Another Problem Fix

“I thought you were joking.” You tell Dana, and she pretty much just gives you a smile that says ‘nope, I wasn’t’.

“I thought I pretty much had this done.” You declare in desperation. You’re not looking at her, but you can glance that even if she doesn’t change her smile, now it means ‘nope, you didn’t’.

“What the fuck was I thinking?” You ask yourself while rubbing your forehead, and you can still see that same smile in your mind that’s now saying ‘nope, you weren’t’.

“AAAAAGH!” You finally grunt in frustration.

“~Okay. I think we should pause for the day.” Dana finally says in reaction, standing up from the dining table.

“What happened, Mr. Craig?” You hear Maddy ask from the living room.

“Fucking Diane happened.” You answer in frustration.

“What?” Maddy asks in confusion.

“Oh… uh… it’s not what it sounds like.” You immediately assure her. “I just… I fucked up my ending.” You admit, crestfallen.

“And everything that led up to that.” Dana unnecessarily reminds you.

“Yes, Dana. That too.” You agree, unable to hide your annoyance at yourself. Although, you hope Dana doesn’t misconstrue that as being annoyed with her.

“Isn’t that the entire book then?” Maddy asks in concern; and you just sigh in frustration that, yes, that’s exactly what that means.

“I’m going to tell Mrs. Sachs this is nowhere close to done for the timeline she envisioned.” Dana says, a reminder for herself more than anything.

“Nowhere close to done, period.” You correct her.

“Yes. That too.” Dana returns your earlier annoyed comment back at you, and you both just sigh that this means there’s a lot more work for both of you to be had.

“I’ll come back earlier tomorrow so we can get started on this first thing in the morning?” Dana asks, as she grabs her things from the dining table.

“I can’t do ‘early’ mornings. The girls and I go on a run and workout during that time. Sometimes I drive the others to work too.” You tell Dana, not matching her enthusiasm for dealing with the current version of your manuscript.

“Oh. Um… I just meant let’s not start in the afternoon. We can do strictly nine to five so we follow a work schedule?” Dana suggests.

“Yeah. That sounds doable.” You tell her.

“So I’ll see you at nine tomorrow?” Dana asks to make sure you’re both on the same page.

“Yeah. I’ll see you then.” You confirm.

“You’re not going to stay for dinner, Ms. Dana? You and Mr. Craig have been hard at work all day. Would you like to have something to eat?” Maddy asks politely.

“No, thank you. I’ll grab a bite to eat on the way home.” Dana answers, and your lack of protest doesn’t seem to bother Dana as you usher her across your apartment and walk her out the door. The two of you give your final goodbyes before Dana finally leaves your apartment.

As soon as she does, you close the door and just slump your back on it to help support you, as you feel your legs giving out in mental exhaustion. Despite resting your back on the door, your legs just won’t allow you to stand, and you slide your back down until your butt hits the floor.

You hate your past self for gaslighting you to think that you wrote the majority of the final book of your ‘Undying Emperor’ series while you were in your depressed rut.

“Are you okay, Mr. Craig?” Maddy asks, approaching you from the living room. You’re sitting on the floor now, with the back of your head resting on the door.

“Yup.” You answer as an obvious lie. “Peachy.” You add, unable to not be sarcastic.

“I kinda heard everything you and Ms. Dana talked about while checking your draft for the series finale.” Maddy admits, as you hear your voice getting closer. You’ve closed your eyes to rest them. You’ve had them staring at a computer screen for hours, reading your own god-awful expression of emotional turmoil after Diane left pretending to be the last book in your series.

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” You ask Maddy rhetorically, knowing she’ll just confirm your assumptions anyway.

“Well, the ending I heard was a lot more… morose than I would have hoped for as a reader.” Maddy admits, and you can sense her sitting right in front of you now, but you refuse to open your eyes yet.

“That’s not even the ending I thought I wrote.” You admit to the fog in your memory during that period of time after Diane left.

“It’s not even the ending I had planned.” You continue, your voice unable to hide your frustration with yourself now.

“It’s not even… It’s not even publishable.” You finally admit, and the frustration in your voice is a lot more palpable when you do, and you finally let out another grunt of anger at yourself as your emotions boil to the surface.

You only stop when you feel Maddy’s hands on yours and squeezing them tightly. You finally open your eyes, and you see Maddy’s squatting between your legs, with her hands and yours resting on her knees that are locked together to hide a clear view of her underwear due to her wearing a sundress.

