As Advertised isn't really a new release. It's been a round a while, but it's still one of my favorite books, and I'll tell you why. When I first started writing it, i was writing to a very simple prompt: "Get me a beer."
Yup. That's it. That was the prompt. "Gt me a Beer." So many places I thought i would take that demand, but i never anticipated a novel coming out of that simple phrase. Or the conversation the characters had over said beer. Tyler has just been taking care of his oldest friend and neighbor, Marty, who is schizophrenic and is having a bad day.
“Come on in. I’ll clean up. There’s beer in the fridge.”
“You can’t look after him forever, Ty.”
Gritting his teeth, Tyler led them both into the apartment, tossed his keys to the counter, and motioned to the fridge as he went past to the washroom and the soap. “Help yourself.”
The refrigerator door slammed. The muffled clatter of condiments speaking to Jake’s prickly mood. Tyler tried to ignore the flare of annoyance and quickly cleaned the paint off himself. Jake was just flopping onto the couch, wrenching the caps off two beer bottles when Tyler returned. He took a healthy swig from one and held the other out to Tyler.
“So. That party you were talking about at work today. Why do you want to go?” A dark edge glimmered behind Jake’s eyes. That edge crept in often enough when the subject of Marty came up and always took too long to dissipate.
“Thank you.” He accepted the bottle, took a breath and shifted his weight, facing Jake more. “Why not?” At least he wasn’t going to harp on Tyler’s involvement with Marty, today. It never made sense to Tyler how Jake could be jealous of a man Tyler had known long before he ever met Jake. In any case, changing the subject was a good thing. Tyler settled onto the couch beside Jake who immediately got up and paced across the room taking quick, deep gulps of his beer. He traced an agitated path over the worn floor boards.
Tyler blinked at him. “Is there some reason I shouldn’t want to go to a party?”
“Because it is a party.” Jake perched on the arm of Tyler’s couch and looked down on him. “You don’t do parties. You’re the one told me that.”
“I know, but Maynard mentioned it. It sounds decent.”
Jake studied the label on his beer, picking at the corner of it. “Now you go to parties because your boss tells you to.”
“He didn’t tell me to. He just mentioned it.”
“Is he going to be there? That why he mentioned it to you?”
“Oh my god. You’ve got to be kidding me,” Tyler chuckled and sipped his beer.
Jake just looked at him.
“Seriously? Are you jealous?” Tyler asked.
Still Jake said nothing.
Tyler grabbed Jake’s arm and yanked him down. “Come here.”Tyler grabbed Jake’s arm and yanked him down. “Come here.”
For an instant, Jake resisted, but Tyler licked his lips, lifted his eyebrows and pulled a little harder. Jake slid down, squeezed his cheeks into the crack between Tyler and the arm of the couch and took Tyler’s chin in a loose grip. “Doesn’t it bother you?” he asked after another swig, keeping his searching gaze on Tyler.
“What?” Tyler frowned.
“That he uses the fact you like dick to scope out new clients.”
“What?” Tyler hitched back a few inches, putting some space between them.
“Think about it. You do know who’s throwing this party?”
“Jessop. I don’t know his first name. I don’t even know what he does. Maybe Maynard just mentioned it because he thinks I’ve been working too hard lately. Unlike someone I know, who gets all the easy clients and the padded expense account.” Tyler set his beer down and wiggled closer, hooking his finger into Jake’s tie and prying it loose.
“If you think those clients are easy, my dear, you’ve got another think coming. I just have a knack for handling self-absorbed, insane people. You, though. Maynard’s working you to the bone and not giving you enough credit. Jessop is a dream account. If he doesn’t give it to you….” A hard edge visible just in the shadows of Jake’s expression told Tyler there was something he wasn’t saying, though what it could be, he had no idea.
“Anyway.” Tyler gravitated a little toward Jake, touched his face, ran his fingers over the angles. “Not talking about work right now. It’s a party. We never go anywhere. It’s time, don’t you think?”
Jake grinned, leaned close so everything blurred together. The sullenness turned to lust, and defensiveness to desire. “You never complained about that before.”
The bass rhythm of Marty’s music reverberated through the apartment. Tyler’s heart sank. He did so much better when he slept.
Jake nearly growled as he grabbed hold of Tyler’s chin and forced his attention away from the shared wall and Marty’s insomnia. His face darkened, and his fingers tightened around the neck of his beer bottle. “You need to move.”
“Jake—”
Not exactly the picture of a healthy, happy relationship...
Blurb: Tyler's life perked up when he met Jake. So what if long-time friend Marty can't stand him and his landlady has no use for his new beau. Tyler's determined not to see the dark side of his lover. It's his own fault for believing people don't go around keeping secrets and lying.
Tyler should know better. He's an ad executive. He knows the packaging is what sells, and Jake is quite a package. His lover is no slouch when it comes to false advertising, either, and when Tyler finds out the truth, It hurts. Weathering Jake's lies and secrets gets easier with the help of new friends, Libby and Steven. In fact, Tyler figures that maybe a lot of things would get easier with Steven.
Tyler should have known better. Not even someone as seemingly perfect as Steven Jessop is completely as advertised. This time, though, Tyler has to make a decision. After all, sometimes, even if what you see is not what you get, what Tyler's uncovered in Steven might just be what he's always wanted.
1 comment:
Hey! Happy Birthday! Hope it's a good one for you.
Post a Comment