Total pages in book: 244
Estimated words: 236705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1184(@200wpm)___ 947(@250wpm)___ 789(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1184(@200wpm)___ 947(@250wpm)___ 789(@300wpm)
Then I follow with a second note.
TJ: If you’re very good, I’ll let you blow me after. Sixty-nine if you beat me like you did in pinball, you secret pinball wizard.
Jude: Fuck me. The shoot is running late. Can you please be naked and covered in sushi when I return later? Like, on a table and all. I don’t even require chopsticks.
TJ: Mark that down with things that will never happen. (Me covered in sushi, not me fucking you. The latter is of the name-the-time-and-place variety.)
Jude: Someday, you’ll be my sushi feast. But for now, can I trouble you to order me some yellowtail rolls for takeout? Wait. Nope. Fuck me again. I mean yellowtail and edamame. Do not tempt me with rice. Seriously. Promise me you will never bring rice near me. I might want rice more than your cock at the end of a long day.
TJ: You said, “fuck me twice.” What I hear is you want double-sex tonight. Got it.
Jude: At last! He gets my order right! Yellowtail and a long cock!
But when nine p.m. rolls around with no sign of Jude, it’s clear neither sushi nor dick is on the menu for him tonight. His next note comes with a crying eggplant emoji.
Jude: I hate everyone. Hollywood time is a bigger lie than It must have gone to my spam folder.
TJ: Or Your hair looks nice?
Jude: Wait, are you saying you don’t like my hair?
TJ: I like your hair all the time, especially when my fingers are tugging on it and your lips are on my dick.
Jude: It’s sooooo late. I’m hallucinating about eating white rice off your dick. Send help soon.
TJ: Fine, fine. I’ll be covered in yellowtail when you return.
Mason sends me a term sheet a little later, and it still seems too good to be true, so I go to bed.
It’ll be there in the morning to sign, after all. Then, I can try again to share my news with Jude, maybe invite him to go to Amsterdam with me, and then finally ask him to be my top-notch boyfriend.
39
SHOW AND TELL
Jude
Lucky me. After a long day shooting a cologne commercial, I get to come home to fresh yellowtail in the fridge and an American hunk in my bed.
Fine, he’s not covered in pancakes, or rice, or bread. But TJ still looks good enough to eat, even sound asleep.
I’m quiet as I brush my teeth, shed my clothes, and pad to the bed. If he happens to wake up, though, I won’t complain. I’ll reward him.
After I slide under the covers, I snuggle against this warm man.
“Hey,” he murmurs.
“Hey, you,” I whisper.
I wait to see if he’ll wake up. He’s quiet for several long seconds, then he slurs, “How was your day?”
“Good. Yours?”
More silence. “Good. Meeting. Stuff.”
I laugh to myself. Press a kiss to his shoulder. “See you in the morning,” I say, and I won’t even be upset that it’s our last morning before he returns to New York.
There will be more. I’m sure of it.
The sun blasts its get-the-fuck-out-of-bed rays at me. I rub my eyes and grab my phone. Ugh. It’s only nine.
I’m tempted to hit snooze and catch some more winks before it’s time to prep for my Webflix meeting.
But my notifications blink like mad red dots.
With a heavy sigh, I push up in bed and click on the text from TJ first. He’s out for a run but wants to talk to me when he returns, especially since he needs to catch his flight.
That sounds ominous, but sometimes he comes across that way because he doesn’t use emoticons and hates exclamation points. Weak writing, he’d say. Writing snob, I’d say.
I’m about to reply when I spot a text from Holly. Webflix meeting canceled. But don’t stress. We’ll sort it out. Call me!
I groan, then slump back in bed.
But wait.
Just because it’s canceled doesn’t mean it won’t be rescheduled. After all, meetings get changed all the time. Plus, Holly used exclamation points, so this must be just a blip.
After I turn on my ringer, the phone pings with a text from William: Does this mean I’ll be seeing more of you and your man in Los Angeles? Sweet! You guys are the best! And seriously, I KNEW he was here for business.
What?
Alarm bells begin to blare. William did say something the other night about TJ being here for business. But what the hell does that mean?
The next text is from Olivia. There better be a British character for you, or I’m suing the world.
My stomach curls with dread as I click on the link she sent.
It’s from The Hollywood Scoop, the insider gossip blog for the industry that’s pretty much never wrong.
With a knot in my throat, I read.
Word on the street is Webflix just acquired the film and TV rights to bestselling author TJ Hardman’s most recent romance, Top-Notch Boyfriend. You remember this one, right? The author was dumped on TV by a guy who runs a chicken café and was in a jealous lather over Hardman’s skyrocketing popularity. (For the record, I’m Team TJ.) The viral video took off, and so did the book. But that’s not why Webflix’s recently elevated Head of Acquisitions, Robert Walsh, inked the deal late last night after meeting Hardman and his LA agents at CTM yesterday. “It was a whirlwind romance with this book and the author. I fell in love with the story from the first page, and we’re thrilled to bring this fun, sexy, heartfelt queer romance to our millions of streaming viewers worldwide,” he told me when I called him this morning for a comment.