“Sorry for answering your phone. He kept calling so I thought it was something important.”

“Oh, I don’t care about that,” I said. “I just don’t want to talk to him.” I looked at the coffee table in front of Lacey strewn with papers and I smiled. “First draft nearly done?”

“Are you joking?” Lacey screeched. “I’m so lost. I don’t know if I have too much sex or too little sex in the book.”

“Why don’t you read some to me, and I can let you know?”

“Really? You sure you want to listen?” Lacey said. “I just printed out this scene and I don’t know if it’s too much.”

“Go ahead.” I settled into the couch next to her. “I’m not doing anything today.”

“You don’t want to call Bob back first?”

“I don’t want to dress up like a clown this weekend.” I shook my head and crossed my legs on the cushions. “And thanks to your dad giving you rent money for two months, I don’t need to.”

“Yeah.” Lacey nodded. “You needed a break,” she said and looked at me for a few seconds. I knew she was debating internally as to whether to ask me how I was doing. We had only spoken about what had happened with Scott once and I’d never mentioned it again. She knew that I was the sort of person that brought something up when I wanted to talk about it. She knew that after what had happened with Shane, I was very careful to not talk too much, because I didn’t want to make myself sadder.

“Go ahead,” I said and nodded at her encouragingly. “I’m waiting.”

“Okay.” She smiled nervously and cleared her throat. She leaned forward and picked up some of the papers on the coffee table and shuffled them into some sort of order. “Midnight is the witching hour. Midnight is the hour that Cinderella fled from her prince. It’s the hour that the prince turned into a werewolf and it’s the hour that I experienced my first blissful night. I can still feel the touch of his hand on the curve of my butt, as if it were an extension of my body. I can still feel the tingles, smell the fear and excitement, hear the loud decisive sound of his hand against my raw skin. Slap. Slap. Slap. Bliss. Five fingers and one palm. Who knew that they could cause such bliss?” Lacey paused and looked at my face and her hand flew to her mouth as she stared at my slightly awestruck expression. “Oh my God, Elizabeth, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s fine,” I said, not even blinking as I sat there in shock and sadness.

“I didn’t mean to read you this scene. I forgot.”

“It’s okay.” I reached out and touched her hand. “Don’t feel bad. It’s not as if Scott and I are the only people that have ever engaged in spanking. Many bedrooms across the county have couples experiencing that bliss, as you put it.”

“I feel so insensitive,” she said and sighed, her brown eyes looking sad. “Sorry.”

“Lacey, it’s fine. Really and truly,” I said and jumped up. “Though, I’m going to go and get some wine. I need a drink. Want a glass?”

“Yes, please.” She nodded.

“Okay, hold on,” I said and hurried to the kitchen and grabbed two glasses and a bottle of Moscato D’Asti that I had chilling in the fridge. I grabbed a box of cookies as well and headed back to the living room. “You know, it’s really quite funny,” I said as I set the glasses down on the coffee table.

“What’s funny?” Lacey asked, a confused expression on her face as she looked up from the page she was working on. Her lips were black with ink stains and her long brown hair hung in loose waves around her face. She was wearing an old Mickey Mouse t-shirt and a pair of black sweatpants, and I felt a surge of warmth in my stomach as I stared at her. I was so glad that Lacey was here with me.

“The fact that your book Play the Player has a spanking scene after how outraged you were when I told you that Scott and I had engaged in spanking as foreplay.”

“I was a little shocked and just teasing at first.” She grinned. “But then I thought about it, and spanking is all the rage these days. Play the Player needs some spanking. That’s what makes it so hot and sexy.”

“Is that what makes all the romance books hot these days?” I said and laughed. “Hot and sexy?”

“The sexier the better.” She grinned. “I want my book to be so hot and sexy that people are blushing just opening the book.”

“Um, okay.” I giggled. “You need to write about a bit more than spanking then.”

“Yeah.” She laughed. “I guess I do.” She paused and then looked at me for a few seconds before speaking again. “So, have you spoken to Scott?”

“Who?” I said and then shook my head. “Nope.”

“Have you tried contacting him?”

“Nope.” I rested my head against the back of the couch. “He hasn’t contacted me either. He hates me.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t hate you, Eliza.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he does and if he doesn’t hate me, he dislikes me very much and thinks I’m a crazy bitch and a liar.”

“I’m sure if you explained to him what happened, he would understand.”

“Lacey, I explained to him what happened. He didn’t care. He thought I was a hypocrite for being all hard on him when I was lying in the first place.”