Hi, Writers!
As promised, I’m posting chapter two from my contemporary romcom novel Making A Difference (M.A.D.). If you want it for free for my birthday, email to me about it by the 7th of December at pinartarhan@windowslive.com. If you want to buy it, you can buy it on Amazon (aff.link).
Missed chapter 2? It’s here.
Without further ado, here’s chapter 3:
CHAPTER 3
Present Day
Zoe and Colin loved staying in as much as dining out, so this time Zoe prepared an intimate picnic setting in her living room while Colin cooked one of his own recipes. Luckily for her, the man was an expert at whipping up delicious meals. If there was a gene that made you want to cook, she didn’t possess it.
As they settled on the woolen blanket on the floor, leaning against the leg of the sofa, Colin was still a little shocked. He was expecting Jay to offer her a decent position with grand benefits, but he so hadn’t seen this coming.
“Wow!” he said probably for the hundredth time that evening and took a big bite of his food.
“I thought you’d be over it by now.”
“But it’s so huge!”
“I know. It’s amazing.” Zoe sipped her drink.
“Amazing. Astonishing. Scary. Aren’t you a bit overwhelmed?”
“Are you kidding? Of course, I am. My head is about to explode with ideas.”
“Must’ve been one hell of an intern.”
“You had doubts?”
“Never.” He leaned in and gave her a kiss. “Although…I’m a bit worried about how much less time you’re going to have for me now.”
“Says the man who signed a three-book contract and is scheduled for book-signing all over the US and Canada.”
“Well-played.”
Zoe grinned and kissed him. Colin laid a trail of seductive kisses down her neck. The food was going to get cold, but so what?
*
Zoe started work the next day even though Martin and Jay had offered her more time. Transitioning from freelancing with one client to a full-time office job where she’d be co-running a busy firm was bound to create a culture shock for anyone, but Zoe wouldn’t hear of it. She was beyond ready. Besides, Martin’s wedding was approaching, and he needed to finish updating Zoe before he went on his honeymoon.
Plus, she had to redecorate Martin’s office. It was so blatantly male, minimalistic and chromium, it gave her the chills. Jay had already assigned a generous stipend. While he didn’t believe in spending more than he had to on clothes, he never held back when it came to optimizing the work environment and increasing productivity.
Zoe was mentally renovating when Keira dropped by.
“Welcome back,” Keira said enthusiastically.
Zoe smiled. “Thanks. Feels good to be back. And I love your hair!” She did. Keira had gone with a spiky cut and dyed it black. It surprisingly made her look more feminine and contrasted nicely with her pantsuit.
“Congratulations on the book! Loved it. And love your boyfriend! Cute and brilliant.” Keira suspected Jay would grimace at Colin being described as “cute” and “brilliant.” He believed Colin was overrated, though Jay would probably deem Zoe’s boyfriend not good enough even if she were dating Hugh Jackman. She suppressed the urge to mention this in front of Zoe.
“I’ve missed you, Keira.” The girls exchanged a short hug.
“You’ll so liven up things around here,” Keira said.
“Are you implying working with Martin and me was boring?” Jay had chosen that moment to appear.
Keira grinned. “Would I ever? But there is exciting. Then there’s exciting and a damn good time!”
Jay was too used to Keira’s teasing to even roll his eyes. He turned to Zoe. “You are indeed more fun than Martin and me combined on a given day, but she really shouldn’t rub that in.”
Keira winked at him and left with the usual skip in her step.
“So when are you going furniture-hunting?”
“Already took care of it. Everything will be here by the afternoon.” Jay looked at her quizzically. “What? Like you didn’t know I’d go shopping right after I said yes. So, now that we’ve established I’m set, let’s get to it, Clark.”
Jay smiled, and they went into his office to begin with the non-financial stuff, aka the stuff they could get done without Martin.
And it was just as fun as they remembered. They knew exactly how the other one’s mind worked, and this made the process so much faster, not to mention more fun. Zoe thought about the first time they’d worked together.
*
Five Years Ago
It was early in the morning, right after the business commuters and students with early classes had left. The medium-sized coffee shop had only a bunch of people in it now.
Zoe occupied her favorite corner table by the window, typing away happily on her laptop, remembering to sip her coffee before it turned cold and mouthing the lyrics to the Elvis Presley version of Fever playing in the background.
She didn’t notice Jay come in and walk to the bar. The song made him wish he was at a blues bar or a dance hall. Put on the right song, place him on the dance floor with a partner who could dance, or at least follow, and well… he knew how to have a good time. He’d inherited his knack for dancing also from Faye.
As he waited for his order of a double espresso with little sugar, he scanned the room, and he was pleased to see Zoe on her own, singing Fever. The girl had the guts, the motivation and the plans to take on the world. And evidently, she had decent taste in music too. He smiled to himself, grabbed his coffee and strolled over to her table.
Zoe looked up to see Jay coming toward her and smiled. She didn’t really care if she looked silly lip-singing. She adored the song, and she wasn’t going to feel embarrassed for being caught in the moment. Besides, it was one of her good-hair, good-skin days. There was nothing wrong with wanting to look presentable in front of a teacher. OK, maybe it was a little about how attractive Jay was. Wanting to attract people you considered attractive was only natural, right?
Jay wasn’t the first good-looking teacher she knew. However, he was the only good-looking teacher with his brains, motives and success. Moreover, despite all that, he wasn’t smug. She marveled at how easy it was to chat with him. To be around him.
