“While I’m having a lovely time in Ireland, I wonder how my friend Eddie is doing,” she said. A shadow of sadness in her eyes as she spoke.

A twinge of envy shot through Aiden. “Who’s Eddie?”

Antonia propped her chin on her fist. “He’s my best friend from college. We worked for Wild Hare Publishing until it fell apart.”

He nodded, pushing aside his possessive feelings. “You haven’t told me much about that job,” he said.

“There’s not much to tell I’m afraid,” she began. “He and I started working there out of school. It started out nice enough I guess, but apparently poor management can tank anything. Eddie warned me that there was something wrong with our boss, Richard, but I think I was too distracted with other things. No matter what kind of editing I did, the books we pushed through were failing in quality. The last straw was probably Starman.”

Aiden frowned. “Starman? Like the Bowie song?”

She rolled her eyes. “Exactly. I told Richard it was a terrible idea. I know there’s no copyright on titles, but come on. Who would sign off on that?”

“Gotcha.”

“Anyway, Eddie can fall back on his girlfriend’s salary for a while, but I worry he might fall into a depression.” She paused to stare into space. “He gets like that sometimes. A little somber and in his head.”

“Mmh.” Aiden nodded. “It’s rough, but I’ll bet you two will find something new. What do you think you’ll do when you get back?” He didn’t want to think about her going back home. He didn’t want the real world to encroach on what they shared. But real boyfriends asked about these things and Aiden definitely felt like he was in the running for the title of Antonia’s potential boyfriend.

“Oh lord,” she said with a tired smile. “I don’t want to think about that. I’m only a few days into my vacation. The only stress that I want to sort out is baking a cake.”

He was relieved to hear that. “That’s understandable,” he said. But there would come a time where she’d have to think about her life back home, that was only sensible. “Do you think you’ll be able to put more work into your book?”

“My book,” she said with a grin. “It’s hard for me to even call it that. I don’t know what I’m doing with my story, if it will even become a book. Things were a lot easier when I didn’t have to think about it.”

“It was easier to rely on a job that made you unhappy?”

“I don’t think working at Wild Hare made me unhappy...it was just stressful.”

“How much time did you spend writing while you worked there?” he asked, taking a sip of coffee. “Was it a distraction from what you really wanted to do?”

She paused with a slight frown. “I had to work. I also had to plan a wedding.”

He nodded thoughtfully before replying. “I see that.” He tried to tread lightly. “It’s just that I’ve been reading the drama of Claudette and her well-hung farm boy, and while it’s good, I know you can do better. I think you have genuine talent, Antonia.”