“Well?” Weston asked.

“Uh…” Annie set the pages she’d printed off down on the coffee table in front of her, sitting up on their sofa and shifting her wife’s legs out of her lap to do so. “I think I should probably get dinner started. The kids will be complaining they’re starving and that we never feed them soon.”

“Annie,” Weston said, sitting up herself. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Annie stood. “We have chicken in the freezer. I can thaw that really fast, and maybe we’ll-”

“Annie, did you not like the chapter?”

“Um…” Annie bit her bottom lip. “It’s good.” She nodded a bit too rapidly.

“How long have we been together now?”

“A while,” she said, giving a vague response.

“A while?” Weston laughed and added, “Try fifteen years.”

“Yeah, that.” Annie pointed at her.

“I know when you’re lying, babe.”

“I’m not lying. That part where she tells her she loves her is good.”

“That’s one line of dialogue.”

“There’s a whole paragraph there,” Annie said and walked into the kitchen of their seemingly ever-expanding cabin. 

They’d decided to spend the weekend there with the kids instead of their place in the city because the cabin by the lake gave their children endless activities to entertain themselves with and gave them time to relax.

“You liked a paragraph? Babe, it’s five thousand words.”

“Yes,” Annie confirmed and opened the freezer.

“Babe, come on. Tell me.” Weston sat on one of the high-top chairs they had at the counter.

Annie pulled out the chicken and put it in the sink to deal with in a minute, turning to her wife.

“Okay. It’s not your best work.”

“Not my best? What does that mean?”

“Well, it’s your first-ever romance.”

“I’ve written romance.”

“Not just romance. You don’t have some insane fantasy plot or people killing each other or anything else you’ve ever written.”

“So, it’s boring or something?”

“No, I’ve actually been really enjoying it so far.”

“But not the new chapter?”

Annie leaned over the counter in front of her wife and said, “You didn’t earn it.”

“Earn what?”

“You have them confessing their undying love like they just fought in some dramatic battle between good and evil, and then, they have sex. The sex part is good. Well, the lead-up to it, which is all you have in this chapter. But they’re not fighting evil in this one, Wes. They just love each other.”

“So? Love’s kind of important.”

“I know. I love you. That’s very important. But this chapter didn’t feel realistic to me. They didn’t break up or anything. They didn’t miscommunicate when that could’ve been avoided. The main conflict revolves around someone else pitting them against each other and them believing it there for a minute until they realize what’s happening. In this chapter, you could’ve just had them admit that, apologize, and go for Chinese or something.”

“Go for Chinese?” Weston chuckled.

“Yes, babe. That happens in real life. And this book isn’t set in one of your beautiful fantasy worlds.” Annie walked around the counter. “They go for Chinese. They make love. Then, they confess their feelings.” She wrapped her arms around Weston’s neck. 

“Okay,” Weston replied. “Maybe I should stick to my beautiful fantasy worlds, then.”

Annie shook her head when Weston’s arms went to her waist.

“I’ll never complain about you writing more of those, but you don’t need to throw the whole book out. It’s good, Wes. Aubrey will sell it. You just need to fix this part, and you’re there.”

“You’re sure?”

Annie nodded and said, “See? This is love, too.” She looked around their cabin. “Our first Valentine’s Day, we opened silly gifts from the general store in town and made love. It was perfect. No battles between good and evil here.”

“True.” Weston laughed and pressed her face to Annie’s chest. “Okay. I’ll fix it.”

“I’ll start dinner.” Annie held Weston’s face in her hands and kissed her. “I love you. Go, write.”