carefully. “The romantic stuff they’ve written so far. It hasn’t quite been what I wanted from them.”