Message From Viola Mari Read Online Free PDF Page B

descent when he shook his head and patted the place beside him.
    “You’re going to have to sit here if you want me to look at your manuscript--I can’t read well upside down.”
    I scooted in beside him, trying to maintain a courteous distance, but the booth bench wasn’t wide enough for me to fit without my legs brushing against his firm thighs. As my pulse raced, I knew if I wore a heart rate monitor, it would beep to indicate my target heart rate had been exceeded.
    “Don’t you two look cozy,” said the waitress. She handed us our menus.
    “Yeah well don’t get too excited.” I reached into my folder and pulled out my manuscript. “This meeting is purely business. I’m having him translate some hieroglyphics for me.”
    “That’s what they all say, honey,” she said. Her round face erupted into a smug smile, but she turned away before I could retort.
    “Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?” Justin leaned in closer until I caught a whiff of his now familiar cinnamon aftershave.
    “No, of course not,” I said, loud enough to turn some heads. I just haven’t sat this close to an attractive male in say twenty years.
    “Well I’m going for turkey and Swiss on wheat,” he said. “Let’s order so we can get to the task at hand.”
    Do I sense disappointment? “Sounds good to me.”
    When the waitress returned, we ordered and returned our menus. Once she left, I flipped over to the first page. “See what you wrote here, about needing to something or other?”
    I pointed to the text and looked at him. He leaned in until our shoulders touched as he slid his reading glasses over the bridge of his nose. As he did, a blond curl dropped across his face. I longed to brush it away from his cheekbones. I feel like I’m in one of those dreams I know is a dream — when I kiss a complete stranger or try to unzip his fly just because I know my unruly behavior has no consequences. And here I am longing to say something like, Your hair alone is enough to make me hyperventilate, I’m sure sex with you would be a downright scream. What do you say we shelve the whole go over the manuscript charade and head to my place ?
    “Oh, that says, need to get inside the character’s head,” Justin answered.
    “Why do I need to do that?” I crossed my legs and tried to focus my sex-crazed brain.
    “This character has no dimension, or should I say, it’s obvious she really does, but the author is choosing to hide that.”
    “She’s a very important scientist,” I argued.
    “Yes, and so are you. Aren’t you?”
    “Perhaps. But what does that have to do with anything?”
    “Everything.” He took off his reading glasses and set them on the table, then raised his gaze to meet mine. “You tell me you work at Scripps, that you love oceanography and meteorites, but I don’t really know you. That’s what I really want to know when I talk to you. And that’s what the reader wants to know about your protagonist. How does she handle a crisis? Who does she care about? What does she want more than anything else?”
    “That’s what you really want to know? Um, I mean about the character?”
    “Yes, that’s what I want—for you to reveal who she is.”
    “Okay, I’ll try.” Note to self: when it comes to character development, steer as far from the truth as humanly possible. Moving down two lines, I pointed to another set of words.
    “You can’t read that either?” He frowned, creasing his brow.
    “No I can’t.” Do you write these comments while sprawled out in your water bed? There is a certain undulation to these letters…
    “You have an odd expression on your face.”
    My face flushed as I imagined standing over him, studying his finely sculpted buttocks as he lay on his waterbed reading, his hips moving up and down over the mattress waves. “I do? I can’t imagine why.” Actually, I can, but…
    “You don’t do lying well.”
    Oh well, it was worth a try. “I don’t know what you’re talking