The Big "O": A Romantic Comedy Read Free Page B

barely raised eyebrows seem to ask. Emily struggled to replay his last words in his mind. Honestly, she had no clue what he'd been saying.
    “We'll slowly but steadily move back up…” Emily replied, “Yeah, book sales dropped. It's the nature of the beast. Ongoing marketing is required. Slow but steady wins the race.” What she didn’t go into in great detail, was that she was sick of it. As she insisted at every meeting that the two of them had, as she had repeatedly told him over and over again, ad nauseam, the two of them had to do something to get some positive press. And they needed to finish their second book and market and on and on and on.
    Tonight, if they had been able to pull it off, an appearance on The Late, Late Show would have been a huge boost for them and their business.
    She knew that Max was panicking and caught up in a fear spiral about what would happen if their book sales continued to drop and they couldn’t get any new consulting clients.
    Their current clients were happy but every gig comes to an end and most of their gigs were three months to two years in length. Being in business for oneself seemed to involve near-constant marketing.
    They needed book sales from their existing book, or to finish their new book and see some kind of amazing out-of-the-gate sales; or get some kind of angel investor or a new project going. Something had to happen and fast, or they could lose it all. Emily knew that the stress of the mortgage and panic about too much month at the end of the money, a regular concern for them, made Max freak out almost constantly.
    “I hope so, otherwise they may not publish our second book,” Max said.
    Max glared at her as she snapped just a little. Emily was so exhausted.
    Not for the first time in the last two years had she felt a little delirious with fatigue. She almost laughed at Max’s words and the way he looked just then. His hair was all wild.
    He was strutting around their semi-dark bedroom like a tall blonde American Napoleon. It seemed really comical at first. But then when he frowned and grunted at her, as if she were the entire problem, as if it were all her responsibility and fault, as if it made sense for him to hold her hostage, in their bedroom, talking to her for hours and hours after midnight, when she desperately needed to sleep, for her health and peace of mind.
    It was as if a switch had flipped inside of her in an instant. She felt a burst of rage.
    “I said I'm working on it!” Emily almost yelled, “and there's nothing I can do tonight... I've got to get some sleep right now.”
    She stared at the bedside lamp and thought about switching it off and letting Max prance around their bedroom in the dark.
    She almost groaned when she remembered that they were having guests the following night. Being self-employed, it was like they didn't have weekends. One day slid into the next, they were really financially stable enough to take days off.
    “We've got a mortgage now, and preschool deposits and payments to think of soon… it better happen sooner rather than later,” he finally added defensively, as if she didn’t already know all of that, as if his nagging and finger-pointing were somehow justified.
    Then the baby really did begin to cry and as Max got into bed, obviously without even considering going to get their son himself, Emily felt just the tiniest bit of hatred for her insensitive and selfish husband.
    She then sighed, got up, and hurried out of the room.

Chapter 4
    V ICTOR, MAX AND EDWIN manned the Bar-B-Q in Max and Emily’s green backyard. It was early evening, still light outside but no longer hot.
    Victor, seriously depressed, wore a Green Star Maddox hoodie, flip flops and shorts. He and Edwin watched Max man the grill. Victor shook the ice cubes in his drink and fretted and gazed over at the small patio and back door which led into the house.
    “What happened? I looked for you two on the Scottish Conan Guy's show,” Edwin said to