Chapter 114

March 10th, 2020

Jess was in the bedroom, turning down the bed for the night. There was the throw blanket, the bed cover and at least a dozen throw pillows in various shapes, textures and colors that he tossed into the designated corner. Celeste had been nesting, and she had every right to be, being pregnant with their little surprise baby. She had been overly energetic, emotional but not always the most sensible, but he knew better than to point that out.

Celeste had just a week ago gotten her inheritage, and she'd certainly allowed her a couple of days of shopping as if blowing off some steam. She was usually so careful with money. Surely this was her right? But sometimes, like now, he thought this was all too much - surely the frilled purple throw pillow was too much? Most of their rooms had gotten makeovers in the past week, there were items in their household that they'd never had, items that had purposes unknown to him. Did one actually need a microplane meat tenderizer?

But as his round-bellied, and earlier today also slightly hormonal, wife trotted into the bedroom, wearing just a silky nightgown, her nipples protruding through its fabric, holding the final version of his book that had been printed out for her final verdict, he was suddenly reminded why he was more than forgiving of all of these things.

She looked gorgeous, and she'd just spent half a day reading the pages he'd written about his bystander view of dealing with her mental health issues. A woman who was willing to do that, willing to survive his lack of appreciation for the finer things in life when throw pillows were concerned, have and care for his children and was also willing to put his side of her very personal story public, deserved more than he was probably able to ever give her. The two times he'd felt he actually had something to offer her had been when she had wanted a baby and when he'd built the insides of the very house they were living in now with his own two hands.

"So?" he asked, having already put Evie to bed half an hour ago.

"Found a typo," Celeste pointed out.

"You're kidding!?" Jess reacted, not believing it was still possible at this stage. "I should duck Rory's pay…,," he began, jokingly, heading over to look where on earth she had found another mistake. There had been a lot of them - Jess' first drafts usually coming out so rapidly he hardly cared much about spelling, letting a lot of things slide.

Celeste grinned widely, indicating that there was no typo. She had indeed been kidding. She'd read the book's first draft and once before it had gone to the editor, a.k.a Rory, for the second time when it was in its final stages contents wise.

"I just wish I'd see myself as clearly as you see me," Celeste noted, smilingly. She was doing well, except for the occasional hormonal sobs she could have any time of the day now - watching the news, seeing a picture of a stray cat, when the cookies were broken inside the box, when Evie said something nice to her... you know - the typical. In part she felt it were her meds, the right cocktail, that had eventually helped, or perhaps in part also the pregnancy hormones. And in part - she was sure it had had it's part - also reading Jess' book over and over again. It enabled her to take a step aside from how she saw things and see it through his eyes. She hoped it wasn't just her, she hoped the book would have the same effect on others as well who needed that viewpoint.

"Well you don't really need to, that's why you have me," Jess replied in a husky tone, and slowly wrapped his arms around her hips to hold her, her bump conveniently positioned between them.

She kissed him with gratitude. They'd been through a lot together - but this book was proof that they were stronger for it. It also put things into perspective really well - a couple of throw pillows really mattered very little in comparison, and Jess knew it.

July 30th, 2024

"So what do you think?" Jess asked from Celeste who was sitting in bed, her legs pulled up and her laptop, which Jess had used for writing having not even brought his own, on top of her knees in front of her. She'd been reading the pages which had flown out of Jess in the past few weeks. It wasn't even record time for Jess, but it was a first draft nonetheless.

It was a new genre for Jess - he'd never written something borderline sci-fi like this was. He was giving his characters do-overs of their regrets, using bits from the lives of many people he knew, including himself. The characters all met a mysterious little girl at unexpected moments in their lives. The girl, whom he'd written off of Evie in part, acted as the child-like god in this. Appearing innocent and powerless, but really held all the power, and maturity beyond the age she looked.

"It is strange reading something so entertaining from your pen, to be honest," Celeste looked at him sideways, still reading over the final paragraph.

Jess looked at her dubiously, but climbed into bed with her.

"I mean, yes - your former books have been engaging and interesting. That's not what I mean," Celeste corrected. "But this is actually something I could picture on a screen… I don't know. I know that the idea of time travel isn't very new, it's been done before, but something about the way you've handled it is very refreshing. You still have the noir elements there, but no bloodshed. Not everything is hopeless, but instead I feel how it's about making amends, hence instead of classic noir you're creating peace for these people. It's almost therapeutic, I would say," Celeste added. She wasn't sure if Jess had done it on purpose but the book contained in her opinion all the important parts one generally also went through in therapy sessions. Of course it was no wonder, Jess had been to therapy with her enough times and after writing the last book, he certainly knew more than most men.

"I'm not writing a movie," Jess groaned, not really liking what he was hearing. It seemed beneath him to him, something that wasn't comparable to fast food when it could've been al a carte. And he'd heard from Rory what that world was like, when she spoke from Doyle's experiences.

"Hey, just saying… it's the impression I got. It doesn't mean it doesn't work as a book, but I am not sure every person has that great of an imagination to picture these little details that you have in here," Celeste explained. "Just this here…," she began going a dozen pages back and read out an excerpt for him. Generally it was about setting the scene around the character who was sitting on the floor of his kitchen, and Jess' description put emphasis on anything from the sound the windowsill made when water dripped onto it, up to the way the person's eyes felt dry, without actually saying any one of those things.

"I'm a little proud of that one, actually," Jess mused, truly feeling the compliment within him that this was the one she'd liked.

"You should be," Celeste replied.

"Anything else?" Jess inquired further.

Celeste went on about a few more bits that had caught her interest. She was not an editor, she wasn't even a native English speaker, but she was a writer's wife, hence she'd picked up a few things along the years. She was Jess' first critique and a damn good one at that, as she didn't get paid for it nor did she usually bother sugarcoating anything. She genuinely wanted the book to be as good as it could be.

"Okay… so it seems doable. I'll try to fix that one scene," Jess concluded, recalling one correction Celeste had recommended a few minutes ago.

"There was another thing though..," Celeste didn't quite want to stop there. There was another scene that had caught her eye.

But while Jess raised her eyebrows expectantly, Celeste simply climbed to straddle his thighs. Jess had no objections to where this seemed to be going, but he was curious nonetheless. Celeste put her arms around his neck, massaging his shoulders and nape of his neck gently.

She then leaned in and whispered to his ear seductively. "I liked the way you handled that erotic scene, it got me all wet," Celeste murmured.

"I thought you'd like that..," Jess said in a low tone, having hesitated a little whether to add an intimate scene there. It was about the two of them, though the characters were named Odette and Jack, a pseudonym Jess had sometimes used in his earlier works in a couple of magazines. It was not like he hadn't written mature content before, this time it was just a little more intimate as it was the two of them, and he was sure Rory would be able to tell it was them too. He'd hesitated whether that part was something he actually wanted to hand to Rory at all. But especially now, he had no objections to Celeste having read it.

"You're a Jack of many trades - first nordic noir, then the next Netflix script... And now we're moving to erotica, it seems," Celeste teased him, knowing how it's would get him riled up.

"Take that back," Jess demanded, wrapping his strong hand tightly around her thighs and pulling her flush up against him.

"Make me..," she dared, biting her lip.