Story 26

The crackling sound of the campfire and the distant sound of waves were the only sounds he could hear.
He was here to write. He came here whenever he had writer’s block. But, this time the place could not do its magic. Not with her by his side.


He turned his head to look towards the tent. There she was, peacefully sleeping in the tent. All he wanted to do was – go back to the tent and climb into her sleeping bag and feel the warmth of her body.

He was stuck at a point in his Novel where he had to write a tragic scene. He wanted to write in such a way that his readers would relate to the protagonist and weep for his loss.
His protagonist was heart-broken; he had to step into the protagonist’s shoes and feel what the protagonist felt and write accordingly.

He did this sort of thing while writing novels. He collected data, he did research – but so far, he had written crime novels. This was his first romance novel. The jump from crime genre to romance is ridiculous – his agent had said. You won’t be able to do it. That’s what had motivated him. He had done a good job so far; she had been surprised by reading the material he had already sent to her. Give me more, she had told him. That phrase stuck in his head and he used it in a love scene. “Give me more” the woman said to his protagonist.


He had to be close to someone who was heart-broken, or he had to be heart-broken himself to write in words how the protagonist felt. She came into his life as an opportunity. Free spirit, carefree, unwilling to sacrifice her freedom for anything or anyone, refusing to be domesticated. She was perfect for him. She was like a wild fire that would burn him and leave him heart-broken.
He met her at one of the parties he was unwilling to go to. Now, he was thankful that he had attended the party.


He got acquainted with her. She was impressed by him, intoxicated by his charms. They had sex in one of the rooms where the party was hosted. It reminded him of his high school days; when his friends took girls to bedrooms while he sat on the couch sipping orange juice.
This time, he was the one involved in the action.

They promised to meet again. They started dating. The deal was that he was meant to fall in love with her. She was meant to walk away and hurt him.


Yet, here they were – vacationing together at his beach house. He closed his laptop and got up. He walked back to the tent and took off his shirt and trousers. He opened her sleeping bag and slipped into it in his boxers. She was wearing a two-piece bikini. It was warm inside the sleeping bag. He felt her stir as he moved closer to her and zipped up the bag again.

Sleeping with her inside a sleeping bag felt much more intimate than having sex with her. He smelled her hair. He loved the smell of her hair. She was supposed to walk away but she stayed. She said she had fallen in love with him. Her free-spirited nature could not stop her from falling in love with him. she was ready to give up everything, just to be with him.


He hated to admit but he could not let her go as well. It took a while for him to understand what was happening to him. He was in love with her. He loved spending time with her.
His agent kept asking for more and he kept procrastinating. He loved holding her in his arms, he loved touching her, making love to her; rather than spending time writing on his laptop.


She asked him one day about his work and he told her he was stuck. It was her idea to come to the beach house; set up a campfire and tent at the beach. They made love before stepping out on the beach. They set up a tent and campfire. She sat next to him for some time and then retired to the tent. He started the laptop and tried to write. But, he was happy. He could feel happiness oozing out of his body. He felt it in every cell of his body. He was happy – how could he write a tragic scene?
He wrote and deleted several times before retiring to the tent.


He moved his hand over her waist and she opened her eyes. He smiled. She smiled back at him. “Done?” she asked. “No.” he replied and kissed her on the lips. She kissed him back.
“Let’s go inside” she said, and he nodded. They got up to go, he poured water over the campfire and she dismantled the tent. He helped her with the tent and they both moved back to the house in each other’s arms.


She readied the bath while he tried to work on the laptop again.
“Come, have a bath with me.” She said, and he could not resist. He closed the laptop and went to the bathroom with her. He watched her undress and step into the tub. He got rid of his boxers and stepped in with her. Being in the tub with her felt good, it always felt good. Thoughts of writing soon took a back-seat in his head as he could feel his body reacting to her touch. She kissed him on the mouth, her hand resting in between his thighs.
He could not take it any more and climbed on top her and took her then and there.


They took a shower together and then made love again in bed. Then, they fell asleep.


---


Her mobile vibrated and she woke up. She climbed out of bed, careful not to wake him up. She put on her robe and picked up the mobile. She stepped out in the living room and answered the call.
“Yes. Everything is fine.” she said into the phone.
“Yes, I will see to it.” She said and disconnected the call.
She walked back to the bedroom and stared at the man sleeping in the bed. She had grown fond of him. All this had started as an assignment but had eventually turned into something else. How was she going to tell this to the woman who had hired her?


It was few days before the fateful party. She received a call on her business phone listed on her website. She had been surprised to hear the voice on the other end. “I don’t swing that way.” She had told the woman on the phone.
“I am calling for my son.” She had said, and that is how it had all started.


She was placed in his life by his mother, who feared that her son was losing his mind. The woman said she had pretended too long to be his agent while he was living under the illusion that he was a famous crime novelist who now wanted to write a romance novel. His mother told her that it broke her heart to announce to him that he was not a famous crime novelist; so, she tried a way around the main problem. It was inevitable that he would need professional help at some point, but being a mother, she wanted to soften the blow. 


That is how she had come into the picture. A free spirit, carefree woman, unwilling to sacrifice her freedom for anything or anyone; she was supposed to meet this man who was looking to get his heart-broken. “How stupid is that”, she had wondered; regretting immediately. It was nothing as compared to what the man was already going through.


She did not want to help at first but when she saw how much money was involved in this, she agreed. She had to pretend to fall in love with him, she was supposed to make him fall in love with her; she was supposed to make him happy, so much that he quit the idea of writing the novel. When he admitted to the fact that he had given up on the Novel, that is when his mother was meant to step in and take him to a shrink.
Nothing made sense to her; only the fact that she was being paid a hefty amount.


She never thought she would really fall in love with him. She was madly in love with him, the man who was deluded. The man who perhaps needed psychiatric help. How long was his mother planning to keep up the act? She did not know. She had been tempted at times to take him to the shrink without informing his mother.


“He needs to sign an agreement with me, his agent; and, then we will end all this.” His mother had told her.
It did not make any sense. One day, she slipped into his mother’s office and went through her papers until she found what she was looking for.
‘The agreement’ – it was not an agreement between him and his agent regarding his Novel; the papers mentioned that she had the right, as a guardian of mentally-ill person to handle his affairs, including liquidate his assets as she saw fit.


That’s when she had decided to bring him to the beach house. His mother, or whoever the woman was, had given her the papers to get his signature on. The papers, which she had already thrown into the campfire.
She did not know how things would shape or what she was supposed to do; she knew only one thing – she was in love with this man and, she would not let anyone harm him, ever.




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