Free Mr. Love: A Romantic Comedy by Sally Mason

your life. Except me. I’m not in there, am I?”
    “No, you’re not.”
    “Why?”
    “Well, save for Suzie, all the characters in the book are people who wronged me in one way or another. Writing it was my bit of childish revenge on them.”
    He smiles at her.
    “You never wronged me, Bitsy. Ever. So take your absence as a compliment rather than a slight.”
    She seems mollified.
    “So?” he asks. “Are we going to do this thing?”
    “Yes,” she says. “I suppose we are.”
    “That’s the spirit,” Gordon says and relaxes back in his seat, watching the saw-toothed skyline of Manhattan rise into view.

18
     
     
     
     
    Jane, knocking at the door of Bitsy’s suite at The Pierre, is unsurprised when Gordon Rushworth answers.
    What does startle her, just a little, is that she’s pleased to see him.
    “Hello, Jane,” he says. “Don’t you have all kinds of posh book events to attend?”
    “Your sister’s my priority right now,” she says, following him into the suite.
    “Bitsy’s taking a bath,” Gordon says. “She has a thing about public transport and germs.”
    He yells out: “Bitsy, Jane’s here when you’re done delousing yourself !”
    Despite herself, Jane has to bite back a smile at his unchivalrous behavior.
    Gordon points to an armchair.
    “Please, sit. Can I get you a drink?”
    “I’d kill for a Heineken.”
    He crosses to the bar.
    “I wouldn’t have tipped you as a beer girl.”
    “For me beer’s the comfort food of booze.”
    “Don’t tell me: summer nights on the porch with dad?”
    He sees her face and laughs.
    “Oh, don’t worry, I lay no claims to psychic abilities. It’s an archetypically American tableaux, isn’t it? Almost Rockwellian.”
    Jane conjures him at the lectern, smugly talking down his students.
    He would not have been the professor they would have wanted to buddy up to.
    But, despite his priggishness—or maybe because of it—she finds him oddly attractive.
    Perhaps because he is the antithesis of her ex-fiancé, who had gone as Mr. Nice before his true nature had surfaced ?
    Watching Gordon pop the cap of a beer and pour it quite skillfully into a glass, with just the right amount of head, Jane scolds herself.
    He isn’t different.
    He’s also a liar.
    Remember that, Janey.
    Handing her the beer he seats himself opposite her and r aises his wine glass.
    “Cheers.”
    “Cheers.”
    Gordon says, “I’m pleased to have a moment alone with you, Jane.”
    “What’s on your mind?”
    “Well, I’m looking forward to your comments on the book, prior to it going to the publishers.”
    “I’d rather discuss that with Bitsy present, Gordon.”
    He laughs.
    “I’m talking about Too Long the Night , Jane.”
    “Are you serious?”
    “Never more so.”
    “Gordon, I understand you’re invested in your novel, but—how can I put this without being rude?”
    “Oh, speak, speak. I have a dartboard for a skin.”
    “Okay. This is hardly the time to talk about Too Long. ”
    “Please don’t call it that.”
    “What?”
    “ ‘Too Long.’ ”
    She laughs.
    “But it is.”
    He looks crestfallen.
    So much for the thick skin.
    You i diot , Jane!
    S he needs this man on her side.
    Jane scrambles to undo the damage.
    “Gordon, I’m just kidding. Too Long the Night is a huge book,” she says, somehow managing not to say a huge stinker of a book, “that deserves my full attention. You wouldn’t want me to rush through it, would you?”
    He shakes his head, seemingly placated.
    Jane says, “The next few days are all about Ivy. Then, I promise you, I will take the time to do a detailed reading of Too Long the Night and give you copious notes. Okay?”
    “I would appreciate that.”
    “Meanwhile, I need you to stay in the background, Gordon. Bitsy is going to be showcased. Yours is strictly a supporting role, do you understand?”
    “Perfectly. She’s Meryl Streep and I’m Kathy Bates.”
    Jane laughs and so does he.
    It’s the first time