Free Night Games by Nina Bangs

toward the door. Two large round yellow eyes stared back at her through the steam.
    Brian nodded. “I’ll talk to her.”
    In the bright light of logic, Ally felt foolish.She’d let his tale get to her, grow in her mind to gigantic proportions. The Old One wasn’t going to rip out her throat and leave her lifeless body sprawled in the hall. Ally glanced again at the cold yellow eyes glaring at her. Okay, she’d admit the possibility existed.
    â€œFine. Talk to her.” Smiling weakly, she turned to make her escape.
    â€œHi, everyone. Any hot water left?” Katy pushed past the Old One, skirted Ally, and came to a halt in front of Brian. “You are one fine-looking man. Don’t know why you bother with that towel. Breaks up the flow. Don’t you think it breaks up the flow, Ally?”
    â€œSure. Breaks up the flow.” Brian was on his own. She was outta here. With as much dignity as she could muster, Ally squelched out of the bathroom in her soggy shoes and back to the relative safety of her room.
    She could hear the phone ringing even through the closed door. Now what? Flinging open the door, she didn’t even take time to shut it as she raced to get the phone before it could stop ringing.
    â€œYes?” Ally collapsed onto an old overstuffed chair.
    â€œMavis, sweetie. Got the word from your editor today. She likes the coping-with-single-life premise. Your readers will be dying to know how you’re handling single life.”
    Why did Ally sense a “but” in there somewhere?
    â€œBunch of voyeurs, really,” Mavis offered as an aside. “Anyway, she feels the book needs something more, a hook.”
    â€œHook?” The total collapse of her marriage wasn’t a hook? What else did she need?
    â€œEver had a one-night stand, Ally?” Mavis’s voice sounded noncommittal.
    Ally knew where her agent was going and immediately went into defensive mode. “No. I had a few long-term relationships, but I didn’t do one-nighters. That doesn’t have to be part of single life. There’re a lot more meaningful—”
    â€œWe can talk about your experience later. There’s something else we have to discuss.”
    Ally tensed. Mavis had shifted into her this-is-about-your-career voice.
    â€œYour editor says your proposal’s been done to death. Yes, you have a following, but they’re not going to follow you into your single lifestyle unless you make it unique and sexy. And the word ‘perfect’ has to be in the title. It’s about the expectations your readership has built up.”
    â€œNothing about my marriage was ‘perfect.’ ”
    â€œWrong.
You
were the perfect wife, but Dave wasn’t the perfect husband. The world sympathizes with you, sweetie. And your editor feels you can turn that sympathy into huge sales. She wants us to go with
The Perfect Wife in Search of the Perfect Husband
for the new series. And since sexual compatibility is part of finding the perfect husband, as well as being extremely marketable, she wants your first book in the new series to beabout finding a man who’s sexually compatible with you.”
    â€œSo what she wants is Martha Stewart meets
Sex in the City
.”
    Mavis chuckled. “Guess that sums it up.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œLook, you don’t have to go from man to man. Just try it once then write about it.” Mavis’s voice had turned wheedling.
    â€œHow about not trying it at all and writing about it from other people’s experiences?”
    â€œUh-uh. The power of your writing is the emotional truth you bring to it. You lived being the perfect wife, and readers picked up on the truth of what you were saying. They believed you. You can’t fake it, Ally.” Pregnant pause. “Your publisher doesn’t want your original proposal, sweetie, and I agree with your editor on this. Women will empathize with what