On Paper Read Online Free Page A

when I was in all of the crazy. I think he was just in it to travel and get laid, but it was fine. I guess in a way I was too.
    "You should get ready too. We're supposed to be downstairs in like twenty minutes," Miles suggested as he grabbed a beer from the fridge and then moved back towards his bedroom.
    I wasn't in any hurry. I'd get there eventually.
    "Did you see that girl who asked the question at the end of the panel today?" Miles yelled out from his room. That caught my attention. I waited for him to continue. I felt my pulse thrum as it picked up speed, which was ridiculous.
    "She was hot. I wonder if she'll be at the thing tonight. I'm calling it. Stay away from her."
    Shit. He said the girl who asked the question, right? I'd been so focused on the girl sitting next to her that I couldn't picture her. "Which one was she?" I asked. I ignored the way my voice sounded, coming out gruff and tense.
    Miles came out fully dressed this time. "Are you really wearing a tie?" I asked, suddenly annoyed at the thought that he may have just lain claim to the girl who had been invading my thoughts all day.
    "Shut up, jackass. You’re supposed to dress up. Didn't you read the agenda?"
    "Whatever. Which girl are you talking about?" I asked again.
    "Oh. The brunette. She asked if you got turned on writing sex scenes," he said. I felt the air whoosh from my lungs. Instant relief. I pushed up from the couch suddenly feeling much better about the evening ahead.
    "Oh yeah, she was cute. Might be a little too much for an amateur like you to handle though," I teased.
    "Fuck you," he shot back.
    I laughed and started towards my room to find something to wear. If Miles was going to scope out dark and twisty then I was going with him. I had a feeling Book Nerd would be with her and I wasn’t willing to watch her walk away a second time.
     

     
    WE WALKED INTO the ballroom from the back entrance, so nobody really saw us. The organizers were trying something new and had given us each a table around the outskirts of the party so that we were accessible, but separated. Like zoo animals. I hated it. Tables were meant for signings. I wanted to mingle and talk to people. Wasn’t that the whole point of these things? I knew eventually I'd end up on the dance floor with everyone else. That’s when the real fun began. I loved getting to know all of the readers and attendees. It amazed me how invested they would become in the things that they read. The writer in me loved that. I loved that I could write something that made another person feel something. So it happened to make them feel hot and bothered and bang their husbands. Everyone was still a winner.
    The only time I got uncomfortable was when they would go on and on about how amazing it was that I wrote about love and how beautiful it was. They were convinced that I was dreaming about fairytales right along with them. It took all I had sometimes not to tell them the truth. I just didn’t believe that love like that lived in the real world. Not anymore. But what good would that do? If they didn't believe in love they wouldn't believe in me or the words I put out there. So I let them keep their fantasy. But I didn't believe in it. I never would.
    Miles took the box of books that we'd brought down with us and started placing them on the table. I watched the crowds as they started to trickle in. There was a DJ and the music was pumping loudly through the speakers. The lights were dimmed, the room lit only with strategically placed twinkle lights and the pulsating colors on the dance floor.
    "I only brought a few copies of End Game. I didn't know if you wanted to give any away," Miles said holding up a copy of my new book. It was the final installment to my series and wasn't set to release for another month.
    "I don't know. We'll see. Just keep them in the box for now," I said, distractedly scanning the crowd for dark caramel waves.
    "There she is," Miles said, standing straight beside me and