Something's Gotta Give - Original Verison

Jade's Point of View

I only slept a few hours that morning. Even though I felt like death, I was way too excited over finally having something to turn into my editor that there was no way I could stay asleep. Alex, on the other hand, was completely out, so around ten or so I tip-toed out of the room with my laptop and phone, settling myself up at the breakfast bar. I turned my laptop on and started to open a new e-mail to my editor. As if he was psychic, he called.

I answered quickly, knowing that he didn’t like to have to call a million times to get a hold of me. I had a bad habit of not answering my phone as it was since it was usually on silent, but he had to know by now that I’d purposely been dodging him.

When I picked up, he didn’t even give me a chance to say hello.

“Please tell me that you’ve finally got something for me.” Michael Wyatt was definitely a no nonsense kind of dude. He was good-looking, hardworking and fucking amazing at his job, if not an occasional slave driver if you weren’t doing exactly what he wanted, though he was only this way if he really believed in someone. From the amount of times he called, he must’ve really had a lot of faith in me. “The publishers are breathing down my neck for literally anything. They were expecting an outline like ten days ago and-”

“Actually, I was just getting ready to send you what I have,” I cut him off. If I didn’t stop him now, he’d probably be going on and on for at least the next fifteen minutes about all the issues I was causing with my writer’s block.

“Oh, thank God.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “If you were going to tell me that you didn’t have anything, I swear, I was going to have a stroke and keel over.”

“No, the outline’s done,” I assured him. I was attaching the file to the e-mail as I was talking to him. “Honestly, I’m super proud of it.”

“What did you finally decide on?” Michael asked. “And I’m begging you, don’t tell me you went with the zombie pitch. I won’t even look at it if you did.”

“Okay, I only strayed in that direction for like five minutes because I was absolutely losing it,” I defended myself, laughing. “You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who suggested that to me.” I shook my head, even though he couldn’t see me. “It’s got kind of a dark feel to it like Lines, but it’s a lot different. I don’t feel like you can go wrong with drugs and murder.”

“Well, now my interest is definitely piqued,” he said. “Send me what you have so I can read it and then I’ll give you notes on it.”

“And you’ll be brutal?” Like I even needed to ask – Michael was definitely the most honest with me about my writing. Jack could say he liked things all he wanted, and while it was flattering, his opinion was usually pretty biased and he never really had any constructive criticism.

“As always,” he assured.

I hung up with him as I sent the message and closed my laptop after reading the outline over once more. I was expecting Michael to call back in probably an hour or so, so that gave me time to make a pot of coffee and relax a bit before then. Around the time the coffee was done brewing, Alex finally woke up and joined me downstairs. He slid into the stool next to mine and took my coffee cup.

“You made coffee for me, that’s so nice,” he said.

I scowled and snatched my mug back from him. “Fuck off, Gaskarth. Paws off the coffee. Get your own.”

“Sheesh, I forgot what a grump you are in the morning,” he commented. He went to grab a mug of his own and poured some coffee for himself and sat down with me again. “By the way, when did you get that sick hip piece? I seriously don’t remember you having any tattoos.”

“Like a year ago,” I replied, blushing a little. “Jay wasn’t a huge fan of it.”

“Really? Why?” he asked, sipping the coffee, making a face. “It’s hot.”

“It’s coffee, Alex,” I laughed. “It’s supposed to be hot, you idiot.”

“I wasn’t talking about the coffee.”

I bit my lip and looked away. “So, are we talking about last night, or not really?”

“I don’t really know what there is to talk about,” Alex answered, sipping his coffee a little more carefully. “We had sex, it was fun. It wasn’t anything serious.” He eyed me cautiously. “You had fun, right?”

“Yeah, I did,” I told him, moving my mug around absent-mindedly. “I told you I got my outline done, right?”

“I think so, but it was super early and bright and I was dying, so I had no idea what in the fuck you were talking about,” he said. “But you finally had a breakthrough?” I nodded. “So what’s this next book about, and do I need to read the other one to understand it?”

