Chapter 4

January 16th

I need all the help I can get. My boss still hasn't acknowledged the book I forced on him, but he has decided to show me where I stand in the publishing line. I've been running to get him coffee and make his copies for the past two weeks. However, I know he sees me now since I'm in his office ten times a day. I still haven't decided if it's a good thing or not, to be seen by one of the most powerful men in New York.

It's time for me to get a win. I'm going back into the books for inspiration. One rude man calling me a cow isn't going to ruin the entire meet-cute trope for me.

Paige was full of nervous energy. Jack Griffin had kept the book for two weeks. It was time to get back out there and distract herself from the possible demise of her career by trying some more meet-cutes. She had a whole list from some of her favorite books, and it was time to take the risk and go on an adventure off the pages of a book.

Paige stood on the sidewalk outside of some of Wall Street's biggest brokerages. She was pretty proud of herself for thinking of meeting a nice gentleman in the finance industry instead of outside a bar frequented by drunken frat boys.

It was rush hour and the doors of the fancy glass buildings were spinning as men in suits rushed out on their phones. Paige waited until a man with no ring waved down a cab. She also put her hand up as if waving down the same cab.

A cab immediately pulled over for the man in the suit. How did he do that? It always took Paige minutes to get a cab. The man opened the cab door and Paige tried to slide in at the same time. "Oh! I'm so sorry. I thought this was my cab."

"Get out of my cab," the man growled, and not in a sexy way.

"Maybe we can split..." Paige didn't even finish the sentence. The man shoved her as she had one foot in, and one foot out.

Paige was crouching and the push sent her tumbling to the ground. The man closed the door and the cab took off, leaving Paige sitting on the sidewalk.

"Hey!" Paige yelled, but then instantly closed her mouth as another cab drove by, sending water spraying. It soaked her from head to toe as she sat there. Hundreds of men walked right by as if a soaking wet woman sitting on the sidewalk was completely normal. Or invisible.

Not a single man offered his hand. They were too busy on their phones to even see her, nevertheless offer a hand.

A hand suddenly appeared in her face. "Let me help you up. If you want a cab around here, honey, you better be ready to fight for it." A woman who looked to be near sixty held out her hand.

"Thanks," Paige said, taking the woman's hand and staggering up. She was cold, she was wet, and as she watched the woman who had helped her up elbow a man out of the way to get the next cab, Paige admitted defeat for the evening, but was even more determined to make a meet-cute work.

The next morning Paige walked to work. She was going to bump into a stranger. Classic meet-cute. Paige eyed the men approaching her. Most had their heads down and were reading their phones, so it made it easy for Paige to scope them out without them noticing her.

Oh, there was a man straight off the pages! He was tall and built, and was smiling at something on his phone. Paige put herself in his way and prepared for contact. She'd thought he'd just nudge her shoulder, but he sidestepped to miss something on the sidewalk and plowed right into her.

"Eeek!" Paige squeaked out as she fell hard onto her ass.

"Watch where you're going!" the man shouted angrily, never even looking back to see if she was okay.

Paige sat there as a steady stream of men walked around her. She parted the foot traffic on the sidewalk like Moses parted the Red Sea.

Paige refused to let this get her down. At lunch, Jack Griffin left for a meeting. He still had not said anything about the Mimi Golden book, so Paige decided to try her next meet-cute someplace that was her home base: a bookstore. How perfect would it be to meet the man of her dreams in a bookstore? Two bookworms reading together by the fire at night. It was what bookworm dreams were made of.

Paige pushed open the door and immediately felt at home. The warmth, the smell of books, the low whispers of pages being turned. It was heaven on Earth for her. Paige scanned the aisles, but only found women. Until... hello sexy! A man who couldn't be much older than her, wearing joggers and a sweatshirt and looking yummy, was in non-fiction.

Paige pretended to look at the books, but her eyes were on the man. He was reaching for a book when Paige made her move and reached for the same book. "Oh! Looks like we have similar taste in books."

Paige went to pull the book from the shelf and the man's eyes narrowed. "I was here first." Even his voice was sexy.

He and Paige pulled the book out together. How romantic! "I'm sure we can share it. I'm Paige."

"Let go. It's mine," he answered, giving the book a little yank.

"No, it's mine." Paige didn't even know what book it was, but this wasn't cute at all. They were getting into a tug-o-war match over a book. Paige looked down and read the title. Guide to Self-diagnosis of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Paige snatched her hand back in a flash, sending the man stumbling back, clutching the book to his chest. "Wrong book. My bad."

Paige's friends all stared at her in silence after she told them about her meet-cute fails. Their mouths were open. Amelia's hand was clamped to her mouth in shock. They were all silent until Amelia's giggle wormed its way through the hand covering her mouth. Once the first giggle escaped, it was all over. Eli doubled over laughing. Tears streamed down Leah's face. Paige just sat and took it. She was so glad her adventures into the world of being her own main character were so amusing to her friends.

"Are you all doing any better? At least I'm living up to my resolution."

That sobered them up real fast. Amelia cast a shy glance at Felix. Leah frowned. Eli fell back against the chair and rolled his eyes. "Girl, I went to talk to Violin Man, AKA Kenneth, and overheard him talking to a bassoon player that he was tired of all these players, quote, ‘like Eli,' trying to hook up with him."

Oh, that wasn't funny. Paige couldn't laugh at that. "I'm sorry, Eli. What are you going to do?"

"Stare longingly from afar?" Eli suggested sadly.

"That's a little creepy," Amelia told him. "What about you, Leah?"

Leah let out a huff of air. "Finding a good guy is hard."

"Have you tried to look for them somewhere besides hookup apps?" Paige asked because she knew her friend too well. Leah was trying to shortcut the search for a serious boyfriend.

