Chapter 32: Chapter 32
Chapter 31: Epilogue
“If you were ever given a chance to date any one of your characters, which one would it be?”
“Any gender?” I laughed. “Then I’ll definitely choose Mia Weller!”
“Mrs. Akira Whitmore,” another reporter called out. “Why did you choose Mia Weller as your preferred date? Any particular reason?”
“Umm… yes, actually,” I answered truthfully, tucking a strand of red hair behind my ear. “I feel that Mia and I have a lot in common, personality wise we’re the same, reserved at first but when we make friends, we’ll do anything for them. We have similar tastes in men, too, handsome and the alpha kind.”
“Is that why most of your male leads are blond?” A girl of about sixteen or seventeen years old asked from the audience, a knowing grin stretched across her face.
“Absolutely!” I laughed. “I tried, I honestly did, but I can’t for the life of me, find someone who’s as handsome as my husband! You can’t blame me for being partial, I’m sure most of you guys here will agree with me, for those in a relationship, no one is prettier than or more handsome than your husbands and boyfriends… or girlfriends and wives! Yes, I see you boys over there!” I pointed at the group of teens at the back, standing by the entrance, waving at me.
Laughter and giggles followed my answer to the questions. It was safe to say that the book signing event for my new release Heated Denials at Bridgewater Library, Yellowstone was a great success with over three hundred people showing up to get the authors signed edition. To say that my arms were about to fall off was an understatement.
“Alright everyone, it’s time for a break. Mrs. Whitmore will be back in a few moments while you collect your very own signed copies of Heated Denials.” My manager, Cindy Heathwell announced to be followed by cheers and a few whistles.
I got out of my seat and was escorted to the library’s reading room where a small section had been cleared and furnished to act as my resting room.
“Well, today seems to be a success, but why the frown?” Cindy asked as soon as we were out of camera shot.
“Ethan hasn’t called yet,” I showed her my phone, which had no missed call and message records. “He was supposed to be back by now, he told me he’ll be taking the 2:30 p.m. flight from Clearwater and head here straight after landing, but it’s 8:30 and I’m worried.”
“Don’t worry, he’ll be here. Maybe the flight got delayed or canceled.” Cindy reassured me. She was probably right.
After a few minutes into the break I was joined by Ethan’s friend Dylan and his wife, Ethan’s sister, Ember and also my childhood best friend, Nick D’Sena with his fiancée, Caroline Turner, and my sister, Eve and her husband, Luke Davis. They kept me occupied with stories of their own travel and Nick’s upcoming wedding. It helped distract me for some time. Refreshments were served and we all had a good time but I kept on checking my phone every two minutes. We are all supposed to head to the Wild West Pizzeria and Saloon for a get-together and celebrate the release of my fifth novel, which got selected for the RITA awards this year. Only if Ethan shows up on time…
About twenty minutes later, it was time to get back to the interview. I had just gotten out of my chair when my phone rang with Ethan’s special caller tune, Hunger by Ross Copperman.
“Where are you?” I snapped, relieved that he’s alright but angry that he’d made me worry. “I’ve been worried sick here and everyone’s already arrived.”
“Hello to you, too, sweetheart.” I could imagine his smirk from right here. “Don’t worry, I’m on my way. Be there in another five minutes or so. And before you blame me for being late, Erick didn’t want me to leave, so I had to explain to him that mummy’s going on a country tour for her book signing and daddy has to go on a college excursion with his college students so there won’t be anyone to look after him. He finally agreed when your mom promised to bake him chocolate cake every two days.”
“Cake again?” I whined. “I love mom’s cakes! I wish I could be there instead of him.” I pouted.
“She promised to make us some when we go back to get Erick and since your nephew is there, too. I doubt he’ll have a hard time,” Ethan promised. “Now, back to work, young lady. I’ll see you in a bit. Love you.”
“Love you, too. Bye.” I hung up and walked back to the podium to finish off the rest of the interview, this time with a real smile on my face. Now that I heard Ethan’s voice, I was back in action with extra energy.
“Mrs. Whitmore, tell us something about your new book, a little… a sneak peak, if you will?” A blond journalist asked from my right.
“Well…” I leaned back in my chair. “…I’m very sure a lot of you guys out here must have already gone through a few pages, even read the last chapter by now, which is fine. I mean, really, it’s what I do when I get a hold of a book that I’ve waited for a long time, but like the title suggests, it’s about a couple, Mia Weller and Jason Thomas, who have been in love with each other for ages, right from their childhood, but have never been able to say it out loud since their families are rivals. Then they get separated for a long time and meet again when they are at the prime of their youth. So now it’s about will they finally be able to be together or keep denying their feelings for the sake of their families. I’m afraid that’s all I can say for now. You’ll have to go through the whole story to find out. No spoilers, I wouldn’t want to ruin the fun.”
“Of course, everyone here is dying to read the whole story right now!” Came a voice from the audience.
“Akira, we’ve noticed that the sex scenes in your novel are very detailed and quite extraordinary. You have the power to make the audience feel what the characters are feeling. My question is that how do you write it?” Someone asked from the back of the room.
“Well, first of all, in a romance novel, there isn’t a sex scene, it’s a love scene. And I like to go into a lot of detail, both physical and emotion wise, because I feel that the intensity of a love scene, it brings out exactly what the characters feel for each other, it shows the depth of their love, helps strengthen a relationship. Basically that’s what love scenes are for, to help the progression of the relationship between the lead characters,” I explained. Got some thoughtful looks and nods of acceptance in return.
“Mrs. Akira Whitmore, do you feel that writing a story about oneself is better than writing about an imaginary character?” Another tough question.
“Well, um… I feel like it’s personal preference, but truth be told, every writer has, at least once in their lifetime, written at least one story that has significant references or connections to their own life. I won’t lie, I have, too. In fact one of my stories are based entirely on my early life.” I answered truthfully, as best as I could.
“You mean… it’s an exact copy? Truly your life story?” Asked another.
“Well, no one’s going to write everything that precisely, there are several… major changes that I’ve made to make the story spicy… and also to keep my mom from throwing me out of the house,” I said that on purpose, so people didn’t find out the truth. And the added humor brought out the smiles. “So, yeah, it still did have a few major events in my life.”
“Which story is it, ma’am?” Someone asked from the crowd.
“It’s actually the very first story that I wrote…” at that exact moment, I saw a disturbance at the entrance and my gaze flickered there to meet the eyes of the most handsome man I’d ever met in my life, his blond hair spiked up at front because of running his hands through them numerous times, eyes going emerald as soon as they met my blue ones, and then I answered the rest of my question with complete honesty, never breaking eye contact with the only person I had ever loved, my husband.
“Virgin Erotica.”