“No, you wouldn’t have to.” I shook my head. “I mean, basically it’s gonna be pretty weird. It’s about this group of three girls, and one of them meets a guy on a website and finds out he’s a pretty serious pot dealer after she hangs out with him. So she gets an idea and hatches a plan with one of the other girls to steal some of his pot plants so they can go into business for themselves. They decide to set the third girl up with this guy, but don’t give her all the information and they end up hitting it off, and so when night when the one girl and this guy are out, the other two break into his house and make off with a couple of his pot plants. They get back and he realizes his plants are gone, and over the course of a couple of days, he starts to put things together, but gets some of the information wrong. He thinks the girl he’s dating is in on it, and he confronts her about it, gets really mad and accidentally kills her in a really bad fight.

“The other two girls hear about what happens,” I went on, watching Alex’s face shift from interested to concerned. “And of course, they feel bad, but they’re not about to come forward and admit what they did. Meanwhile, the guy gets brought in by police and has to go through a trial and shit, and the other girls keep staying quiet. It eventually ends with the guy killing himself in prison after he gets found guilty and sentenced. It’s kind of supposed to be an exposé or like satire on the power of greed.”

Alex stared at me blankly for probably fifteen seconds. I put my head in my hands and groaned. “Ugh. It’s terrible, isn’t it? My editor’s totally gonna call me back and tell me I’m an idiot.”

“Actually, it sounds super interesting,” he finally said. “I would definitely read it. Maybe kind of like Chuck Palahniuk kinda shit. But I’m just trying to figure out what kind of weird crevice of your mind that crawled out of.”

“I have no idea,” I admitted. “It just started going through my head after we had sex last night and I had to write it all down.”

“So basically,” Alex grinned, “my dick cured your writer’s block.”

I shook my head, fighting off a smile. “Don’t flatter yourself. You don’t have a magical penis, I can promise you that.”

“I mean, you keep coming back for it…” Alex teased.

I shoved him probably a little too roughly and gave him an annoyed look. “Are you kidding me? Last night was so not my idea and-”

I was starting to get flustered and Alex started to laugh. “Jesus, Jade, I was kidding. I was just fucking with you.” He took a long sip of his coffee. “But in all honesty, I feel a little better after last night. Like lighter somehow, less stressed.”

“Surprisingly, I kind of have to agree,” I admitted, as much as I didn’t want to. “Like, it just totally cleared my mind. For once I wasn’t thinking about Jay or the book or anything else. I was just in the moment and it was kind of exactly what I needed.”

“I sincerely hope you weren’t thinking about Jay while we were having sex.” Alex frowned. “I would be mildly offended.”

I knocked my knee against his and imitated his voice. “I’m fucking with you.”

“Funny,” he rolled his eyes.

I was about to say something else, and then my started to ring. Michael’s name flashed up on the caller ID. Alex grabbed the phone to check the name and picture and asked me in a sing-song voice, “Ooh, and who is this? A new boyfriend?”

“It’s my editor, asshat,” I snapped, snatching the phone back from Alex before he could answer it and say something potentially embarrassing. I answered the phone and started walking away for a little privacy. I drew in a sharp breath. “So. You read it.”

“I did.” I could picture Michael nodding. And then he was completely silent.

“Well, are you going to say anything?” I finally complained after what felt like years. I chewed the inside of my cheek nervously.

“I’m just trying to figure out exactly what to say,” Michael replied.

“In a good way or bad way?” I asked, biting the side of my thumb.

“Don’t do that, that’s gross,” Alex commented as he walked by to head upstairs, presumably to shower.

I swatted his shoulder his he walked by. “Shut the fuck up, oh my God.”

“Sorry?” I’d almost forgotten about Michael on the phone.

“Sorry!” I exclaimed. “I definitely wasn’t talking to you.” I threw a nasty glance at Alex who just smiled and waved. “I have an annoying house guest right now. But did you like it or not?”

“Honestly, I loved it,” Michael responded, mulling over his next words carefully. “Like you said, it’s definitely dark, very dark. But, I mean, so is Fight Club and that’s one of the greatest novels and films of all time. Speaking of, I’ve been talking to your agent – and I understand you’ve apparently been avoiding her, too – but we’ve got something in the works for you, but I won’t get too into it now. Point is, this has the potential to be a really powerful book and it was worth the wait. When do you think you could get some pages in?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, tripping over my words. Michael was definitely not the type to blow smoke up my ass, or give me that many compliments at one time. Needless to say, I was a little shocked. “I guess I can start working on it right away.”

“Do you think you can manage about fifty pages or so in two weeks?” he asked.

