Chronicles of a Serial Dater - Book 4: A New Adult Romantic Comedy Read Free Page A

where exactly?”
    “Maybe the jungle capture?”
    “Maybe…” I trailed off. I tapped the pen against my mouth thoughtfully, running through the different scenes in the book.
    “What about your first jump?”
    Clint cocked his head to the side as he considered it. “You think that’s more exciting than being kidnapped by rebels in the jungle?”
    “I love that your life is so insane you can legitimately ask that question without it being ironic,” I chuckled. “The jungle thing could grab their attention, but I have a different idea.”
    “Show me that beautiful mind,” he replied in his incredible accent.
    I looked away to keep from blushing. “Picture this. It starts with you sitting in the plane as you’re ascending for your first jump. You’re nervous but excited, fearful but confident in your training. You describe everything up until the point you jump out and the scene ends. We jump to a point when you’re a kid, a story about you and your father.”
    Clint frowned, a few lines appearing at the corners of his sea-green eyes. “Okay…”
    “When that section ends, we go back to you on the brink of jumping. All the thoughts and feelings swirling around you. You describe what it’s like to take a step into nothingness. Maybe you look around at all your friends falling through the air and the scene ends. We cut to a point in your teenage years…”
    “Isn’t this going to get confusing for the reader? You told me it needed to be a narrative. What you’re describing is like a Tarantino film.
    “It only goes on until you touch the ground. The whole thing symbolizes your jump into adulthood. That first skydive can be a metaphor for you shedding your childhood and embarking on a life of your own choosing.”
    Clint held my eye for a moment before dropping his gaze to the notepad in front of us. I bit my tongue as he thought it through and in that second of calm, my mind immediately slipped back into worrying about Anette and Zach.
    I’ve never fought with her before, not like this. What if there’s no coming back from here?
    Clint slapped a hand on the arm of his chair making me jump. “Yes! Good. I get it.”
    I tried to cover my startled reaction with a broad smile, even though my heart threatened to thump out of my throat. “Great.”
    He snatched a marker off the table and flew to the whiteboard. “With that idea in mind, what if we arrange…”
    I drifted off again.
    I wonder if she’s even thinking twice about it. She probably thinks she’s completely blameless in all this.
    “Talia.” I blinked up to Clint who was looking concerned rather than irritated. “What’s up with you? You get pissed last night?”
    I squinted at him, startled that he was reading my mind. “How did you know I had a fight?”
    He shook his head with a laugh as he sat in a chair beside me. “Sorry. Pissed, as in drunk. You seem hungover and out of it.”
    “Ah, no. Definitely not hungover,” I replied, my eyes falling to his hands.
    One of the side-effects of sleeping with Zach was that it’d awoken some deeply concealed lust. I’d gone into a sexual hibernation for a few months, but now… everything turned me on. I studied the way a man’s hips moved as he walked down the street, imagining how well he’d use them in bed. Watching a man talk only made me think about his lips. Everywhere I looked I saw sexual things.
    And Clint’s hands were pure fantasy. All the action and adventure he’d seen in his life, the idea of him touching me with those same hands…
    “You’re doing it again,” he said, dipping his head to catch my eye. “What is up with you?”
    “I’m sorry. Really. I got into a fight with my roommate last night and it’s all gone to hell. I’m sorry I’m letting it affect me here. Please, let’s carry on.”
    Clint didn’t move. “Is this… Annie?”
    “Close, Anette,” I smiled, surprised he’d remembered that much.
    “And I take it you two don’t row much?” I frowned