NaNoWriMo Weekend # 4: The magic land of 50k

Despite my wall last week and my rantings last Saturday, I managed to hit 50k last night before I slept. :) I decided to start skipping scenes already because the first date scene I wrote may be cute, but it’s getting really hard to write, and everyone’s just talking all over the place. Haha. And speaking of things going all over the place, my story is there too, and I haven’t touched a lot on the subplot (do chick lit books have subplots?), and I still don’t know what my ending would be. I think my two protagonists really have this thing for each other, but I have never written anything where the two people would get together in the end, so it’s kind of foreign territory for me. I want to leave things hanging, open to interpretation and all that.

Oh and I realized that Ruth’s dates are always on dinner times, so I’m guessing she will go fat at the end of the novel, unless I make her metabolism go fast (haha), or get her some best diet pills. Or, I better just define the other things she does so there’s more variety when she goes out. :D

This is my fourth year of hitting 50k, but I don’t want to stop here. I actually want to finish this novel, so I will be continuing to write even if I’ve reached the prescribed word count goal. My personal goal is 60k, so I’m still 9500 words away. Eeep!

Anyway, I better get ready for work. :) Here’s the fourth excerpt for this week. This is an exaggerated case of a jealous ex. :D I have a feeling I did not really convey Ruth’s fear but what the heck. I’ll do edits next time.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go on another date, but my friends insisted on this one after I gave them my non-negotiables list, which took me all weekend to write. They promised this guy fit almost all of the things I wrote, if not everything. I figured I should give them another chance, now that they have better basis of what I want.

So Tuesday night, I found myself in Conti’s, with Kevin. Kevin is my age and works as a photographer for one of the local travel magazines. He’s a devout Catholic, serves in a singles community in their parish. He’s the oldest in his family, has two younger sisters, likes dogs and yes, he looks very nice. Cute, if I may say so.

He’s also a very good conversationalist, and sometime in the middle of the dinner, he’s made me laugh so hard that I was about to get a stomachache. Kevin is very easy to talk to, and he’s got a very nice charm to him that makes me wish I would like him that way.

But that’s the thing. As the evening wore on, I couldn’t find myself liking him that way. I could see us probably meeting again next time, but not romantically. Maybe we could be good friends, but I think it would end there.

But I liked his company, and I think he liked mine too. He was very chivalrous, being the one to call the waiter whenever I need anything. I was just about to decide that maybe I could try to start liking him in that way when he asked, “Have you ever been in a relationship, Ruth?”

“Me? No, never,” I said, shaking my head. I realized that I may have said it kind of weirdly, so I added jokingly, “I’m such a loser, I know.”

“Never been in a relationship? You’re kidding!”

“I’m not,” I said, taking a bite of the cake in front of me. “And be careful, the last time a guy told me that, he wanted to sell me some insurance and I walked out on him.”

Kevin laughed. “I won’t sell you any insurance plans, don’t worry,” he said. “Seriously, a guy did that?”

“Yeah, and it was traumatizing,” I said. “Good thing I know you’re not an insurance agent. The only agent I would trust is my friend’s fiancee.” I paused to take a drink. “What about you? Ever been in a relationship.”

“Yeah…just got off one actually,” Kevin said softly. I saw his eyes take a faraway look, and it made me wonder how recent his last relationship has been. He answered me before I could ask. “Just last month.”

“Isn’t this a little too early to date again?” I asked.

“Well, to be honest, I’m okay with it,” Kevin said. “The thing with Nica just wasn’t working out.”

I smiled sympathetically. “I’m sorry.” I reached for his hand across the table and squeezed it. The move was not romantic — it was something I usually do whenever I encounter someone who seems sad and all. I always do that to my friends, so it totally had no malice for me. It was just a friendly and sympathetic gesture.

Apparently, other people do not think the same.

Suddenly, I felt pain in my scalp. Someone was pulling my hair from behind. Kevin’s eyes widened. He pulled his hand out from under mine and stood up. “Nica…”

“Who’s this girl?” I heard a female voice demand behind me. I couldn’t see her, but she sounded crazed and panicked, like someone stole her purse or something.

“Nica, uh, this is Ruth…please let go of her…” Kevin said. I felt another sharp pain on my scalp as my hair got pulled again.

“Ruth huh? Who is she, your new girlfriend?” I heard footsteps from behind me get closer and in the corner of my eye, I saw a pale, thin girl wearing a red dress stand beside me, holding a bunch of my hair. She turned to look at me, her chinita eyes squinting even more that I can barely see her irises.

“Don’t you know this guy you’re on a date with is my boyfriend?” she hissed, bringing her face closer to mine. “How dare you!”

“Nica, please! Let her go! Ruth is just a friend!”

“Then why was she holding your hand earlier? And why are you out with her?” She pulled again and I almost cried out.

“Look, Nica, it isn’t what you think it is,” I said from my position. She had the death grip on my hair and moving in any way hurts, so I steadied my head as I tried to talk to her. “Kevin’s just a friend. We just met.”

“You boyfriend stealer!” She cried. Kevin took a step closer and Nica pulled on my hair again. “Are you so desperate for someone that you’d go out with someone else’s guy?”

“Nica, you are not my girlfriend anymore!” Kevin cried. But Nica wasn’t paying any attention. She reached for fork on the table and I felt my eyes widen in fear at what she was about to do — be it to me or Kevin. Kevin saw what she was holding and tried to step closer, but she pulled on my hair again.

“No one goes out with my guy behind my back,” she hissed menacingly. I could see some people in the restaurant standing up to help me, but before anyone of them could move, I heard a familiar male voice speak behind me.

“Hey man, thanks for accompanying Ruth while she waited for me.” The grip on my hair loosened and I managed to pull away from Nica’s hand. I stood up, turned and saw Ian standing behind my seat. He stepped towards Kevin and patted his shoulder. “Sorry it took me too long to get here. I had to run some errands.”

Kevin looked bewildered at the stranger while Nica eyed all of us suspiciously. Ian walked back to me, took my bag from under the table and reached for my arm. “Sorry to keep you waiting, honey,” he said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “Let’s go.”