“It’s alright… Jay.” Maddy assures you, still clearly adjusting to calling you by your first name. “It’s just a setback. Now that you know that what you wrote isn’t what you even had planned, and I’m thankful that what I heard wasn’t your planned ending since that means I just spoiled myself and it’s not that I hate spoilers but I kinda do if I’m being honest especially for something I’ve been looking forward to for over a year now, and before you ask why I stayed if I was hearing spoilers, I couldn’t get out of my seat from just hearing the shocking details, and they were really shocking! The spoilers I heard weren’t even minor! Like how the book starts off from the previous book or something like that. I heard the story build up too and I have to admit a lot of the decisions that led to the ending were so out of character that…” Maddy starts to reason with you, before chuckling awkwardly after realizing her pep talk swiftly shifted into her own expression of relief.

“Sorry… I think this is the first time we’ve talked about your writing since I first got here and… and I couldn’t help myself.” Maddy admits with a sheepish smile and another awkward chuckle. Her embarrassment at her sudden fangirling finally stops her from continuing. You shift your hands so that you’re the one holding hers now, and you give them the same reassuring squeeze she first gave you to snap you out of your wallowing.

“Going back to what I was saying before I lost track, it’s just a setback. Now that you know there’s a problem to be fixed, now you can try and fix it… magically or not.” She points out. “Isn’t that what you do?” Maddy jokingly asks, but it is actually motivating to hear she thinks that of you.

“Thanks, Maddy.” You tell her, before freeing one of your hands and giving her affectionate pats on the head. She wasn’t expecting such a gesture, and she looks away blushing afterwards.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did that.” You apologize, as you realize you may have embarrassed Maddy by making her feel like a kid. “I used to do that with Stella when she did a good job.” You awkwardly admit the possible reasoning for your action.

“It-it felt nice.” Maddy tells you, still looking away. It makes the flush of her cheeks a lot more apparent now.

“Speaking of my daughter, where is Stella and the others?” You ask her, as you realize she’s the only one left in the apartment.

“They went to Viv’s a few hours ago to have dinner.” Maddy answers. “We tried inviting you, but you and Dana seemed super busy. We didn't want to interrupt.” Maddy explains.

“That could’ve been a convenient excuse to get her out of here earlier, if I’m being honest. You guys should’ve **** the issue.” You joke.

“I’ll tell the others.” She replies. “If Ms. Dana ever decides to go overtime again, we’ll kick her out so we can have dinner.” Maddy adds, and you both share a chuckle.

“So they’re still at Viv’s?” You ask.

“Yes. I think they’re still there trying to help Brooke redecorate her new room with the stuff she brought from her old apartment. I helped them move Brooke’s mattress to replace the one in Viv’s guest bedroom before coming back here. ” Maddy explains, and you’re a little disappointed that you didn’t get to help your girlfriends because of work.

It’s Maddy’s explanation of everything that’s happened while you’ve been working with Dana that you realize you don’t actually have the slightest clue how long you and Dana have been trying to salvage the garbage you wrote into a workable skeleton to use for revisions.

Then it hits you…

“Wait, you girls had dinner hours ago!?” You ask in shock. “What time is it?” You ask her, and Maddy looks at her watch to check.

“It’s a little half past nine.” Maddy answers, and your jaw drops to the floor. “Dana seems very motivated to have you working eight hours a day.” Maddy jokingly points out.

“Jesus Christ. No wonder my legs are weak.” You say, realizing why you’re so mentally drained. You try to shake cobwebs off by literally shaking your head, and instinctively making the motorboat sound while you do.

“What was that for, Jay?” Maddy asks, seemingly amused by your action.

“Shaking off the brain fog.” You answer, and Maddy seems to like the explanation so she does it too, motorboating sound effects and all. She almost shakes off her glasses because of it, so you straighten it back on her face when she does.

“I guess it did sort of help with the ‘brain fog’.” Maddy admits with a wide smile.

“You know what would really help with brain fog?” You ask her, and she innocently shakes her head. “Food.” You half-jokingly answer your own question, making you both chuckle. Maddy straightens her legs like it’s nothing and offers her hand to help you up.

“I get what you mean. I haven’t had dinner yet either.” Maddy admits, just as you take her hand to help you hold onto something to stand back up.

“What!? Why!?” You ask Maddy, full of concern; before realizing that your size and weight difference with Maddy isn’t proportionate with the **** of your pull to get back up, and you instead **** Maddy to fall onto you.

Yours and Maddy’s faces are just inches away now, and you’re both staring deeply into each other’s eyes. You can feel Maddy’s lips wanting to inch much closer to yours, and you’re about to break the boundary for her but she starts to speak.

“I-I haven’t had dinner yet because… well…” Maddy starts to say as she continues to stare into you deeply, but she can’t seem to hold it, and turns away again out of embarrassment. You realize her cheeks are redder than ever.

“I was waiting for you.”