Original Sin (MewGulf AU)

🌻Chapter 8

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"What's up, Gulf? You look depressed. You're not drinking much," Makihara said.

"Oh, it's not that," Gulf answered shyly, bringing his wine glass to his lips.

Sometimes when their weekly meetings ended early, those without work to do went out for drinks. Boat and the others who sat beside Gulf had been heatedly debating the new proofreader for some time.

"But when I asked him if choke or strangle sounded better, he didn't know!"

"Well, how should he know if he's not used to working on mysteries? He's not going to know the difference between choking and strangling right off the bat."

The discussion was extremely rowdy, but it was only the alcohol that made them shout at each other. Gulf smirked to himself, glad that they weren't bothering the other customers.

"Hey, I heard they're reprinting 300,000 copies of Emergence!"

Makihara had changed Gulf with the mission of retrieving the manuscript for Emergence with the explicit intention of pulling the pulp imprint out of the red. But sales were even better than they'd anticipated, they could bury the deficit and still have money left over. It was early May, only a little more than one month after Emergence had gone on sale, and it was still dominating the best seller lists.

"The sales department really pulled together to help us out. The pace has dropped off, but it's still moving fast."

"If we could get a movie deal for it, it would sell even better."

"Don't you think it would be hard to make into a movie? It's got such an unusual atmosphere," Gulf observed.

One of his coworkers pushed a wooden salad bowl over to him, interrupting. "Try this. When are you meeting to talk to Mew about his new book?"

Gulf picked up some of the lettuce and shredded radish, heaping it on his own plate. "Um---well, I thought I'd get started on the details soon."

Gulf was being so evasive because he still hadn't broached the subject with Mew. Their dates usually led automatically to sex, so Gulf had been unable to discuss anything with Mew. He felt nothing but irritation with himself.

"Well, I'm sure you'll manage."

"Thank you," Gulf replied with perfunctory politeness. "But I should get going."

When the drinking excursions got to that point, they bogged down and never seemed to end.

"Oh, look at the time! All right, well let you go," Makihara nodded.

TBC