AMOS
“Did you check your emails? Marty wants to have a video conference. Apparently he has something important to tell us.”
“Ugh, what could he possibly want now? He’s already sent us to Japan. What’s next—Antarctica?” Lena grumbled as I kept my eyes on a pivotal scene I was working on.
We had completed one volume, but we still had to deliver two, and we barely had eight months to do it. It was way less time than Rika Ishikawa had when she was serializing it.
The publishing company’s reasoning was that the script had already been written, but we still had to have the okay from Rika-san herself on every panel we completed, and whenever she didn’t feel good enough to get up and work, it set us back a few days.
It always felt like someone was breathing down our necks. I didn’t regret getting involved in the project, but I knew there was a lot at stake.
I glanced up at Lena and found her staring at me.
I gave her a small smile and she reciprocated.
It had been a couple of weeks since our night out, and I hadn’t slept alone since.
When we’d stop working for the day, it was just a matter of minutes before our tongues and bodies were tangled together.
However, as much as we were like horny teenagers around each other, we tried to be careful around everyone else.
Ishikawa probably suspected something, but she hadn’t said anything.
“When does Marty want to have this conference call?”
“Um, he didn’t quite call it a conference call…I think he just meant he wanted to check in with us.”
“I don’t know. I don’t trust him that much anymore,” she said jokingly, and I laughed along.
“I’m emailing him back to tell him we could do it now, agree?”
“Sure. Let’s get this over with.” She sighed heavily, glancing in the direction of the hallway. Rika-san hadn’t been feeling well the last couple of days, and I knew Lena was worried about her.
Akane was working in an adjacent room, and I had no idea where Hiroyuki was. He’d probably gone on some errand.
“Awesome. He says he can FaceTime us right now.”
“I better get a side of Violet with that McFly. I miss her,” Lena said, lifting her head from the sketch she’d been working on. She met my gaze, and a small smile stretched across my face.
She liked to paint herself as a loner, but I knew how big her heart was. I knew how much she loved and cared for Marty and Violet, and I could see it in the way she treated Rika-san, too.
“Come sit next to me,” I suggested.
She got up and walked around the table then sat down next to me, crossing her legs.
“Hi,” I said in a low tone, turning to her now that she was only inches away. I leaned and pressed my forehead against hers, pulled back, and brushed my lips against hers. She responded to the kiss, and when I pulled back, she stared at me, pursing her lips, trying to hide a smile, amusement dancing in her eyes.
“Don’t even start. Your ‘hi’ always ends up with me flat on my back and your cock inside me.”
I let out a guffawed laugh. “Excuse me, I didn’t know that bothered you.”
“Oh, it bothers me a lot,” she mused. “It bothers me that your salutation has become synonymous with me dropping my panties for you.”
I looked at her quizzically, eyebrows drawn, but then she got up on her knees and took my face in her hands.
She kissed me, slow and deep, possessing my mouth the way only she knew how.
Her kisses were like Viagra. All I needed was her tongue, and I would immediately think about her sucking my dick or taking me deep inside of her. Somehow, I didn’t even feel sorry about it.
I pulled back and cleared my throat.
“The reason we always end up fucking like rabbits is because you’re too beautiful and sexy for your own good.” She seemed to soften at my words, but I wasn’t done. “I wanted you for entirely too long, and now that I have you, I will never pass on the opportunity to give you all of me.”
Her eyes grew bigger, glossy. She closed them and leaned in again for a kiss.
I was dying to tell her I loved her, but I didn’t want to freak her out.
I loved every little thing about her, and what I wanted the most was for her to ditch her feeling of unworthiness for good. She still hadn’t told me what had happened for her to be in this constant state of war with herself, but I kept hoping she’d soon open up to me and tell me everything I wanted to know.
“Should we tell them about us?” I asked to ruffle her feathers and lighten up the mood.
LENA
I laughed at his question, but he didn’t care and leaned in to steal a kiss. It was just a quick peck, but it sent a rush of adrenaline down my spine.
God, I loved when he did that. The ache in my chest was almost unbearable.
Although I liked to tease him, I was falling more and more for him. I couldn’t get enough of his lips, his touch, the way he seemed to make my body sing in ecstasy.
He had such a strange effect on me. He could evoke so many emotions.
He still irritated the hell out of me from time to time, but mostly he’d either turn me on or make me feel safe.
I trusted him. I knew he had my back. I stared at him, realizing how much things had changed, how much I had changed in such a short time.
I had opened up to him just like a lotus flower.
“You’re cute,” I told him, and he gave me a dreamy smile. He was downright adorable when he smiled at me like that. I couldn’t control the butterflies in my stomach.
“Thanks. So, should we tell them about us?” he asked again.
“The answer is no,” I added, and his shoulders sank. “I just don’t want to get into the whole thing of oh my God, we told you so!”
He let out a small laugh, but then his expression clouded with a frown.
