WIPpet Wednesday: It’s All Good

Happy last WIPpet before Lower Education officially releases! [Insert me waving my arms frantically, Kermit the Frog-style] There’s been a ton of great stuff going on, including (drumroll please)…I HAD AN OP-ED PUBLISHED FOR THE ADVOCATE! In case I just spouted a bunch of unintelligible gibberish, The Advocate is a well-known lgbtq magazine. A comment in a group led to a private message led to submitting my op-ed.

For anyone who’s interested and is on Facebook, I’m having my online launch party on November 3. I considered doing it right on release day, but that didn’t make much sense. More people are around on weekdays than weekends. Feel free to stop by and maybe win something!

On to the WIPpet. This is my last post with Micah and Cat for a while. I’m going to give you some teasers for short stories in November, and in December, I should have enough of my next project to begin sharing it. I’m really going to miss these guys. After sticking with them all summer (and seeing them fall apart a bit), you all deserve to see their happy-for-now. I still swear no one dies in this book.

WIPmath: 9 – 2 + (1 + 0) = 8 paragraphs.

He stroked Cat’s face with his thumb. “It’s you I want to be with, no matter what.”

Cat leaned into the touch. “Being with me isn’t easy. Sometimes, you get the me you called a ‘sexy chipmunk.’” He chuckled. “And sometimes, you get this.” He touched just above his mediport. “I’m in the hospital, or I’m in so much pain I can’t move, or I’m spewing everything I eat. In between, you get plain old me.”

Micah lowered his hand and ran his index finger just beneath Cat’s collarbone. He waited for Cat to look at him before he said, “They’re all you. And really? I love all of you.” He was quiet for a moment, letting his words sink in for both of them. “I love you, Cat.”

“God, Micah, I love you too.” Cat’s eyes were too bright. “I’ve waited so, so long to hear someone say that to me again.” He swallowed. “But there’s something else. We don’t—” He cut himself off, choking a little. “We don’t have forever. I’ve been too sick for too long.”

Micah studied him. “Then we have as long as we have. Being with me isn’t easy, either. You took care of me when I needed your help. I never could have faced everything without you. How could I not give you the same thing, however much time we’re given?”

Without waiting for an answer, Micah bent his head and kissed the puckered skin of Cat’s surgical scar where the port had been implanted. He let his lips travel further up the pale skin, as though his ministrations could erase the history there. Hesitantly, he put out his tongue and touched it carefully to Cat’s collarbone. Cat’s breathing hitched a little, and Micah smiled. He nibbled at the skin, causing Cat to shiver and groan.

“Teeth,” Cat muttered.

Micah laughed, turning onto his side, taking Cat’s chin in his hand, and kissing him on the mouth without reservation. They wouldn’t get much sleep that night, too busy reacquainting themselves with each other. However much time they had, Micah didn’t want to waste a single moment that could be spent loving Cat in every way possible.

I’m counting on the fact that the point of a romance is for the characters to be alive and together at the end, so I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s not technically a spoiler. The fun is in how they got there, right?

I’ll leave you with this, my ridiculously proud mom moment. This is my kiddo, playing for his school coffee house:

WIPpet Wednesday is the product of K. L. Schwengel‘s imagination. Find the other writers here, and be sure to leave them some love. You can also add your own by posting your snippet, connecting it to the date, and adding it to the linky list. Happy writing!