Cursive - By Phoebe Lane Page 0,88

her childhood: her dad, New York, Ellie, her parents' divorce, and Christopher. She eventually lost track of time and her only clues that she had been at it for a while were the half dozen empty bottles of water on her desk, her battery-drained cell phone, and a concerned Ellie calling out her name over and over from behind her.

"Aislynn…Aislynn!" Ellie nearly shouted.

"Hey, Ellie. Where are you off to?" she asked casually, unable to look up from her computer screen.

"The airport," she said, somewhat exasperated.

"I thought you said you were leaving tomorrow."

"It is tomorrow already."

Aislynn looked up and noticed Ellie was wearing different clothes than what she had worn to dinner with Evan, and her hair…

"Your hair is brown!" Aislynn half-screamed, then looked around the apartment, feeling disoriented and lightheaded. "When did that happen?"

"Yesterday, before—oh, never mind," Ellie said with a roll of her eyes. She moved toward Aislynn with caution, the way you would approach a scared wild animal to prevent it from attacking. "Aislynn, sweetie, you've been up all night. You've been writing for over twelve hours now."

"Wait…what time is it?" Aislynn asked, looking down at her computer clock, and gasped.

On the other corner of the screen she saw the word count on the document she was working on and almost fell out of her chair. She had written over thirty thousand words, and she couldn't explain how it had happened. It had all spilled out without rhyme or reason, almost instinctively.

"Whatever you have there, save it and send it to your editor right now," Ellie said, looking over her at her screen.

"What? No! This isn't part of the novel," Aislynn said, pressing her palms into her eyes, all of a sudden feeling the exhaustion overtake her. "I had some things I needed to get off my chest. I guess it got out of control."

"It may not be part of the novel you've got planned out in your head, but it's obviously important. Send it to Lana, just in case," Ellie said and stared at Aislynn, expecting some kind of rebuttal but getting nothing. "It may be therapeutic to let someone else read it. I would be more than happy to do it, but I must warn you that if this is about your mom, I absolutely refuse to be objective about it."

Aislynn opened her mouth several times to answer, but her brain couldn't form any coherent words. "I swear I have a witty, smart-ass response to your comment, but I'm running on fumes and it's not coming out."

"Great. Now, send the email and go to sleep."

"Argh. You're…you're…infuriating," Aislynn snapped.

"That's it? That's the best you can come up with? God, you are exhausted," Ellie said with a chuckle, and wheeled her luggage toward the door. "Please remind Jace that the guestroom furniture is being delivered this afternoon."

"Oh, damn it. I forgot about that," Aislynn said, standing up from the table. "He's going to be in Portland until tomorrow night. He asked me to be there to receive it. I got it; don't worry."

"All right, then. But get some sleep before you drive there."

"Yes, Mom," Aislynn quipped.

"I'm sincerely offended."

"Sorry, it's all I could come up with," Aislynn said and hugged her. "Have a safe flight, and good luck with your meeting. Call me as soon as you get an answer back from your boss."

"Okay, I will."

Aislynn made some coffee and ate a piece of toast before texting Jace to check in and tell him about her all-nighter. She took a shower and got ready for bed, all the while thinking about Ellie's suggestion to send her latest work to Lana.

On impulse and without even taking time to edit, she emailed a five thousand word excerpt to her editor. Fifteen minutes later, she received a text back.

I'm halfway through. Send me more. We need to meet and talk ASAP.

Oh, no. What have I done?

"So how much were you able to sleep?" Jace asked on the phone.

"I think I got about four hours. My editor kept texting and calling me insistently, and I finally got up to take her phone call. She wants to meet with me next week when she comes into town again," Aislynn said as she walked into Jace's house, wishing she would find him sitting at the breakfast bar or lounging in the living room, preferably without a shirt on.

"Did she say any more about what she wants from you?"

"Not really, but I suspect she wants me to focus on writing this and not the novel for