I’m a Fan

** Harper **

The entire evening felt unreal, from the unmistakably romantic dinner to the sensual upgrade of their "lessons". Harper wasn't quite sure what to think of it. But at the very least, as unexpected as the "massage" had turned out, it really did help to purge all the stress and tension from her body, and she managed to relax at last into the feeling of a weekend evening.

She capped it off with a restful night of sleep and plenty more dreams that she wouldn't tell anyone about. When she woke up to a sunny Sunday, she felt like she had gobbled down a whole bottle of elixir, more than what she needed to regain the energy to get back to her long-neglected web novel.

It really wasn't her style to ghost her readers for an entire week. As much as she had tried to keep everyone updated on her schedule through comments, she felt terrible for making them wait so long for the next chapter. Especially when the previous one had stopped right in the middle of a climax scene — pun intended. As she logged in and clicked on the new notifications from last night, she silently whispered another apology and hoped that whoever commented back didn't hate her for the delay.

[ Dear Author! I just found your book today and inhaled all of your chapters. You're such a great writer and I love this story so much! Pleeeease keep posting!!! ]

Harper caught her breath. Someone was telling her that she was a great writer? Really??

[ Author san, hope your work situation is getting better now that it's weekend! It's important to take care of yourself <3 But of course, whenever you have the time again, just don't forget that you've left us dying here in blistering heat! ]

She chuckled at that one. Her readers were so cute. How was she so lucky to have garnered the affection of such lovely angels?

The warm and reassuring comments made her more motivated than ever. She could already feel her brain whirring to life at the encouraging words, her creativity buzzing in refreshed excitement. She smiled to herself and got to work.

~ ~

Harper breezed through the next chapter. As she immersed herself in the scene, even her body seemed to start reliving the previous two weekends, walking back through all those blissful moments Eli had shown her. Shamelessly, she enjoyed the whole experience … and when she finished typing the last word, she wished the chapter was longer.

It was a pretty good one too, at least to her untrained eyes. She read through it a few times and only picked up a few minor places to edit. Those lessons might really be helping, to have gotten her past her writer's block so easily.

She clicked "Publish", let out a satisfied sigh, and leaned back for a sip of coffee. Then her phone dinged.

[ Chelsea: Woohoo! A new chapter to read! About time ;) ]

Wait. What?

Harper snatched her phone. It had only been a few seconds since she posted. It couldn't be that Chelsea had subscribed to her updates? Incredulous, she typed, [ Spying on my update schedule? ]

[ No spying. I'm a fan! May and I are reading it right now. ]

Whut?

[ Wanna come join us? May can offer expert feedback right on the spot :D ]

May … Oh, right. Chelsea had mentioned her other editor friend last week, and they had agreed on hanging out together at some point. That piqued Harper's curiosity. It wouldn't hurt to have another pair of eyes look at her writing, but more importantly, May was working with Eli … What kind of stories might she share about him?

[ Yep, send me the address! ]

Harper grabbed her go-to weekend dress, dabbed on some quick makeup, and eagerly dashed out the door.

The bar that Chelsea and May were at turned out to be just a couple of streets over, and Harper took the chance to breathe in some fresh weekend air as she walked. She hadn't realized that the sun had already dipped below the horizon while she lost herself in writing — a good five hours must've passed without her noticing at all. But she didn't mind. Escaping into the scenes of her chapters was a precious feeling she loved … especially when it involved a heated love session.

She brushed the image of Eli out of her head. No, she wasn't thinking about him in particular. Not his heated gaze from last night, and definitely not those words he said or the things he did.

The Irish pub came into view in no time. Harper shuffled through the busy front door, passed the high bars, and spotted Chelsea at a four-person table in the back of the restaurant. Her companion—

Harper almost did a double take when the girl turned around at Chelsea's prodding and waved. Wow, May was not like anyone in Harper's typical friend circle at all. Short hair cropped asymmetrically and dyed electric blue. Huge smoked eyes. A shiny pair of nose piercings. Completed with a leather tube top that showed plenty of curves … She looked like someone that walked straight out of a sexy hipster poster.

Eli worked with women like this for his part-time job?

"Look who's here!" A firm hug from Chelsea peeled Harper's eyes back. "Our great author finally shows her face!"

May got out of her seat as well, and as she and Harper exchanged their names with another hug, Chelsea whispered, "May is a smut expert, Harper. If you get her drunk enough, she'll share all kinds of secret skills with you to use both in and out of the book."

"I heard that," May said.

Harper chuckled and joined the two at their table. "So you're an editor for romance novels in particular?" she asked May, assuming that was what Chelsea meant by "smut expert".

"Well, a specific subset of romance, to be more exact." May winked. "The type that is not so … vanilla."

Oh, damn. This was really some hardcore expert then.

Chelsea grinned at the look on Harper's face. "That's why she handed your book to a more fitting candidate instead. And I gotta say that guy must be doing something right, since the improvement in your chapters has been clear as day since then." She leaned into the table, and her voice lowered suggestively. "Tell me — did you take my advice? Is he good at it?"

"…" Straight to the point as always. Nothing less to expect from Chelsea, and Harper knew that her best friend was definitely going to get that answer out of her before the end of the night.