Believe it or not, there was a time when Greta Abney had it all figured out. Marriage, a family, and a thriving career all by the age of 30 was her plan. But plans change, and now she's drinking alone at her best friend's baby announcement party.
A...
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♫ oslo by anna of the north ♫
Their biggest book of the year had been poised to be Love In The Time of Crime. It was bound to be another sultry, detailed telling of a mafia princess revisited by the ghost of her ex-lover as they try to solve the mystery of who murdered him.
A romance thriller. A snappy, brown-haired heroine. The mafia. Ghost sex. And if successful, the beginning of a small series that could easily send in more revenue through the coming years for Echelon Publishing.
Though for other big-brand publishing houses, this may seem like a small item on their list, but for Greta, Kelly, and Cora, their tiny, modest business was never not in awe of whenever Leslie Fields managed to welcome them to another one of her guaranteed successes.
Their only problem now, was figuring out just how to give the book the proper showcase it needed. And whilst Greta and Kelly kept themselves isolated in their office, it wasn't long before Cora walked in. In her hand had been a thin manila folder of potential designs for the cover. And slapping it down next to Greta's laptop, she looked up to her little sister with a bothered expression on her face.
"What's this?" She asked.
Cora then responded. "Something you need to get a secretary to handle for you next time. My degree was in social media advertising, not fetching coffee for my sister."
Rolling her eyes, Greta took the folder into her hands and breezed through the few pieces of designs, grimacing at all but one. "This purple one doesn't look to bad. The both of them nearly naked under the bedsheets."
"Lemme see?" Kelly soon chimed in. And Cora much more graciously handed the design over to Kelly, whose face contorted into a much-less pleased state than Greta's when she scanned it. "This won't work. Leslie was explicit when she said she wanted sensual, yet modest."
"What the hell does that mean?" Asked Greta.
"Think the pottery scene in that Patrick Swayze movie mixed with something you'd probably notice from a Twilight poster."
Resigned to her own confusion, Cora made her way over to her own desk, where she took her seat and tilted her head back to wind down. "I love Leslie, but she really knows how to make it difficult for us."
"Trust me, it'll be worth it." Said Greta reassuringly. "You weren't here when she wrote her first few books for us. She basically kept this place afloat in 2016."
Even as she tried to hide it, she could see the small swell of intrigue on her sister's face. If there was anything that was she could sense refreshing, it was how excited Cora could appear to be whenever they worked together.
