The blank page taunted Lux, speaking loudly of his inability to string together complex and even simple sentences. He found himself wishing, yet again, that the words in his mind would somehow magically appear before him, but much to his dismay they did not. He exited out of the document and navigated to his email, ignoring the messages from Kerin, knowing full well his friend was using the excuse of sending cute animal videos as a means to check on progress. When he managed to respond to a few emails, only one remained that he couldn't ignore.

Sender: [email protected]

Recepient: [email protected]

Subject: Edits

I know my excessive use of exclamation marks can be a bit much, but I am ecstatic to work with you! Attached you'll find the edits I've made so far. If you have any questions, concerns, or disagreements with the edits, please feel free to let me know! It takes me a while to respond to work emails over the weekend (I'm doing my best to maintain a healthy work/life balance) so please feel free to text me!

xxx-xxxx

Hope to hear from you soon!

Rhys

Lux wanted to turn his nose up at Rhysend's persistence, but the man worked quickly, having returned 15 chapters, completely edited, within less than a week. That in and of itself, was admirable. Although, not admirable enough for Lux to call him. If the man's excitement was this palpable via email, he would probably be a thousand times worse over the phone.

Lux began to draft an email in response when his phone rang. He ignored it, or tried to, but after having gone to voicemail, the phone rang again, interrupting him mid-sentence. He huffed an annoyed breath and saved the email as a draft before answering the phone.

"Yes?" He was met with silence, so he pulled the phone from his ear to check the caller ID. The number looked vaguely familiar, so he curbed his budding irritation and added a dash of civility to his voice as he said, "This is Lux." Finally, a deep voice that left Lux feeling as if he had stepped into a warm bath spoke,

"I apologize Mr. Broussard. I was starstruck for a moment." A rumbling, embarrassed chuckle followed the confession. "I'm sorry, perhaps I should introduce myself."

"That would be a good place to start," Lux agreed. The computer screen fell black as it entered sleep mode and he pushed back from the desk, turning in his chair to reach for the remote to the television. Since he was preoccupied with a phone call, he could take a quick break; maybe his mind would decide to work with him instead of engaging in its torrid love affair with writer's block.

"It's Rhys. Your new editor."

The remote slipped from Lux's hands, clattering embarrassingly loud onto the desk. There's no way his editor sounded like he should be working as one of those voice actors.

"Mr. Broussard? Are you still there?" Concern deepened Rhys' voice further, causing Lux's gut to twist with an emotion he hadn't felt in, well...ever.

"Yeah. Yes. Please, call me Lux. How can I help you, Rhysend?"

"Rhys is fine. I thought it would be better to reach out to you over the phone. Much faster with discussing edits."

Lux fiddled with the strings of his sweatshirt as he honestly shared, "I haven't had a chance to look at your edits."

"Oh! I apologize for being so pushy, Lux."

Heat swiftly crept into his cheeks, burning his skin. He was blushing like one of his main characters!

What the fuck? Lux internally hissed.

Aloud, he cleared his throat and assured Rhys, "You're not being pushy. You're doing your job. Which I appreciate, however, I think it would be best to inform you now that I do not accept your word as law. I have the final say over how I tell my stories."

"I wouldn't dream of interfering in your storytelling, Lux. I love how you write your characters. They're so relatable and you capture human emotion so well, it's almost as if I can feel their pain, their joy, their love for one another." Rhys sighed wistfully and continued, "You do have the final say over your stories; however I hope you understand that if the publishing company insists on a change, I have to be just as insistent."

Lux was too busy grappling with the confusion related to his flush to argue. "Fine." Ending the call was in the forefront of his mind until Rhys responded,

"Awesome! I don't know why they said you were so difficult."

Instantaneously, his embarrassed flush dissipated to be replaced with one of righteous indignation. His eyebrows pulled together as his eyes narrowed. "Who said I was difficult, Rhysend?"

"Uh, now that you mention it," Rhys chuckled nervously, "I can't recall. Anyways, look over those edits and we'll discuss them tomorrow. I can meet you at your place or you can meet me at mine. Whatever works best for you."

"Neither of those options work best for me," Lux stubbornly declined. "I can email you."

Rhys sounded slightly deflated. "I'd rather prefer to go over the edits in person, but as long as you give me feedback by tomorrow. We can meet up later to go over the corrections you've made."

The corner of Lux's lip curled up into a coy smirk as he said, "An email would suffice for that as well."

"I sense you're purposely being difficult right now. Which would only prove the point of whoever made that rather incorrect observation," Rhys sarcastically pointed out.

"Sarcasm suits you much better, however, I'm still not meeting you in person. I didn't want a new editor. Do with that information what you will."

"Telling me I wasn't wanted will only make me work that much harder to prove I deserve to be here."

"Your other clients must be thrilled to have an editor who would devote all of his time to proving his worth to one client at a time," Lux snapped.

"Actually," Rhys cheerfully quipped, "you're my only client, Lux."

Why this revelation made him feel warm and tied his stomach into small knots was beyond him, but his face felt hot despite the open windows allowing a cool breeze to move through his study. "I've got to go." He hung up the phone and returned to the computer, opening the attached document of the corrections.

Lux scanned through the pages, making note of the corrections he would make, ones he'd consider making, and ones he definitely wasn't making. He was nearly done and was just on the cusp of talking himself into keeping Rhys as his editor when he got to the last note.

Have you considered adding a sex scene in chapter 30? The tension is quite thick and there's so much build up, but it just fizzles out, which gives the scene a feeling of ending too abruptly. Adding a sex scene could give the readers a sense of resolution and can help turn the tide from mutually pining colleagues to exclusive lovers. Just a suggestion!

Lux blinked at the screen a few times. He knew this day would eventually come. He was genuinely surprised that it hadn't come sooner. He tilted his head to the side as he considered the fact that this suggestion could be reflective of Eternal Spring not having done as well as his previous novels. However, none of his other works had sex scenes. The only answer was to say no. If he pitched a fit about this suggestion, that would raise suspicion and he wasn't going to share that information with a total stranger. Not that he was ashamed. He was more concerned with his career than anyone judging him.

Lux wasn't "difficult" just because. He had spent years fighting publishing house after publishing house for the creative right to tell his stories the way he wanted to, with the characters he knew fit the narrative. Before DuPont, Lux believed he found a publisher that wouldn't suggest changing the backbone of the plot. However, when key parts of his stories continued to be changed by the editors, and Lux's reasons as to why he couldn't or wouldn't change those parts continued to be dismissed, he found it easier to leave the publishing house all together instead of continuing to fight for the right to have his works published as he envisioned them.

When Kerin told him about DuPont publishing all those years ago, Lux only entered into the business relationship with the agreed upon condition that if he felt the edits and suggestions were unnecessary or changed the plot in a way he wasn't comfortable with, he had the final say. And so far DuPont publishing hadn't gone back on their word.

Because of that, Lux had been able to not only follow in the footsteps of some of his role models in the genre, but he also made it to the "New York Times Best Seller" list, multiple times. Lux fought tooth and nails for years to have his career take off. Now that it had, he'd be damned if two paltry little secrets took that away from him.

If this secret got out, then so would his other one and that would definitely destroy his career. He could argue that it wouldn't, but that also wasn't something he wanted to chance.

Underneath the column of changes he definitely wasn't making, in the neatest handwriting Lux wrote sex scene.