WIPpet Wednesday: A winter coat

Happy Wednesday! I missed last week due to not feeling well (again). That is sadly my “new normal,” but I’m working on strategies for managing bad days and making the most of good ones. I’m back to the rheumatologist next week, probably to close things out with her—there’s nothing she can really do for me at this point.

Anyway, Minuet is finally off like a rocket. I have almost half of it in a file ready for my beta readers. I organized this book slightly differently this time, and I’m tidying up the rest of the second main section. While they work on the first two parts, I’ll get the next two ready. And then it’ll be off to the publisher!

Today’s snippet is from a different section than I’ve been posting. I shared this privately with a few people, but I’m putting it here now. I don’t think it’s necessarily spoilers. Mack’s done something…not great, and Amelia and Jamie have confronted him about it. They’re all owning a whole bunch of secrets they’ve kept from each other. Here’s Jamie’s.

WIPmath: 3/27/2019 = (2 + 7) – 3 = 6 paragraphs

Jamie swiped at his eyes, smudging his makeup. “You know how he finally got me?”

Mack looked up at him. “How?”

“He bought me a winter coat.” Jamie laughed without humor. “A fucking jacket. Not even anything precious or special or fancy. I needed a new one, and I wouldn’t ask Brandon’s family. He told me no one should be without one, and he took me shopping. The whole time, I kept expecting he would do what he always did—flatter me, tell me how hot I’d look in the clothes we passed in the store along the way. I wondered if there were gonna be strings attached, like I’d have to agree to go out with him. But the only thing he did was buy the coat. He said it was shit, what happened to me, and he told me no one deserved that.” Jamie sniffled. “You know, he never once asked for the money back. A week later, when I got my next paycheck, I told him I’d give him a little at a time until I’d paid it off. He refused, and he stopped asking me out too. Instead, he would pull me aside, check in with me and ask if I was doing okay, if I needed anything. That spring, we were packing up my drums, and…” Jamie was outright crying now, mascara-streaked tears running down his cheeks. “I saw him differently, this side of him he never showed anyone else. I…stopped him. And I kissed him. We ended up getting off in the back of the recording studio while everyone else was loading my drums into Mack’s van.”

Amelia exchanged a glance with Mack and saw he was as surprised as she was. The whole time, she’d thought Sage wore Jamie down until he said yes. Judging from Mack’s raised eyebrows, he’d thought the same.

“I had no idea,” Mack confirmed. “I’m sorry.”

Jamie drew his wrist across his eyes then looked at it in disgust where he’d smeared his eyeliner. “He knew exactly what he was doing. It was never about me or what I needed. He was manipulating the whole thing. You weren’t wrong to try keeping him from me. You just did it in the wrongest, most fucked up way possible.”

Like what you read? Be sure to check out the other entries and add your own. Just post a bit of your WIP, connect it to the date, and link up with us. Many thanks to Emily Wrayburn for giving us this space. Happy reading and writing!