Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
Should it rhyme? Be catchy? Sentimental? Sad?
Should I cry? Laugh? Joke about it?
I have one real skill. I can write. I’m a damn good writer.
So I decided to propose to Cordelia Serendipitous the only way I knew how.
I wrote her a book.
She holds the book up, giggling. “The Ro-Bro?”
I nod, smiling like a fool. “The Ro-Bro.”
“Is this…?”
“Our story? It sure the hell is. And I want your opinion. So could you read it? Like right now? And let me know what you think?”
“Steve.” She comes around the counter, stands up on her tiptoes, and kisses me on the lips. “I don’t need to read it—I already love it. But there is no way in hell I’m not taking the rest of the day off to read this book.” She shrugs her shoulders up and smiles. “I’ll be outside.”
I let out a long breath as I watch her go outside, then I get busy making us lunch. I make spectacular sandwiches, grab some chips and salsa and two bottles of icy-cold water, and I join her on the patio.
She’s already laughing. It’s one laugh after another.
We eat, she gushes over the book—a technical term—and then I leave her alone to finish it.
But I watch from inside. I stand at the window for a while, just enjoying her as she relives our story on the page. I sit, and walk around a little too. But when the sun is falling down towards the sea, and it’s nearly dinner time, I know she’s at the end. I’ve been gauging her progress with page turns.
So I stand there, outside and under the lattice archway covered in grapevines in front of the patio where Cordelia sits, and I wait for her to look up.
And the moment she does I get down on one knee.
She jumps to her feet and bursts into tears.
“My lovely Cordelia… how could proposing on a skydive be meaningful? Or popping the question in the sky à la chemtrail? Or baking that ring into a cupcake? Should I do it down on one knee?” I pan a hand to myself. “Of course I should. But where? On top of a mountain? On a beach? In a sailboat? Should I do it on horseback? In a racecar? At a restaurant? On a tightrope? Should I sing it? Recite it? Yell it? Should it rhyme? Be catchy? Sentimental? Sad? Should I cry? Laugh? Joke about it? I could not decide, so… I did the only thing I knew how to do. I wrote you a book. Will you be my happily ever after?”
This chapter is in there.
I planned the whole day, up to and including the sprint with the guys. It didn’t exactly go the same way as in the book, but it’s pretty damn close.
I get up, take the ring box out of my pocket, and walk over to Cordy. She’s got her hand over her mouth and happy tears in her eyes. I ask for her hand and she offers it willingly.
Then I get back down on one knee and look up at my future wife. “Will you marry me?”
Her answer is a whispered, “Yes.”
She’s shaking when I put the ring on. But when I kiss her, she’s calm.
Our story hasn’t been written yet. What we have now is but a prologue.
And I’m sure there are many trials and tribulations coming our way, but no one will be dragging us, kicking and screaming, to our happily ever after.
Because we’re already there.
JULIE
Welcome to the end of book shit. I write one of these chapters in almost every single book and it’s just a place to put my thoughts about the story and the process. And boy, do I have a lot of fun thoughts about The Ro Bro. By the way, the EOBS is never edited, so if you see typos, oh well.
First of all, big thanks to Shawn Inmon, Terry Schott and Luke Chmilenko. Because these are my real-life author friends (Well, except not Luke. Luke still doesn’t understand why he’s in this book because we don’t actually know each other. But he knows Terry, and Terry has lunches with Luke. And then Terry comes and talks about Luke to Shawn and me and, well, Steve needed to have three friends so Luke was in. So sorry, not sorry, Luke. You’re stuck with me and it’s Terry’s fault.)
If Steve is the Ro Bro in this fiction, then I’m the Bro Wo in real life. Because a lot what’s going down with Steve and his friends is just a day in the life of Julie, Shawn, and Terry. These guys are my real-life author friends and we really do have Zoom sprints where we compete (light-heartedly) for how many words we can get in the span of 20-25 minutes.
There are a lot of little truths about us in here. For instance, Shawn really does get up in the middle of a sentence and get Dawn coffee during the zoom call. lol And Terry really does spout off a hundred ideas for our stories in the span of five seconds AND tacks on one extra word to his count after Shawn and I give up ours. As for Luke… well, almost none of this is true about Luke because I don’t know him. lol. He’s a happily married Canadian. But he IS a big fuckin’ deal AND gets all the deals, so that part IS true.