LITMIR.BIZ

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a worse thing for him to say.

      “What’s wrong with it?” she asked, racking her brains for any obvious errors. Had she accidentally used the wrong country name; Switzerland, perhaps, instead of Sweden?

      “What’s wrong?” Elliot repeated, growing more and more irate. “What’s wrong is that you’re a romance writer who can’t write a goddamn romantic ending! Juliet didn’t dump Romeo! Lizzy Bennet didn’t leave Mr. Darcy at the airport! And Catherine didn’t just let it fizzle out with Heathcliff!”

      “To be fair, none of those are particularly healthy examples of romanti – ”

      “I don’t care!” Elliot snapped, cutting her off. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but romance isn’t exactly my forte. But even I know that the two leads don’t just maturely decide to break up! Shane had the whole dead dad thing. Gold! Cristiano was the spurned lothario. Magic! But Milo? Milo just… what… drifts away?”

      Keira swallowed hard. She couldn’t exactly defend herself. “I don’t know what to tell you. It’s the truth, and I think my readers appreciate that. I couldn’t lie about how the Scandinavians approach relationships or about what I learned while I was there.”

      Elliot shook the paper. “You’ve literally said here that what you shared with Milo can’t be labeled! Keira, your whole purpose it to write about relationships and you won’t even call it what it is!” He took a deep breath and sunk his head into his hands. “The readers are going to hate this.”

      “I disagree,” Keira replied boldly. “I’ve met my readers all over the globe. They want the truth. They respect my honesty.”

      But Elliot wasn’t listening. “There’s no time for a rewrite. We’re doomed.”

      “I know my readers,” Keira said more insistently. “You have to trust me.”

      And seeing that Elliot was still muttering to himself and not paying her any attention, she slammed her fist against his desktop. He jerked up, startled.

      “Trust me,” Keira said again, sternly, through her teeth. “I know what I’m doing.”

      Elliot glared at her silently for a long time. Finally, he spoke. “You’d better be right.”

       Chapter four

      Later that evening, Keira rang the bell to her mom’s apartment. A moment later, the door was opened. But it wasn’t Mallory standing there. Instead, it was Bryn.

      “I’m ENGAGED!” Bryn screamed.

      Keira blinked as her sister held up her left hand, showing off an enormous sparkling diamond ring. Her grin was bigger than ever as she waited expectantly for Keira to say something. But still, Keira just blinked.

      “Oh,” was all she managed.

      Bryn’s expression began to change from elation to hurt, when the door was opened fully by Felix coming up behind her. He rolled his eyes.

      “She was supposed to announce that when we sat down for dinner,” he said, smiling at Bryn in an affectionate but paternally stern way.

      “I couldn’t help myself,” Bryn replied, turning her goo-goo eyes up to him.

      Keira grimaced.

      Felix turned his attention back to Keira. “Welcome back,” he said. “Come in out of the cold.”

      Keira stepped inside. From the kitchen, she could hear Mallory call out, “Is that Keira?”

      “YES!” Bryn shouted over her shoulder before immediately turning back to face her sister. “So? Aren’t you going to say anything?” she demanded, testily. “Congratulations, for example?”

      “Of course,” Keira said, shaking herself from her stunned reverie. “Congratulations. To you both.” She kissed them each in turn. “I was just shocked. It’s so… sudden.”

      Bryn narrowed her eyes. “Says the girl who falls in love every month.”

      “Be nice,” Felix warned her. Then to Keira, he added, “I know it seems like a big rush, but I’m not getting any younger.”

      You can say that again, Keira thought.

      Just then, Mallory came out of the kitchen, holding a casserole dish. Her hair was a frizzy mess and she looked as flustered as ever.

      “Dinner,” she exclaimed. “Everyone take a seat.”

      Keira quickly shucked off her jacket and took her place at the table. Mallory shoved a plate of macaroni and cheese, salad, and garlic bread toward her.

      “Thanks, Mom,” Keira said, taking the plate. “And hi.”

      “Yes, yes, hello, darling,” Mallory replied, her attention already shifting to dishing up a portion of food for Felix. “Big news, huh? I never thought your sister would settle down first.”

      “MOM!” both Swanson sisters exclaimed in unison.

      “Well, you can’t blame me,” Mallory replied, continuing in her usual abrupt, tactless way. “Keira was always more of the homely type and she’d been settled with Zach long enough. I thought you’d been put off marriage, Bryn, because of what happened with me and your dad.”

      “Oh, Mother, please,” Bryn snapped, taking the plate Mallory offered her. “We are not turning my engagement announcement dinner into a pity party about your divorce.”

      Mallory let out a woeful sigh.

      “I think what Bryn is trying to say,” Felix said in his calm, grandfatherly way, “is that we’re very happy to be celebrating with you both, and that we hope you’ll share in our joy and excitement.”

      Keira couldn’t help but let out a derisive snort. She didn’t mind Felix as a person, but the fact he was dating – no, marrying—her sister, who was half his age, definitely lowered her impression of him. Adding Bryn’s very obvious daddy issues into the mix made it even more ick-inducing for Keira.

      “Yes,” Bryn agreed, turning her attention to Keira. “And I was hoping that you’d be my maid of honor.”

      Keira almost choked on her cucumber. “Really?”

      “Who else would I ask?” Bryn replied.

      Keira was genuinely touched that her sister would want her to be the maid of honor. She decided to put her own judgments out of her mind, and be happy for Bryn. It was her life, after all. If she wanted to spend it married to a sixty-plus-year-old father-substitute, then really that was her own business.

      “I’d love to,” Keira told her. “Thank you.”

      Bryn smiled, clearly happy that Keira had accepted. Then she immediately switched to bossy mode. “So you’ll have to tell work you can’t travel for any more assignments. I can’t have you jetting out of the country every five minutes. I need my maid of honor for dress fittings and cake tasting and venue booking. I won’t have you ruining my wedding.”

      She winked, but Keira knew she was only half joking.

      “Speaking of assignments,” Mallory said, “how was your last trip? Your Swedish Christmas?”

      Keira noted the hint of discontent in her mom’s voice. She must have been more stung about Keira spending Christmas abroad than she’d let on.

      “It was really great,” Keira told her. “I had an awesome time.”

      “Well, he must be The One, then, if he can keep you apart from your poor mom on Christmas day,” Mallory said, in her woe-is-me voice.

      Keira prodded her food with her fork. “Actually… we broke up.”

      “What?” Mallory said, stunned. “But I thought… But you were…” Finally, she put her fork down. It clattered against the chinaware. “Oh, for goodness’ sake, Keira. When are you going to stop all this silliness?”

      “Excuse me?” Keira asked, surprised.

      “I

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