Hi y’all. I’ve been working to stay on task and not story hop quite so much, on the grind anyway. I can’t control what happens between my ears. 🙂 And Margot and Nori’s story has flourished as a result. I did some rereading this weekend, and realized that he begins the book as a bit of an asshole. Of course, it looks good on him, as only an alpha male can, but Margot manages to break him down quite nicely without saying much. She is his Kryptonite, and he likes, no he craves, the weakness. He fights against it of course, but it’s an internal battle. Most of the book takes place in his head as he struggles to lock her down and figure her out and scraps so valiantly against the external forces that contrive to separate the two of them. It’s the first time I’ve ever written a story so much from the male point of view. I don’t know if the final version will be this man heavy, but I’m enjoying putting myself in “his” shoes. Here’s an unedited snippet. This is a fight between our hero and heroine after Nori’s father shows out at a dinner party. Let me know what you think. Enjoy!
“I hope we’re not boring you with all this legal talk, Margot,” said Aro later when the conversation shifted again to business, his black brows arching high to meet thick silver hair. “But perhaps you understand the nuances? You have had your share of legal situations.”
“I certainly have,” she said easily, without a hint of upset at his father’s sotto voce rudeness. “But don’t worry about me. I am a small business owner after all, and even if I wasn’t, I find it remarkably easy to shut out anything I don’t find interesting.”
Score one for my girl, Nori thought, shooting his father a smug, pick the bones out of that! grin.
But old Aro was far from defeated. He was just getting started. Very cleverly and with not a little skill he managed to insult Margo repeatedly, no matter what the topic of conversation. Without ever raising his voice he suggested she was common, boring, ill educated, and mediocre in the talent department. And then, for the piece de resistance, he brought up race.
“So, what do we think of this movie 12 Years a Slave?”
“I thought it was wonderful,” said Daphne. “They predict it will do very well this awards season.”
“I presume you have seen this film, Margot? I know you – artists – like to support one another.”
“I wouldn’t see a movie about a slave if you paid me,” Margot said, calmly eating her shortcake.
“No?” said Aro. “I’d have thought you would want to sympathize with the injustice of it all,” he drawled.
“That is enough!” Nori said, tossing his napkin onto the table.
Margot was already on her feet.
“I can sympathize all right. It’s the wallowing I find hard to swallow. And if you’ve seen one movie degrading black people, visiting sundry atrocities and indignities on black flesh? You’ve pretty much seen them all. I’m not a masochist. And that,” she said, tossing back the last of her wine. “Is why I’m going to say good night. It’s been a very – interesting evening. Enlightening, even. Ladies, you have my number. Do call me when you’re ready to start your custom projects.”
And she turned on her heel and was gone.
“Margot! I’m sorry, Margot,” Nori said, moving to follow. “Wait!”
“Let her go,” said Aro, also on his feet.
Nori stopped walking and swung around, a look so foul on his face, his father actually stepped back, shocked.
“You’d better pray your ridiculous, juvenile attempts to make my friend feel inferior, uncomfortable and unwelcome have failed. Because if she doesn’t forgive me I will never darken this fucking door again. Do you understand me? You and this menagerie of old shitheads just fucked up. Huge,” Nori told his father in French, following Margot from the room without another word for anyone.
He sprinted and found her just as she crossing the foyer to the front door. “Margot.”
She kept walking.
“Margot, please!” He spun her around and then almost fell over when she shoved him back with all her might.
“Let me ask you something, Nori. Do you think I put on my good clothes, let Tommy and Lani do all this shit to my face and my hair to go out in the street and let some motherfucker treat me bad?
“What was it, my day to randomly take abuse, to be dropped unceremoniously into the middle of some bullshit ass family drama? Let me guess,” she said, voice soft but dripping with sarcasm and gasoline. “Your father’s a little possessive? He has definite ideas about what kind of woman his only son should be with? Well fuck him!” she screamed, stabbing her finger on each word. “And fuck you too for sitting there and letting them talk to me like that.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Don’t be stupid. What the fuck do I care about fair? You betrayed me!”
Nori was completely shocked. He’d never seen her like this. She was beyond angry. She was ready to go off like a bomb mad. Tension radiated off her like heat. Her normal grace gone, her limbs were stiff, her movements jerky. After that shove a minute ago, he suspected she wanted to hit him.
“I didn’t have to leave my house for this. I could have stayed at home where it was comfortable, doing some work to make me some money! I gotta lotta people waitin’ on shit from me. Shit they need to keep my money flowing in. See, I don’t have some crazy ass daddy to depend on. Nobody gave me a business to run. Everything I have I got for myself.” She thumped her chest.
She’d moved in so close he had to fight the urge to step back. His spine straightened instead. She would not intimidate him. His lover was somewhere inside this virago. This volcanic female in front of him was Margot Temper. The woman everyone had warned him about had finally appeared. He had to resist the sudden urge to smile, and he knew she saw it when her eyes narrowed and she stepped back.
“You’re not gonna aggravate me, Nori. I don’t want to be bothered.”…
Sherrod Story - Here lies your book boyfriend...naked. 