I hadn’t even written Lines that quickly, but I’d also been in school at the time. And that was less than five pages a day. I could handle that, right? Whether I was sure or not, that’s what I ended up promising Michael. We talked a little more and by the time we were off the phone, Alex was done showering and dressed.

“So how’d that go?” he asked, rubbing a towel against his still damp hair. “You would not believe how good a shower was for this hangover.”

I ignored his last comment. “Actually, that went really well. Better than I expected, for sure. But I promised him the first fifty pages in two weeks.”

He shrugged. “Should be no big deal. It’s not like you have anything else to do, right?”

I glared at him and then rolled my eyes. “You do realize that I have other things to do during my day besides write, correct? And that writing a novel is totally different than writing a song?”

“Well, somebody’s stressing,” Alex teased. “Relax. It’ll be fine.” He winked at me. “And you know, I’m here to inspire you again if you get stuck.”

I made a gagging noise. “I’m gonna get dressed so I can take you home and collect my brother. I never thought I’d say this, but Jack is less annoying than you are.”

Alex let out a fake-laugh and stuck his tongue out at me. “Cute.”

I headed upstairs and took a fast shower, blowing my hair out and getting dressed. I made my bed and cleaned my room up a bit in case Jack decided to look in and be nosy. If it wasn’t immaculate, he’d know something was up and I definitely didn’t want anyone knowing that Alex and I had slept together, as harmless as it was. It was a one-time thing, and everyone else would just make a big deal about it if they even had an inkling about what had happened.

I drove Alex back home and went inside with him to get Jack. I’d kind of expected him to be coloring with Elizabeth while Skye maybe slept a little longer, but Elizabeth sat on the floor trying to build something out of blocks by herself while Jack sat on the couch with Skye’s head in his lap. They were awake and watching TV, but I’d never really seen Jack and Skye so physically close before without horsing around. They looked pretty comfortable, but maybe just a little bit too comfortable.

Apparently Alex thought so as well. He shook his head at them. “No way. One and a half feet between you guys, minimum.”

Skye sat up and scowled at him. “Seriously, Lex? We’re just watching TV.”

“Watching TV can turn into something else really quick,” he countered.

“Jesus, you really think we’d do that with Elizabeth here?” Skye demanded.

Before they could really start to squabble, I cleared my throat and announced, “Well, on that note, it’s probably a really excellent time to leave.”

Jack got up and we both kissed Elizabeth on the head and said good-bye before heading out. The palpable tension in the world was getting a little ridiculous, and I felt like I could breathe again.

“Wow, am I so glad to be out of there,” I sighed once we got to the car.

“No kidding,” Jack agreed. “I was half-convinced Alex was gonna drop-kick me for a second there.”

“So how was your night?” I asked him as I started to drive. “Are you gonna be giving me any blood nieces or nephews anytime soon?” I added teasingly.

“What? No!” Jack rushed. “Absolutely not. Nope. I don’t even like Skye like that. I was just being a friend.”

“Sure you don’t,” I smiled to myself. “All I’m saying is, I wouldn’t mind having my best friend as a sister-in-law. Just putting that out there.”

“Fuck off,” Jack complained. “It’s not like that at all.”

I could tell that Jack was getting annoyed with the topic, so I changed subjects. Before Jack could ask how I’d spent my night, I told him about getting my outline done, the plotline for the new novel, and Michael’s enthusiasm about it.

“Michael was actually nice to you about it?” Jack whistled. “Holy shit.”

“You say that like it’s shocking,” I laughed. “It’s his job to give criticism, Jack. Had I not made the changes to Lines that he’d suggested, or rather insisted on, it probably wouldn’t have ended up being so successful.”

“Huh,” Jack said, like he was in awe. “Honestly, I always thought he was mean to you because he liked you or something. Like the sexual tension just seems ridiculous.”

I frowned, feeling heat creep up the back of my neck. “I sincerely doubt it. He’s just doing his job.”

Jack imitated my voice. “I’m just saying, I wouldn’t mind having a really smart editor for a brother-in-law. Just putting that out there.”

I couldn’t help but laugh and I broke out my imitation of our mother’s voice. “Jack Bassam, you stop that right now or I’ll turn this car around!”

That made Jack laugh hysterically and broke the tension. We didn’t talk anymore about our nights and just traded stories about Mom yelling at us as kids. When we got home, Jack settled down in front of the TV to watch Hell’s Kitchen while I went up to my room and opened another new document on my laptop, ready to start writing.