“Just to go? This place is great for chilling out,” Zoe commented on his plastic cup.
“So it would seem. This is a new place, right? Most coffee shops are just too loud and badly decorated to enjoy your coffee indoors. Not to mention the horrible stuff they try to pass for music.”
“This is better than a library if you know the hours to avoid. And they have decent taste. So you might want to take in the atmosphere.”
Jay took the hint and sat in the armchair across her, putting his coffee on the table. “What’re you doing here so early anyway?” he asked.
“Developing a project proposal. You?”
“I have a meeting with the dean,” Jay answered. “We’ve been working on this project together to provide a wider range of scholarships for underprivileged kids.”
“That sounds great.”
“It’s something we’ve both been meaning to do. What’s your project about?”
“A development program proposal to get free tutoring for dyslexic school kids so they can keep up with their classmates. They’ll also engage in fun confidence and skill-building activities. Once I’m done, I’ll pitch to companies with corporate responsibility projects in education.”
The project was right up Clark & Foster’s alley, but she wasn’t going to pitch to her teacher. She was afraid it would look like she was only after scoring a good grade. Yes, she wanted an A. But she hadn’t been building connections and researching like crazy for the past few months to solely to maintain her GPA. Besides, her work was solid enough to sell itself.
“Why don’t you e-mail it to me when you are done?”
“Really?”
“If it’s feasible, I’ll try to squeeze it in with our current schedule. If not, I’ll get you in touch with companies that would kill for this kind of stuff.”
“Thanks, Jay. I really appreciate it.”
“Is this for a class?”
“It’s for me. Well, it is for the kids. I don’t have an awful lot of money to donate, and I’m good at creating stuff…And at the expense of sounding superficial, I’ve to admit it beats individual volunteer work. Most projects just have a better chance of making an impact when they are funded by a corporation that can hire experts.”
“That doesn’t sound superficial. It sounds viable. It also sounds like me.”
“I might as well deserve to be in your class.”
“I like your idealism. Balancing the fun with your conscience…I have a tendency to forget about fun.”
“I’m not capable of that. But I can’t turn off the second part either, the part about wanting to improve things. That’s your fault.” She beamed at him, and he returned the smile. She continued, “People always feel obliged to take some action only when something bad happens to them personally. I mean you are helping people fight diseases, poverty, traumatic experiences… But you basically never had any drama in your life.”
“Well, my dad’s an idiot. That ought to count for some trauma.” They both laughed.
Jay’s father was a conservative who had run for the Senate and won. He was anti-choice, anti-gay, pro-war, and Jay couldn’t believe they were related. He theorized Faye had dropped the guy on his head when he was a baby or something. Since his parents were on the same page, growing up would have been a nightmare without Faye around.
Jay glanced at his watch and jumped to his feet. “I just remembered why I took the coffee to go. Don’t forget to e-mail me the final version.”
“Will do. Thanks again.”
“Hope your zeal rubs off on the rest of my class.” He downed the rest of his coffee and headed for the exit. So what if he showed up a little late? He rarely found the time to relax and embrace the moment. It was a delightful change of pace.
*
Five Years Ago
NYU campus
Two days after they had run into each other at the coffee shop, Zoe was resting on a bench, reading Dan Brown’s Deception Point.
“How’s Brown treating you?” Jay said, walking toward her. He had caught sight of her on his way to his office on the campus.
She looked up. “I love my mainstream thriller.”
Jay sat down beside her. “I love any book I can’t put down, so I have a weakness for Brown too.”
“What’s your favorite?”
“Hate to be a cliché but it’s The Da Vinci Code.” Not a literary snob either, thought Zoe. Jay Clark was officially her favorite teacher.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you –”
“Did I have a chance to read your proposal?” he cut in. Zoe nodded with anticipation. “I e-mailed you ten minutes ago.” Jay smiled.
The suspense was killing Zoe. “So, what did you think?”
“Faye told me she could give you a hand if you needed.”
“You showed this to Faye Clark? And she liked it?”
“She was impressed by the effort and heart of it. Martin has some suggestions on funding, but basically, you did one hell of a job.”
Zoe needed to get into the nearest closed space to dance around. She wouldn’t be able to get back to normal unless she got the excitement out of her system. Dancing was her favorite way of calming down. And celebrating.
“Thank you,” she managed, her veins abuzz with excitement.
“I’m not done. We want to see if you can pull off organizing the whole thing for real.”
“You want me to actually do this? With your resources?”
“And if you succeed, Clark and Foster will be more than happy to offer you an internship. What do you think?”
“I think I’ll get to work on it right away.”
“Let’s meet in my campus office. You have any classes after four?” She shook her head. “It’s settled then. Martin will also be there to talk the details through.”
She nodded. Jay got up and walked out.
She was delighted. Landing an internship with Clark and Foster was extremely hard. Unlike most companies that hired and discarded interns, and treated them like low-lives that were barely smart enough to serve coffee and paid them ridiculously little (if they paid at all), Clark and Foster treated them as one of their permanent staff. They were respected, fairly compensated, looked after and given opportunities. In return, they were expected to pour themselves 100% into the company.
You didn’t intern at Clark & Foster to fill a month. You interned there to prove yourself worthy of a career there. They only hired the smartest, most dedicated and emotionally invested people. She’d better not screw this up.
*
