Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 111165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 556(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 556(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
“Well you can’t rush a thing like that. Nor can you force it. Especially poetry. If you’re not feeling it…how can it work?”
“It doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean I can just give up. Some days you just have to go out there and hunt down your muse. If she doesn’t show up, then you have to make her. It’s as simple as that.”
“So have you been hunting her down? I thought breaking up with Simone would have been great fodder for that.”
“Again,” I say pointedly, giving her a steady look, “I didn’t break up with Simone in order to get material out of it. You can stop with your Taylor Swift comparisons.”
“Yeah I know, you broke up with her because you weren’t in love with her. Same old song and dance. Blah, blah, blah.”
“Wait a minute, aren’t we supposed to be on a date here? Our first date?”
She makes a grumbling noise before blowing a loose strand of hair out of her face. “The date has been modified.”
“To the art of seduction, right?” She doesn’t say anything. “Well then before I start giving you lessons on how to seduce a man, which, by the way, I don’t think are needed, I think discussions about exes are off the table. Nothing kills a date more than someone talking about their ex.”
“Lucky for you, I don’t have an ex.”
“That’s not true. You said there was that Cody guy in college.”
“You remember?” She looks surprised.
I laugh. “Yeah I remember. Cody is the guy you tried to have sex with and kind of did but it hurt too much so you didn’t. You don’t forget a thing like that.”
She puts her face in her hands and shakes her head. She looks like a Californian version of Cousin It. “I can’t believe I told you that.”
“Friends tell each other things,” I say, wishing she wasn’t covering up her face so I could see her reaction. “Don’t they?”
She just grumbles again.
The Comedy Store is a legendary place in Hollywood where you can find a famous or at least completely legit performer every single night. Last night Dave Chapelle was playing, tonight we’ve got tickets to see Norm McDonald. Both of us are fans of his dry and odd humor, especially the movie Dirty Work and basically any time he shows up in an Adam Sandler movie.
“I haven’t been here in years,” she says as we make our way to our table in the main room, the place already busy, excited murmurs filling the air.
“When did you come before? It wasn’t with me.” I have to admit, it bothers me that she’s actually been here before and with someone else. I wanted her first time to be with me.
The comedy club, I mean.
“It was a date,” she says, breaking into a wide grin. “Went horribly wrong as usual.”
“Why are you smiling then?”
“Well the comedian, he wasn’t famous or anything, but he was funny as hell,” she says. “Actually I think a comedy club is a great place for a first date. You can have dinner and drinks before the show and during the show you have something to laugh at if your date has turned into a total douchebag. Which mine did. Plus, you can see the type of humor your date has. If they don’t have the same kind of humor as you, you’re pretty much fucked. And he didn’t.”
She’s got a point there. Lucky for us and our fake date or whatever the hell this has morphed into, we’re always laughing at the exact same things.
We sit down at our table, close to the stage, and are soon ordering dinner and drinks. Marina wastes no time in getting down to business.
“Okay, so tell me what to do,” she says after she has a sip of her dirty martini.
“With what?”
“You know what. If this is our first date, what should I be doing to keep you interested.”
I stare at her for a moment, drawing a complete blank. She’s assuming I wouldn’t be interested in this moment, but of course I am. How could any man not be? She’s sitting close to me, close enough that I can smell her sweet honey scent, see the faint freckles across her nose. Her lips look soft and I know they’d be heaven to kiss. Her hair shines golden under these lights, lit up like an angel. Her blue eyes are even more vivid tonight, watching me with so much hope and worry that I’m absolutely captivated by her.
“I’m already interested,” I say, my voice coming out low and hoarse. “Any man would be.”
A flicker of something comes across her eyes, something bright and joyous. Then it’s gone. “You’re just saying that because you’re Laz. What if you didn’t know me at all. Remember, the game?”
I swallow and busy myself with a sip of beer. “Right. Well, it’s hard for me to be objectionable here because right now, you’re asking how to keep a guy interested and I’m looking at you, darling, and thinking any man who isn’t captivated by what I’m looking at, isn’t worth your time.”