Free Incapable (Love Triumphs Book 3) by Ainslie Paton Page A

put the effort into it.” He shook his head and Lauren said, “Well, you know what I mean.”
    “Whatever happened to liking a person for who they are?”
    “You would say that, it’s not like you have a choice, but for the rest of us it doesn’t work that way. It’s all about how you look. If you’re fugly you don’t stand a chance.”
    He stood. “God, Lauren, you really think that’s how it works?”
    “I don’t think it, babe. I know it. Sure, after you’ve hooked up, it’s about the person, if they’re, like, nice to you or a psycho, but you’re not going to get that far if you don’t look right.”
    The click of the intercom and Georgia’s voice. “I’m ready to get started again.”
    He held a hand up. “One minute, Georgia.” He looked towards Lauren. “It has to be about more than that, you know that don’t you?”
    The door swooshed as she opened it. “I only know what I see, and I see if I put on weight, even a little, I get less attention, which means fewer men want to talk to me, which means less dates, less chance to find my Mr Right. I guess if everyone was blind it would be different.” She sighed. “Lunch will be in the lounge.” The door shut and he was alone with the echo of Lauren’s definition of sexual politics.
    “Jesus, Georgia, you heard all that?”
    “I did.”
    There was a pause. He imagined Lauren crossing the control booth and going to reception.
    “Lauren is very beautiful. She has a heart-shaped face, flawless skin, great figure. All the men here are in love with her, half the clients.”
    He gave the lectern a shake. “But she thinks that’s all she’s worth. That’s just wrong. Goddamn, maybe more people should be blind.”
    There was nothing from the control room and he felt around for his earpiece in frustration.
    “Can you still see the colour blue?”
    He looked up and out towards Georgia. Her first question that wasn’t about work or forced out by his plucking at her. “Not anymore. But I’m lucky I know what blue is, what it feels like.”
    “What does it feel like?”
    “Like the freedom of a summer sky, wide open and full of endless possibilities. Like the drama of midnight; that blue when the stars come out, before night completely falls. It’s the understated glamour of a magnificent car or an extraordinary woman’s dress. Blue is depth and strength. It’s sturdy and reliable without being boring.”
    “You don’t associate it with being down, depressed?”
    “The blues.” Were they actually having a conversation? What could he say to prolong it? “Not at all.”
    “We should get started.”
    At the end of that block, she asked him to re-read a few passages and then he let himself out of the booth to have lunch. She didn’t come to the lounge to eat with him. Trent and a couple of the other engineers did. He ended up doing their favourite lines from movies, though he absolutely refused to do Vox, and for his pain he was treated to the worst impressions.
    “Spew spawn and raging blue thunder,” said Trent. “You can shred me, but I plan to be alive when the darkness comes.”
    “Annoyingly alive,” Naveen corrected Trent, laughing, and Trent did the line again. He sounded about as much like Vox as a packet of corn flakes.
    “Watch me go intergalactic on your ass.”
    “More testosterone, Franca,” he coached.
    Franca tried again, lowering her voice and got back slapped, for her efforts.
    Then it was Trent. “Pull up or prepare for pain to sizzle your gizzards.”
    He laughed. He’d had trouble with that line, the sibilance of the esses and zeds. He’d had to run it over and over to get it right. At least these guys weren’t doing the love scene lines. There was only so much public humiliation a bloke could take.
    Lauren looking for Naveen, who couldn’t do a passable Indian accent to save himself, another cause for hysterics, broke the group up. Damon sat on waiting for Georgia, thinking about the set list for Saturday