“You guys talked about me and you?”
“They talked about me and you,” I corrected. He gave me a look to extract more information from me and poked me in the side. “Ouch! They said over and over we should have been together…even when you had a girlfriend,” I said in a low, embarrassed tone.
I looked away, staring at the screen, waiting for Marty’s call.
Amos’ arm came around my waist and he nuzzled my neck.
“They were right,” he said softly.
I turned and caressed his jaw with my hand. “They were, but if we tell them now, they will never shut up about it. I’ll never hear the end of it.”
I brushed my lips against his again and he said, “Fine.”
The ringing sound of the FaceTime call interrupted us, and we straightened up before clicking Accept.
We went through ten minutes of questions back and forth about life in general before Marty started explaining why he’d called to begin with.
“Lena, listen. I have some great news about Switch. It’s something really exciting, but I’m not sure how you will react to it.”
“Okay…” I said, a little confused.
“Come on, hurry and just tell her,” Violet chimed in.
“Well, I have been in touch with Amira Farouk. She wants to secure the rights to adapt Switch into a TV show.”
“What? Did I hear you right? Amira Farouk the actress?”
“That’s amazing,” Amos whispered next to me, bringing an arm around me, giving me a gentle squeeze.
“Yes. She actually wants to talk with you and seems determined to do whatever it takes to have a meeting. She’s even open to coming out there to talk to you face-to-face.”
“What? I’m going to meet with Amira Farouk? Here?”
“Maybe. Now, keep in mind she said she’s just dipping her toes into producing, but she wants to give this a try. She said she recently discovered Switch after the news broke that you two were going to Japan, and she read all the volumes in two days.”
“Wow,” I said, dumbfounded.
“I told you this was going to be good exposure for everyone. So, I’m passing along her info and I will put her in touch with you. How does that sound?”
“Great. It sounds great. My comic being turned into a show? I mean, even if nothing comes of it, it’s an honor just to be considered.”
“So, how are things going? Do you guys think you’re going to make it in time for your deadline?”
Amos answered Marty’s questions as I tried to wrap my head around this news.
My comic book could become a show.
I was both terrified and excited by the possibility of it becoming a reality.
I felt humbled, and lucky.
I loved what I did for a living, I was working on the project of a lifetime, and my own creation was possibly going to become a TV series. On top of that, I had a guy that seemed completely smitten with me, despite my hard-to-handle attitude.
Everything seemed too good to be true.
And just as I thought the words, fear took the place of excitement, spreading like a cloud of poison inside of me.
I’m going to lose everything.
I’m not meant to be happy.
A moment later, Violet distracted me from my dark thoughts with some very unexpected news.
Amos congratulating Marty and Violet confirmed that I’d heard right.
“What did you just say? We’ve been gone all of five minutes!” I joked.
“You’ve been gone more than four months, and we’ve been married for almost a year. Don’t be so dramatic,” Marty offered.
“I told you she was going to freak out,” Violet said, laughing as she turned to her husband.
“Violet, how are you feeling?” I asked.
“I’m feeling great. I had no nausea at all. I’m already three months along, though. I’m afraid you’re going to miss the birth of this baby.”
“Do you know what it is already?”
“It’s too soon to tell, but we were thinking…” She looked at Marty for a moment and he gave her a nod of approval. “We would like you to be the baby’s godmother, if you want to.”
“Wow. Well, I’d be honored, but you’re aware that I don’t know the first thing when it comes to kids. I haven’t been around that many.”
“Well, we don’t either. We’ll just all learn as we go, deal? I miss you, Lena,” Violet said, and her words brought tears to my eyes. I didn’t know if it was because they’d just asked me to be the godmother of their unborn child or just because I really missed my friends and was overly emotional.
“I miss you, too,” I replied, sniffling. “I mean, I love it here, but I miss you guys a lot.”
Amos pulled me into a hug and gave me a kiss on the top of my head.
I smiled at first, and then winced when I saw the reaction of my two friends on the computer screen.
Yeah, there was no hiding it now. They knew.
“See, Marty? I told you, I told you it was going to happen! You owe me twenty!” Violet let out excitedly
“Wait, what? You bet on us?” I asked, horrified.
“You only bet twenty on us, Violet? Shame on you,” Amos chimed in.
Violet remained unfazed and clapped her hands excitedly.
“So, you two are together together?”
I hesitated, but Amos didn’t waste a second before replying, “Yes, we are.”
“This is the best news ever! Well, second only to my pregnancy, obviously,” Violet said happily.
I rolled my eyes at her excessive enthusiasm and then I turned to Amos, shaking my head playfully.
“You are the worst. We agreed we weren’t going to say anything. Now they’ll never shut up.”
He brushed his nose against mine.
“So? Let them talk. They were right.”
I didn’t have it in me to be mad at him, so when he leaned down for a kiss, I let him, putting on a show for Marty and Violet, who were cheering and whistling happily.