Free 0215543001348293036 vaughn piper oshea m.j. by one small thing Page B

feelings, and I really didn’t want that. But right then there was writing to be done.
    Since Dusty had picked Alice up a couple of hours earlier than usual, I had a bit more time than I normally would. It didn’t make sense to waste it.

    TWO hours later I’d put three thousand words on my manuscript, and was in the middle of heating up a bowl of ramen in the microwave
    [54]

    one small thing

    when my telephone rang. A quick glance at the screen confirmed it was my agent calling. Oh, no…. My stomach instantly seized up. Please let it be about a contract. I can’t take any more rejections.
    I pressed the “talk” button and lifted the phone to my ear. “Hi, B-Bill. How are you?”
    “Hey, Erik! Good, good, and you?” Bill sounded as brutally cheerful as ever. The problem with him was it always rang false. I’d never doubted Dusty’s sincerity or his sunny personality. With Bill I knew it was just an act. But he’d been my agent since I was twenty-two, and five years was more than long enough for me to get used to his hollow geniality. He did his job, and that was what mattered.
    Besides, the idea of breaking our contract and trying to query a new agent was too daunting to consider.
    “Fine.” I swallowed thickly. “Any word?”
    “Yeah, see, here’s the thing,” Bill answered in that same excessively happy tone. “It’s not an outright rejection. When your editor at Triton took a pass, she steered me toward Anchor, their new ebook division. They just got back to me today, and they said they’re interested in Enemy Mine , but there’s a catch….” I blinked. “A catch?”
    “Yep. See, they really liked the relationship between the two MCs, but the only way they’d consider publishing it is if you turned their bromance into a romance .”
    “R-romance?” I squeaked, my voice several octaves higher than usual.
    “Yeah, you know. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, have some sex, live happily ever after. That whole thing. Except in this case it would be boy meets boy.”
    “B-boy meets boy?” I repeated in horror. My eyes felt ready to pop out of my head. “ Sex ?”
    “Look, Erik, I know your books are usually smut-free, and typically that’s fine. But in this case they’re looking for erotic romance.
    There would need to be at least one major sex scene.”
    [55]

    Piper Vaughn & M.J. O’Shea

    “B-b-but—”
    “There are no buts,” Bill interrupted. “Male/male romance is their best-selling sub-genre. If you want in with them, you have to change the book.”
    “Well, maybe we should t-try somewhere else.”
    “We have tried, Erik. The sci-fi genre is flooded right now, and your books just aren’t selling as well as they used to. This might be your last shot before you have to start thinking about self-publishing.” I gave my head an adamant shake. Then I remembered he couldn’t see me. “O-oh, no, I really don’t want to do that.”
    “So then maybe you need to think about giving this a shot,” Bill said happily. I’d noticed that his tone hadn’t changed in the slightest as we’d discussed the potential downfall of my writing career. “But this needs to be a full-fledged romance. Bottom line? Sex sells, and it’s what they want.”
    “But I’ve never—”
    “I know. So, here’s what I can do. I’m going to send you a few of the popular books in the genre. You read them over and think about it, okay? But if you want my advice, don’t sit on this too long. They’re interested right now, but who knows if they’ll feel the same way in six months.”
    “Okay. Th-thanks, Bill.”
    “No problem. Keep an eye on your e-mail, okay? I gotta jet, but I’ll be in touch. Let me know what you decide.”
    “Will do.”
    “Take it easy, kid.”
    Bill hung up before I could say anything in response. For a long time after I stared down at my phone’s dark screen. Write a romance.
    Me? I’d never even considered it before. There were romantic relationships in my books, of