When I Told Eve -- Jay

"Holy ----!"

Then came the details...

...followed by another listen to my agent's two messages.

After my wife and I spent some reflective time in the park, we went to a flower shop and bought three beautiful bouquets for some very beautiful people. The first person on our list…Eve.

Earlier that day, after I’d already learned about the first two offers on my manuscript, Eve and I spoke on the phone. It was extremely difficult to pretend I was interested in what she had to say. I mean, yes, I cared…but I was so afraid of blabbing my secret if we kept talking. Then the plan for the entire evening hit me. I told her about a great documentary I’d borrowed from the library that I knew she would love. I asked if she would be home around five so I could drop it off. “If I’m not here,” she said, “just leave it on the porch. I might be out running.” “If you’re not there,” I said, “I’ll wait on your porch till you get back…not that I don’t have a life or anything.”

But when we arrived, Eve was still there. She opened the door in her running clothes and I handed her the bouquet. “Oh…okay…Thank you,” she said. Then she noticed the card poking up from the flowers:

Thank you…
for helping my
dreams come true.
Love, Jay

“Um…I’m not sure what…You’re welcome?”

There was a long, long, looooooong and awkward pause. She apparently didn't feel like guessing why I was bringing her flowers, unannounced, with my wife right there!

“I…sold…a…”

And that’s when Eve, expertly photographed by my wife, fired off several rounds of “Holy ----!” Then she sat down, put her hand over her heart, and listened while I told her everything that happened. The most heartwarming thing she said that night (after her vocabulary expanded a bit) was, “It’s weird, but it feels like I just sold my own book.”

And that’s why I love being a Disco Mermaid.

- Jay

Coming tomorrow…When I Told My Parents.