eyes.
“Let’s just hold each other,” he said.
I removed the dishes from the bed and stretched out next to him. He placed his left arm around my waist. “I think we’re exactly the same height,” I said.
“Tel me about yourself. Tel me about your family. I know your mother died in a car crash. What was she like?”
“Bossy, tough, warm, very a ectionate. Outspoken. She wasn’t afraid of anyone. And she liked deciding how things should be done. She was generous. She would do anything for anyone.”
“What did she do?”
“What did she do?”
“She was a pathologist.”
“And your father? What’s he like?”
“Quiet, principled, control ed. And smart. He sings in a choir, he used to be a chess champion, he’s interested in cryptography … He was disappointed that I didn’t finish high school. He thought I would go to university, get lots of degrees. What about you?”
“School, you mean? I fucked it up. I had a scholarship because of my high grades, I could have gone for free after I was discharged. But I was too messed up. And then it was too late.”
“Why too late?”
“It’s hard to go back to school if you wait too long.”
“What was it like, get ing drunk?”
“I don’t remember. It made me sick, most of the time. It’s very hazy now, that period … Tel me about the books you write.”
“Just junk romance. They’re al identical.”
“How did you get into it?”
“I found one of those books on the beach, some tourist must have left it there. And I took it home and read it and I thought, I can write that. So I wrote to the publisher, and they tried me out. Now they buy al my books. They’re ridiculous, the books, but no one cares, not the readers, not the publishers, and not me.”
“Can I see one?”
“I don’t have any, except on disk. I’ve never seen my novels in print, I asked them not to send me copies. I don’t own the copyright, I sel al the rights for a lump sum. I don’t even know what name they use.”
“Does it pay wel ?”
“Yes, that’s how I pay my mortgage and al my other expenses. I’ve even managed to put money away, so Daniel and I can take a trip when he comes back. A cruise, or a trip to Paris or Ireland. Wherever he wants to go. Just the two of us.”
“Read me something from one of them.”
I got up and turned on the computer, opened the most recent le, and read him a random passage. “From across the room Martha’s eyes pierced Angeline to the quick. Martha whispered to her sister, and they both marched out of the room, stil whispering. Angeline’s heart beat faster. What per dious machinations were they planning out there in the rose garden? Just then Pierre ran outside with a hurried gait. His footsteps clicked on the patio tiles and his velvet blue cloak blew in the wind.”
“Come back to bed.”
I returned to his arms.
“It’s sexy to hear you speak English. What are they planning, the sisters?”
“I can’t remember. I just make it up as I go along, and then I forget al about it. The plot doesn’t mat er, it doesn’t have to make much sense. The writing’s horrible too, but that’s because I don’t rewrite or edit. I used to, but then I realized it was a waste of time. No one cares if I say things like hurried gait or perfidious machinations.”
“Perfidious machinations—sounds like a car problem.”
“You have to use some hard words—it flat ers the reader. That’s one of the instructions we get.”
“Is Pierre the hero?”
“He’s the love interest. That’s what they’re cal ed.”
“Why is he wearing a cloak?”
“It’s a period novel. It takes place in the past. Horse carriages, cloaks, daggers, sweeping dresses.”
“Do you have to do research?”
“I had to learn the names of di erent types of swords and vehicles. Sometimes I watch movies for the visual details and I take notes. That’s about it.”
“What are the love scenes like?”
“It’s interesting. The writers get a list of words they should be using, and they’re not al owed to use any others. Wel , it’s changed over the years. We can use more words now, and we have to include more sex. We now have to have at least one actual intercourse scene, toward the end, on the night before the wedding. But we can only refer to thighs and breasts. We can’t say nipples. We can’t say between or spread or inside. It al has to be vague and implicit.”
