Skip lay in bed, staring at the pitch black ceiling above them.

It was the middle of the afternoon, but they weren’t particularly sleepy, they just didn’t want to get up. As long as they were in bed, they could just exist.

That quiet peace was broken by a persistent bzzz-bzzz. One notification they could ignore, or two, but as the number stretched into a half dozen little vibration pulses, they gave up on trying to ignore it.

Melody was having herself a busy afternoon, it seemed. New comments and replies to Skip’s feedback were popping up constantly, prompting Skip to disable notifications before they began skimming what Melody was doing. Comment replies and accepted corrections were lined up, and every few moments, another note got marked as approved as Melody chewed through Skip’s suggested edits.

As a pleasant surprise, she was even accepting most of the suggestions, only occasionally leaving something in place, and always with a decent reason for why; Melody occasionally declined to go into further depth because that would be clarified in a future segment, or preferred more vernacular over formally accurate language.

Either way, it was a flurry of progress, and Skip could see that in addition to the edits, Melody had shared a pair of new chapters with them, both of which were already several pages into their respective draft states.

Sitting up, Skip grimaced, then put on a smile, the first part of their wardrobe. Kicking out of their baggy pajama pants, they traded them for a pair of baggy sweatpants, as well as a loose plain t-shirt to go under their hoodie. It wasn’t much of a fashion look, but the only people they’d be seeing that day would be coworkers and the wasters themselves, so they didn’t have much reason to dress up.

All that done, they left their dark little corner of the world and shuffled down the hall to knock on Melody’s door, forcing a yawn as they did so.

“Door’s open!” Melody called.

Skip pushed open the door, and was assaulted by bright daylight streaming in through the bedroom windows, wincing out of their yawn. “Morning, Melody.”

“Did you just wake up?” Melody inquired. She was sitting in bed, bundled up with blankets and her laptop as she typed away, and had an intense-but-pleased expression that stayed focused on her screen.

“Mhmm,” Skip said. “I saw you got a bunch done–once I have some breakfast, want to go over it and I can run over the new stuff?”

“Sure, but…” Melody glanced up, flashing a triumphant grin, putting a little musical flair in her tone. “I’ve got some news.”

Skip tilted their head, leaning in the doorway. “What’s that?”

“So, I posted some segments from what we’ve done on Flutter, just to sort of test the waters, see how people were responding,” Melody explained. “It got some good responses, especially the bit we put together about safe bondage. Don’t worry–I didn’t post any of the test photos.”

Skip kept a frown off their face, though the idea of their unfinished work being posted for strangers to criticize didn’t exactly fill them with glee. “We got good feedback? That’s great.”

“That’s not the news,” Melody said, shaking her head, a grin spreading across her face. “Skip–we might have a publisher. A representative got in touch, they want us to publish through them once the book is done. It might be a bad deal, I don’t want to make any promises yet, but the initial numbers are looking really good. Thirty percent royalties, which is way above industry standard, and they’re really enthusiastic about the project. They might even pay for us to do that photoshoot we talked about!”

Widening their eyes, Skip considered the implications. That was good news–great news, even. It meant this wasn’t just a hobby whose potential profits were effectively a gamble; they were talking about a real business venture with reasonably likely profits. Even if this first offer fell through, the quick response suggested there was a market in place for their book to flourish.

When they realized they hadn’t responded for a few seconds and the pause was becoming awkward, they said, “That’s great!”

“I know, right? I’m talking to them now, but I had a burst of energy and wanted to sort of harness it.”

Skip pondered for a moment, then nodded to show enthusiasm. “Alright–quick breakfast, then I’ll be back up. Okay?”

Melody gave a thumbs up, and Skip found their attentions split as they went downstairs to have a late breakfast, processing how they felt about that revelation.

It took them a few minutes standing next to the air fryer before they could be certain that they were feeling unhappy about the news, and it wasn’t until they were dumping in taquitos–the breakfast of champions–to heat up before they could put a finger on why they were unhappy.

A publisher this early meant their project had promise, but it also boxed them in. They were only getting started, with a handful of demo chapters and Melody’s ambition to keep them going. What if they got through more of the book and realized they wanted to go in a different direction? Or what if the publisher started demanding changes from them, to suit a particular audience?

They hadn’t realized how defensive they’d feel about their work when it was so new and unpolished, but already, they wanted to snatch the book back and shield it from anyone who might want to take control.

And, then again…a publisher was quality control. Sure, they liked the demo excerpts they’d seen, but it was always possible, or even likely, that they might change their minds once the book was finished.

