Chapter 39
“We should get to the billboard unveiling,” Natalie said. “If we’re late, this is not my fault.”
“There will be more billboards,” Rob said, kissing her neck, a neck he’d seen in Zooms and photos over the past few months, a neck he’d imagined kissing countless times on hours-long phone calls, a neck that smelled like sex, a neck that was even better in person than in his memory of it, much like the rest of the person attached to it. “I have a feeling Angus will have a long, illustrious career in the furniture world.”
Natalie cackled as he rolled back on top of her, pinning her to his bed, and for a while they stopped talking entirely as they refamiliarized themselves with each other for the third time that afternoon.
Over the past few months, Rob had tried to convince himself that it was romantic, being so far away from each other. By not being able to touch, they were getting to know each other’s minds, like correspondents falling for each other via letters in olden times. But he was a good multitasker, and this visit was proving to him that he was perfectly capable of getting to know both her mind and body simultaneously.
“So, I talked to my agent,” Natalie said, when they finally emerged from bed to get a snack from Rob’s kitchen. Her hair was mussed, her bare legs sticking out from one of Rob’s button-down shirts. “She read the rough draft of the book.”
“Yeah?” Rob asked, eating a spoonful of peanut butter.
Natalie had been sending Gabby chapters of her new project, Dickens-style installments, to help keep her entertained through her recovery. After some convincing, she’d agreed to send them to Rob too, telling him to be kind. This new novel was a love story, though not just about romantic love. The chapters he’d read were suffused with warmth and humor, all the best, goofiest, most sincere parts of Natalie on the page. No overt facsimiles of real life, though he flattered himself sometimes that he could see hints of himself in the male lead if he squinted hard.
He’d rate it six stars if he could. Though he was far from impartial at this point.
Gabby and Rob finally had their own text thread now, devoted mostly to talking about the plot developments or lines in Natalie’s book that particularly delighted them. And slowly, over the past month or so, Gabby had started sending Rob and Natalie illustrations of her favorite scenes, watercolors of how she imagined the characters. Fan art, she called them, for your eyes only.
Natalie took a breath. “Iman thinks that, on the strength of the manuscript, plus the TV writing credit of Meant 2B and the promise of a blurb from Tyler, she can get me a book deal, and a good one at that.”
Rob stepped forward and picked her up. “Hey!”
She squealed and held on to him, then said, “I don’t want to get ahead of myself. She could be overconfident.”
“She’s not. It’s incredible.”
Natalie blushed as Rob set her back down on the ground. “It got me thinking…our writers’ room is going back in-person for the show. But I have some savings, and I might want to take a step back. Focus on the novel-writing for a little while. And”—she laced her fingers in his, looking down at their hands, the blush on her cheeks deepening—“I can really do that from anywhere.”
“Are you thinking of coming back to NYC?” Rob asked, his heart starting to pound.
“I wouldn’t be moving just for you!” she said, her eyes wide. “So I don’t want you to feel that pressure! There are lots of other reasons to come back. I still hate driving, plus I want to be closer to Gabby and Angus. I know moving just for you would be ridiculous at this stage—”
“I’m in final-round interviews for a job in LA,” Rob said.
Natalie blinked. “What?”
He nodded. “It would involve a pay cut, and the work would be less interesting than what I’m doing now. I don’t like LA, and I love my job here.” He steeled himself, then looked straight at her. “But I love you more.”
“You love me?” Natalie whispered, a radiant grin coming over her face. “Funny, I was just thinking that I love you too.”
Warmth flooded his cheeks. He drew her in and kissed her, then pulled back, eyes crinkling from the strength of his smile. “You don’t know how hard I had to work not to blurt it out back in Angus and Gabby’s driveway. But you were being so cautious—”
“I liked you too much! I had to protect my fragile heart. And, yes, in hindsight, it seems ridiculous—” He pulled her back into him, and they were kissing again, happy and hungry for each other, until she disentangled herself. “Also, obviously you should not take this LA job, and I should move here instead!”
“Yeah, if you’re amenable to that, I would probably prefer—”
But he didn’t get to finish his sentence before they were touching again. And as he lifted her onto the kitchen counter and she wrapped her legs around him, he decided they could figure out the details later.