It Had to Be You

London Bridge is Falling Down

James Buchanan had turned out to be a very interesting human being. From the moment Nina had landed at Heathrow, he had taken care of everything. Car service from the airport, apartment rented under his name in Notting Hill, even guest membership to his club The Ned. In the month since Nina had stepped foot on British soil she hadn't needed to lift a finger.

Which wouldn't have been a problem had all this luxury not begun interfering with her creativity. The book was written. But it required some finesse. She had also discussed a second book with James and he'd encouraged her to write it in any free time that she had. The problem was, she had no free time and the second book wasn't coming together as easily as the first. What was it she had heard about the curse of a sequel?

"It's going to be fine." James sat across from her at The Ned. The club was welcoming in the British aristocracy kind of way. It had plush velvet couches and expensive looking wallpaper. The drinks were well made and the service was impeccable. In short, it was exactly the kind of place Nina had always dreamed about being a part of.

"It's not working as well as I'd hoped. Something about the main character just isn't clicking in this new one."

"But how's the editing of the original coming? We're eager to get it to market as soon as we can." Nina suppressed the nauseous feeling that arose in her stomach whenever she thought about her first book. The edits were in fact coming along but each time she submitted them to James, he'd send her back pages of rewrites. The book was slowly becoming less and less hers and more Horse and Hound. When she had brought up her worries to James he had reminded her that she'd never been through the publishing process before and his edits were necessary for the book to be a success.

"It's going well. I just finished your last round of suggestions" She tried to keep her tone light. Some of what James had suggested didn't fit the story at all. It barely captured the voice of her characters and she was doing her best to find some middle ground. She heard her mother's chiding voice reminding her to "don't bite the hand that feeds you."

"Excellent. Send those to me when you get home tonight. You're nearing the finish line with this one. We'll get it sent off to the team for it's final review and then you're work is done. We handle the marketing and we'll design a cover that is perfect for the story."

Nina's head bobbled up and down agreeing with him. She'd learned over the last month that James didn't like when someone didn't yes him to death. It had started with small things like her wanting to visit a different part of London on days she had off. As soon as she would suggest a plan he'd gently redirect her to whatever it was that he wanted to do. It had taken Nina nearly the entire month to figure out what he was doing because he was so good at it. She hadn't even realized his "gentle" approach was becoming emotionally manipulative until yesterday.

He'd requested a meeting in the office to discuss her second book. With less than a half hour's warning Nina had shown up winded and confused as she entered a boardroom full of fifteen people in suits.

"Nina, this is our writing team." He gestured to the table. They're responsible for taking a story and turning it into art."

"Um hi?" It came out as a question because she was genuinely confused. She was the writer. Wasn't her job to write?"

"Take it away Kiera." James waved a hand in the general direction of the end of the table where a red-headed woman with a blunt bob stood up abruptly.

He then pointed at a chair which Nina took to mean she should take a seat.

"Right, so Nina, James has given us a rundown on your second novel and while we love the story we feel it could use a bit of support from our team to make it a real winner."