It was maybe hasty to start preemptively worrying about rejection, but Skip couldn’t help it. They didn’t want their work to be rejected.

Of course, both those problems had a solution.

Just make the book good.

Not only would a high-quality book mean they’d never have to fear rejection for quality reasons, it meant that they’d have more publishers courting them. It was like Melody had said–if they already had one in just a day, how much more could they get if they were actively courting a publisher?

They just had to be good enough that they couldn’t be judged.

The air fryer dinged to indicate that their food was done, but Skip was no longer feeling particularly hungry. Taking out their phone, they shot Brains a text, asking if he’d be home soon and would want some leftovers. As expected, he responded quickly in the affirmative–Brains rarely turned down free food–and so they left the taquitos in the air fryer and instead snagged a soda from the fridge.

Melody wouldn’t be expecting them for a while longer, so they loitered, sipping cola and mulling the situation over.

Did they tell Melody that they didn’t want the publishing deal? That seemed like a recipe for a bad time; there was no easy way to explain that they were so turned off by the prospect of oversight that they wanted to give up such a strong opportunity.

And there was the problem to agreeing to projects like this, laid out plainly: Skip had put themselves in a position that they couldn’t easily get out of.

When a socially apt amount of time had passed, they returned upstairs, retrieving their own laptop before walking to Melody’s door. They opened it without knocking, strolling inside. “I think–”

Melody raised her eyebrows, frozen in the middle of taking a selfie with her arm raised and her naked legs spread, laptop set aside and blankets spread around her tastefully. “Uh–”

“Sorry,” Skip said, quickly closing the door and waiting for a moment.

“Come in,” Melody called a second later.

When Skip opened the door a second time, Melody was shimmying back into her pants, the slightest blush on her face. Skip glanced down apologetically. “Sorry, I thought you’d still be writing.”

Melody shrugged, picking up her phone. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just texting this girl, but she lives like an hour out of town so it might not even go anywhere.”

Nodding, Skip walked in, pulling out the chair by Melody’s desk. “I take it that guy you came in with last night was a one-off?”

Smirking, Melody rolled her eyes. “Puh-lease. You have to be something special to get a second night with me, and he was…let’s just say, not that.”

“Sorry you had a bad time,” Skip said, opening their laptop and waiting for it to power up.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. He was pretty much just a dildo with legs as far as actual sexual prowess goes, but it was a good learning experience.” Melody frowned over her phone for a moment, adding a filter to her selfie before sending it off.

Skip glanced at her, sure that Melody was trying to set up a particular reply. Seeing no reason not to take the bait, they asked, “What’d you learn?”

“Oh, I didn’t learn anything, but he learned a lot. It’s a good reminder that I know what I’m doing, and that I can just ignore the naysayers.” She smiled, picking her laptop up once again. “I’m the best at what I do, and what I do is teach wide-eyed rookies how to have a little fun.”

Pausing, Skip thought about tossing in a question. (What naysayers?) Instead, they said, “So, does the publishing deal look pretty solid?”

“So far, so good. I’m not signing anything just yet, but I explained what our goals are, and they sounded very on board.”

“Okay. So…we should make sure we do our best on this, huh?”

“That’s always the goal, isn’t it? We/re here to knock it out of the park, and so far, we’re doing it.”

“Right.” Skip pursed their lips. “Hmm.”

Looking up at them, Melody caught the uncertainty. “Are you worried about something?”

“Just…trying to make sure we stick to a high standard,” Skip explained. “I want to do our best.”

“Well then, we can just keep doing what we’ve been doing, because I think it’s been really good.” Melody turned to face Skip a little more directly. “And besides, you know the saying, ‘you can’t edit a blank page’. It’s better to get something finished, then if there are quality issues, we can fix it later.”

“Right, right.” Skip nodded again. “I just…”

“I get it.” Melody’s expression softened sympathetically. “This makes it kind of real, and that’s kind of scary, but I trust myself to do a good job writing, and I trust you to edit it well too.”

The vote of confidence didn’t exactly fix Skip’s concerns, but it helped, just a bit. “I guess…I don’t know. You’re right, it’s higher stakes now, and I want to try to put our best foot forward.”

Melody nodded, thinking for a moment before she replied. “Okay…here’s an idea, feel free to tell me no.”

“Yeah?” Skip asked, tilting their head. “Let’s hear it.”

Face turning slightly pink, Melody asked, “Well, what if I tied you up again?”

...

Sorry this update took so long to post! I've had a heck of a month - some good, some bad, but all very time consuming - and fell off my posting schedule somewhat. I'll be seeking to remedy that in the coming days!

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