Page 7 of All For You

Now we were talking about butter? I was completely lost. Romance writers and readers were another world.

“No wonder you’re a best seller,” Trystan added, pouring another glass.

Lizzy blushed a delighted pink. “Thanks, Trystan.Wasa best seller.” She hung her head. “I have writer’s block, and I suppose that’s why I’m here. I haven’t written anything in six months. I need inspo for my next book.” She looked a bit exhausted. “So, that’s my story.”

Her head slumped, and she went to sit down.

“Why do you have writer’s block?” I asked. “You don’t believe in romance anymore?”

Her head snapped up. Everyone’s horrified expression reminded me I didn’t have the gene that stopped you when something was too awkward to ask, but again, I wasn’t trying to be an arse. I was genuinely interested. Also, not to be a pedantic CFO, which I was, but she had three more paper squares of things to talk about. Maybe I was looking forward to hearing more about her.

Lizzy jerked back to standing, genuinely upset. “Of course I still believe in love, the real kind that lasts forever, but I can’t find the right couple and the right scenario to write about. Nothing seems to spark.”

Her mother snorted. “No wonder, if your heroes were all modeled on Dry Jake, the dullest man in the universe. As ever, I’m being decorous. Dullis aeuphemor for?—”

What the hell? This woman got decorous right, but not euphemism? There was no logic to her malapropisms. And what was “dull” a euphemism for? Surely dull was bad enough. And why was I even thinking about this? The woman made my head spin.

“Mum,” Lizzy interrupted sharply. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “And now some of you might have guessed I’ve split with my fiancé. No big arguments, no bust-ups, no hard feelings—it all faded away. He didn’t want to fight for me.”

Irrational anger struck me. Probably irritation for how long this silly game was lasting.

The group cooed withsorrys.

Lizzy ran a hand through her tangled mane. “Thank you. There was no real passion there. It’s a relief to be out of it, but still I wonder why it hasn’t happened for me.”

Everyone nodded in understanding.

“You now, Darcy,” Lizzy’s mother said.

Lizzy sat, settling into her chair with some satisfaction. She seemed a bit happier, though, probably at the prospect of me being in the hot seat.

CHAPTER 5

Lizzy

Darcy held up his square of toilet paper and scanned us under an arched eyebrow.

“I only have one square, so… My name is Darcy Wainwright. I live in London and in Derbyshire, where my family is from. I’m a property developer with my brother. That’s three things. I have a red setter mix called Max.” His dog padded closer and nudged Darcy’s hand, and Darcy actually smiled…slightly. “That’s one more thing. I apologize for taking up too much of your time.”

You utter prat, you think you’re too good to tell us about yourself. I looked around at everyone else, whose faces reflected what I was thinking.

“You need to say how you feel about love,” Monty said. “After all, old chap, that’s what the weekend is about.”

I smiled at Monty. He wasn’t as oblivious as he first seemed.

Scrunching up the paper, Darcy thrust his hands into his pockets. “I don’t believe in romantic love, this concept of soul mates.” He shook his head, agitated. “I think it’s something made up by Hallmark and romance wr?—”

“Oh God,” his brother Wills said and dragged his hands over his face.

“So, are you saying you’ll never get married?” Nala asked. She’d earlier told me she’d been dumped by her longtime boyfriend. “You don’t want children?”

He shrugged. “I’ll probably get married and have children. Or not. I won’t have unrealistic expectations of how I’ll feel about my partner. Maybe I’ll have more dogs. To be honest, I’d be perfectly happy with that.”

No one would have been surprised if I’d felt the same way as this Darcy guy. Jake and I had been the latest and most uninspiring in a long line of okay but average relationships. He’d never felt ardently about me one way or the other, and, honestly, I was surprised either of us let it drag on as long as we had. I hadn’t been depressed about our splitting up, but I now wondered if therewasa man out there who’d want me as much as my heroes wanted my female main characters. A woman who didn’t aspire to look like a model or be as vivacious as an It Girl. I didn’t even mind that maybe I didn’t have main character energy, that next to my sister, who was literally a model, and my stunning cousin, who was literally an It Girl, I was mostly third choice.

But surely there was someone who could look past them…to me?

I was determined never to feel the way Darcy did, no matter how many times I was dumped. Love was real, but right now, it was for other people. Still, my romantic optimism didn’t stop the doubts from creeping in that I could no longer trust myself to identify the right guy for me. And sometimes I felt a little fraudulent calling myself a romance writer.