41. Adair
41
ADAIR
I get practically bouncy with anticipation when I glimpse the signs outside the convention center. “You’re such a child.” Jack shakes his head, but there’s a little grin on his face.
He pulls over and puts his four-ways on. “Wait,” he says as I grab the door handle. I look back to see him reach over his shoulder. I’m confused as hell when he pulls my tablet from the pocket behind the seat. He slips it into the canvas tote I brought to put books in.
“What’s that for?”
“Your artwork is better than you think, Bunny. I wanted you to have this with you in case, you know, you get to show it to somebody.”
It doesn’t work like that — which I’ve tried to tell him —but I’m flattered that he thinks that highly of my drawings. And I’m touched that he thought to bring it for me. While separately planning an exhibitionist dungeon night for us, no less.
“Now get out of here,” he growls, but there’s something close to happiness shining in his dark eyes. Since he’s turned towards me, I sneak a quick kiss onto his cheek before hopping out of the truck.
“Hey!” He calls out the window as I’m hurrying across the street. “Text me and let me know when I should come back and pick you up. I don’t want you walking around here. This isn’t a good neighborhood.”
It looks fine to me; if anything, it’s just kind of deserted and dim with some sort of skybridge blocking the light. But I tell Jack OK anyway.
I study the map of the show floor until I find what I’m looking for. The author who wrote the book I was reading when I met Jack has a table here, and I’ve decided to make that my first stop. Lots of other readers evidently had the same idea, because as soon as I turn into the aisle, I see the line.
With a sigh, I tuck myself at the end of it. I hope she still has copies of the one I want with the limited-edition, illustrated cover by the time I reach the front.
A pair of women who look about my age give me side-eye as they get behind me. I know I stick out as a guy at a romance-book convention. I’ve only seen like three other men so far, and one is an audiobook narrator. He sure doesn’t look like I imagined him in my head.
“I thought he’d be taller,” one of the women behind me says with a giggle, and I realize she’s talking about the narrator, who’s posing for a picture with a fan in the middle of the aisle.
“I wasn’t picturing him as clean-shaven, either. For some reason, his voice always makes me picture a guy with a beard,” I say, inviting myself into their conversation.
The two of them exchange a quick glance. I don’t want them to think I’m creeping on them, so I quickly add, “I could just be biased about the beard thing because my boyfriend has one, though.” The word boyfriend still feels strange and thrilling on my tongue. My comment has the desired effect; the body language of both women eases.
The taller of the two, who’s actually taller than me, has straight black hair with bangs. She’s wearing purple-framed glasses and a sweatshirt that says, I’d rather be reading smut . Her friend is as short as she is tall. She’s got red hair and has sort of a witchy vibe with a long, flowy black skirt and a crystal point on a chain around her neck.
The redhead sticks her hand out first. “I’m Olivia.” She nods towards her friend. “That’s Gina.”
After getting through handshakes, we start talking about books. I tell them which book I’m hoping to get.
“It’s a little silly,” I admit. “But I was so excited when she posted the cover art, because the pack looks almost exactly like how I imagined when I drew them.”
Olivia’s eyes light up. “You’re an artist?”
“Oh no, no,” I say, backpedaling with a self-conscious laugh. “I’m not an artist . I just like to draw.”
“Well, that’s cool anyway,” Gina pipes up. “What do you draw?”
I wave her question off, kicking myself for bringing it up in the first place. “Nothing serious. Mostly just book character fanart.”
I see the two of them exchange another glance I can’t read. “Well, I think that’s awesome. I can’t draw worth a damn,” Olivia says. “I’m kind of jealous of people who can.”
Gina elbows Olivia with a little grin. “You don’t get all the talents, you know.” Olivia rolls her eyes, but she’s clearly flattered. Gina points to her, addressing me. “She’s a writer. She’s working on her second trilogy.”
“ Really? That’s wild. What’s it about? Is it the same genre?” I indicate the painfully slow-moving line we’re standing in.
Olivia flushes a little bit, but the more she talks, the more animated she gets. “This author is actually the person who inspired me. I read an interview online with her and she was saying she had this idea she’d never seen before in queer shifter romance. She said she basically wrote it for herself without knowing if anybody else would like it, and it took off. I’d been kind of kicking around this storyline and these characters in my head but I wasn’t sure anybody else would like them. That interview was what motivated me to write my ideas down.”
“Wow.” My eyebrows go up. “That’s so cool. What’s the series called? I wonder if I’ve read it.”
Olivia flushes a deeper pink and ducks her head. “I mean, it wasn’t what I’d call wildly successful.”
“It was successful,” Gina interjects. “You got good reviews.”
Olivia shakes her head. “Yeah, but that doesn’t translate into sales.” She sighs. “It’s just hard to break in as a new self-published author. And the marketing part is a gigantic pain in the butt. If I didn’t have Gina helping me out with social media stuff, I’d be completely lost.”
“Is Olivia your author name? Do you write under a pen name?”
She giggles. “I’m attending this convention as a reader, not a writer. Olivia is my real name. I’ll tell you my pen name but I promise you’ve never heard of it.”
“You might be surprised,” I tell her with a grin. “I seriously read a ton .”
Olivia sighs. “I write under the name Calla Sylvan.”
“Oh, wow!” My mouth drops open. “You wrote the poly retelling of Goldilocks with the billionaire bear shifters!” I grin, remembering how Jack first caught my eye when I was reading that trilogy. “I loved those. The way you had them get snowed in together in the first book just hooked me.”
Olivia blinks in surprise. Gina nudges her and smiles. “See? I told you people like your books.”
Tucking a fiery lock behind her ear, Olivia gives me a shy smile. “Aw, thank you. I’m so happy to hear that.”
“I had no idea you were a debut author! I looked for more stuff by you and didn’t find anything, so I figured you were an established writer just using a new pen name or something.” Now I’m the one getting animated. “I actually tried to draw the characters a little while ago when I did a re-read of the series, but bears are hard to draw.”
“Can I see anyway?” Olivia asks, surprising me. “Do you have a profile or someplace you post your art online?”
“Uh, no. I haven’t gotten around to it.” I am never, ever going to let Jack know he was right about that. Or that I’m suddenly grateful to him for making me bring my tablet with me.
“I’m warning you. They’re rough sketches,” I say with a laugh as I open up the app and pull up the drawings. Both fall silent after I hand them my tablet. They exchange another glance. I start to get nervous and start talking to fill the empty space. “Um, yeah, like I said —it’s pretty unpolished. I mean, it’s obviously not art .”
Olivia looks up. “These are great . Why don’t you do this professionally?”
It’s my turn to flush. “Thanks. I don’t have any training or anything,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck. “But I’m glad you like them.”
Gina pipes up again. “What Olivia’s trying to say is, can we get contact info for you?”
“What?” I can’t believe my ears.
“I had to go with premade covers for the ebooks,” Olivia says. “I want to release the trilogy in paperback with new covers, but I don’t have much of a budget, and I haven’t been able to find somebody who can do good character art. I think you absolutely could, if you don’t mind working with an unknown author on a tiny budget.”
I laugh as I tuck my tablet away and pull out my phone. “If you don’t mind working with somebody who isn’t a real artist, I’m open to the idea. And you’re not unknown! You’re known to me,” I say as I unlock my phone and hand it to her. “Here. Want to add yourself to my contacts?”
Olivia looks down and snickers. “Who’s Bossy Asshole ? Is that, like, your boss or something?”
Whoops . Kind of forgot she’d see that. I notice we’re finally close to the front of the line. I laugh, hoping I don’t sound awkward. “It’s kind of a long story.”