Love, With Revisions

How it begins

The heroine had vanished between chapters twenty and twenty-one.

Imogen checked the translation.

Then the source manuscript.

Then the recording schedule, which optimistically assigned the disappearance forty-five minutes after lunch.

Felix Wood leaned through the studio doorway.

"Problem?"

"The book no longer has an ending."

"Artistic decision?"

"Administrative catastrophe."

Inside the booth, the narrator removed her headphones with visible relief.

She had spent the morning saying variations of I have always loved you while a ventilation fault supplied an unromantic whistle.

Imogen turned the manuscript toward Felix.

Every chapter after twenty had been replaced by a single sentence.

I withdraw permission for her to forgive him.

Felix read it.

Outside, someone wheeled a trolley of clean mugs past the glass. The ordinary sound made the sentence seem more alarming.

"Have you called the author?"

"Her agent says she's resting."

"That usually means no."

"The publisher says we can use the previous edition."

"Can we?"

Imogen looked at him.

She had expected him to ask whether it would fit the schedule.

Not whether they had permission.

"The rights are complicated."

"They always are."

He sat beside her instead of returning to the control desk.

For six weeks they had disagreed about commas, breaths and whether a translated joke needed rescuing. Sitting on the same side of a problem felt unfamiliar.

Imogen opened the earlier edition.

A folded note fell from its cover.

The handwriting was the author's.

Ask who changed the apology.

Felix went very still.

Imogen watched him read it.

"That means something to you."

He rubbed a hand across his face.

"I directed the first recording."

"I know."

"The apology was different."

"How different?"

From inside the booth, the narrator tapped the glass.

"Should I go home?"

Imogen looked at the missing chapters.

Then at Felix.

"Not yet," she said.

For the first time all morning, she thought they might be about to hear the real story.