"Yeah, maybe they're not the best," she finally agreed. "But I have a subscription for the next couple of months so I'll see it to the end then try a more serious dating one."

"At least you're getting laid again," Eli said with a sigh. "Since I'm trying to be respectable, I can't even do that."

Leah nodded. "I did get laid. It had been too long. But then the asshole stole my TV when I was in the shower."

"No!" they all gasped. Okay, maybe Paige's adventures in meet-cutes weren't as bad as grand theft.

"All our hopes now rest on Amelia," Eli said as they all turned their attention to the shyest of the group. "Have you talked to Felix?"

Amelia glanced over to where Felix was filling an order. "Not yet."

"I dare you to go over and say more than one word to him." Eli was the outgoing one, the great cheerleader. He'd push and push until Amelia did it. Amelia turned bright red and Eli reached over to take her hand in his. "Do you want me to go with you?"

"No!" Amelia almost shouted. Then she took a deep breath and the look of panic decreased slightly. "Fine, fine, I'll do it."

Paige, Leah, and Eli all watched as Amelia rose, straightened invisible wrinkles from her outfit, and walked painfully slowly to the line with her hot chocolate mug in hand.

"Hi, Amelia. What can I do for you?" Felix asked, ignoring the line of people and calling Amelia up to the counter.

"Ooh, he singled her out. I knew he liked her," Eli whispered as Paige and Leah nodded. That had to be a good sign.

Amelia froze. Felix waited patiently. "Um. Can I have some more whipped cream please?"

"Of course. Anything for my favorite girl." Felix winked at her and Amelia's knees visibly wobbled.

Paige fanned her face with her hand. "This is like straight up bookworm porn right here."

"Only if he quotes Austen," Leah added with a happy smile.

"Screw Austen, Amelia doesn't need any more chaste longing. Now, if he quotes some erotica from Authoress X, that'd be something," Eli said as they all watched Felix put a mountain of whipped cream on Amelia's hot chocolate.

Amelia practically ran back to them with a huge smile on her face. Her hands were shaking so badly that the mountain of cream looked as if it were about to have an avalanche. "I did it. I said a full sentence."

Paige saw the excitement in Amelia's eyes. She wanted that for herself. She needed a win because right now she didn't know how many more rejections she could take.

"I need that," Paige said, giving Amelia's hand a squeeze. "Maybe I should use Leah's hookup app and toss that V card out the window. Maybe guys can subconsciously tell I'm an inexperienced spinster by some kind of pheromones I give off. They smell me and run in the opposite direction, knowing I won't be a good hookup."

"I think there has to be something better than losing your virginity on an app," Leah told her. "Most of the books we've read when a woman loses her virginity, it's either to an experienced older man, a billionaire, or the college star quarterback. Something a lot hotter than a random dude on an app."

Inspiration hit Paige like a lightning bolt. She knew exactly what to do. The only question was she brave enough to do it?

Paige hardly heard a word for the rest of the book club meeting. Her mind was swirling around the book they'd read a year ago. A book she'd brought with her on New Year's Eve because it had been her favorite book of the year. As soon as book club was over, she urged Leah to walk quickly back to the apartment. Paige lied and said she had forgotten to feed Monty and that was why she was in such a hurry.

Instead, Paige rushed into the apartment and locked the door behind her. She crossed the small room and stopped in front of her bookcase. Her eyes scanned the hundreds of titles until she landed on her bag on the floor in front of the bookcase. Paige walked over as if it were a bomb. She pulled it out and stared at the cover. It was a dark erotica by Authoress X. Paige had thought it was all fiction until she'd seen it on the news. The plot of this book was an actual thing in real life. The book was about a woman who auctioned off her virginity and ended up finding love with the man who made the winning bid. Paige had loved that book so much she'd toasted the author with a bottle of wine when she'd completed it. To be honest, the idea of someone wanting her that badly had really turned her on. Plus, it all seemed logical. Paige was a virgin. She wanted to lose said virginity and Paige wanted to find love. If she could find love right off the bat, it would be everything Paige wanted. Easy peasy.

Fifteen minutes later Paige sat with a notebook in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. Now, how did she go about this? She didn't have the money to fly to Nevada where it would be legal. And quite frankly, she was afraid to do it so far from home. She opened her laptop and began to do some research.

Paige sat back and cracked her neck. It was now three in the morning, but she had a plan. She looked at the screen and called the number listed.

A woman answered with the name of the escort company. "Who do you want to order tonight?"

Paige swallowed hard even though her mouth was dry. "Hi. I saw you have specialties for your clients and you background check the guys who special-order escorts."

"You have a question here, hon?"

"Yeah, I want to get rid of my virginity but I want to do it like an auction."

The woman chuckled even as Paige felt her mouth and throat dry out from her nerves. "You read that book, didn't you? Damn, if I still had my virginity, I'd sell it too, after that."

"You're a bookworm!" Paige suddenly relaxed.

"Have to be to stay up all night answering the phone here. But it's illegal to sell your virginity in New York. You have to go to Nevada for that."

"I've thought of that. What if we make them think it's an actual auction, but then simply don't ask for the money."

"Hmm. Let me ask my boss. I'm sure she'd love to have something like this to get more clients, but she's the lawyer so she'll know the law on this. What's your name and number, hon?"

"Can I give a fake name?"

"Honey, everyone here has a fake name. How about Kat?"

Paige smiled. "From the book! Perfect. I really appreciate it."

"Got to give you creativity points here. I'll let you know what the boss says."

Paige hung up and chugged a glass of water. A book-loving-escort receptionist was seeing if Paige could sell her virginity without actually selling it. She was definitely well outside her comfort zone now. And the funny thing was, it felt great.