Chapter 3

"Aargh!" Judith cried out and pulled her hands out of the water. Blood trickled from her right hand down onto her arm.

"Judith." Damian reached for the dish towel she'd taken from the drawer moments ago. He pressed it firmly to the wound. "Sit down."

"It's just a little cut, I'll take care of it myself," Judith said.

"That's just your problem, let me take care of it for you."

"And why would you do that, you just broke up with me."

"That doesn't mean I shouldn't help you when you're in pain."

"What kind of man are you?"

"What kind of man do you think I'm?"

"You're different. Your kind is rare. I've never seen a man who doesn't touch a woman while she's staying with him."

"I can't have sex with a woman I don't love." He paused for a while. "I'm going to get some antiseptic and a bandage."

He went to the bathroom and came back to see that she was stripped to the skin.

"No man can resist the sight of a naked woman."

He dropped the clothes on top of the drawer, took the food out of the microwave and left the kitchen for his room, locking the door.

Damian wasn't sitting in the hospital cafeteria long before he was approached by a woman who sat down next to him.

"Are you free for coffee tomorrow night? You don't seem to have a ring on your finger, so I hope you don't have a girlfriend."

Damian arched an eyebrow and contorted his face into a grin. "I can't believe you just asked me out."

"This is the twenty-first century, women can ask men out. It doesn't say anywhere that only a man can ask a woman out. Don't flatter yourself. I'd probably love to spend time with you, especially when you're not as busy as you're now, holding hands, kissing in the back seat, like romantic couples. I love your eyes."

She wrote her number on a sticky pad and slid it to him. "Call me."

He slid the sticky note back and said, "I'm not interested."

***

A woman speaks into the camera: "Carina Sanders, a woman who inspires other women. She is poetry itself, she is not just an average, slim, white woman, but has some outstanding qualities. Her aura is like that of roses, poetry and galaxies. She could drive a saint mad or bring a king to his knees, not only because of her beauty, but also because of her strength, determination, fierceness and grace. She is not just a woman, a person, a body, but a force, an energy, a source and above all a perfect masterpiece. Let us welcome the bestselling author -"

Carina came in before her name was announced, waving to the audience, who could not stop clapping and shouting with excitement. She settled into her chair as the first question was addressed to her.

"How did your ideas for your first book come about?" the woman asked.

"I thought about writing a romantic book, but I had to build a romantic world. A romantic world with a prince charming and a maid. My ideas for the book came to me in the form of what-if questions: what if there was another prince who wanted the maid for himself? I started thinking about it, and before I knew it, the whole drama was playing out in my head."

"Interesting. How much time did you spend writing the book, then?"

"It took nine months. I had to think a lot about the romantic world I wanted to build. I did a lot of thinking and realized a lot of things that would be perfect for a romantic world in my book."

"What are those things?"

"The Prince Charming and the maid should fall in love first before they kiss, because if they kissed first, it would not fit into the romantic world. It will be a kiss that lies. A first kiss is a kiss of rapture, an exchange of hearts, and an impending wedding."

"Clothes also fit into a romantic world. Every sexual approach is made with clothes. Settings, clothes, objects, all testify to the ritualization of sex, which is the essential character of romance, just like my book." said Carina.

Carina continued to answer the questions she was asked, but the one that hit her the hardest was, "What are you working on now?"

Carina has been suffering from writer's block since she started a new book in January. She started the book and found that it turned out differently than she expected. There was a certain point in her new book where it started to write itself. Certain scenes always stumped her after she wrote them, and she wondered, "Where do we go from here?"

Carina responded to the woman's question, "I have been spinning ideas for the next novel I am writing."

The woman suppressed a smile. "I am glad to hear you are working on a new book, which I am sure will be more successful than this one. I wish you the best of luck."

That was just Carina's fear of not being able to surpass the success of her first book.

Carina decided to overcome her writer's block. After the interview, she went home, flipped open her laptop, and typed in "How To Overcome Writer's Block" on Google.

Google displayed tips she did not think were useful, but someone's comment on one of the pages she opened caught her attention.

She read the comment, "Writer's block is normal for any writer. It takes a while to put a bunch of ideas together into a cohesive book. But it's easier and a lot more fun if you research your book. If you are stuck on a courtroom scene, a prison scene, an astronaut scene, etc. in your book, research can make things a lot easier. Role-playing with a lawyer, observing heart surgery, talking to astronauts, or milking cows on a farm can help you write based on experiences or experiences and relieve your writer's block.

Carina thought: I am writing another romance novel, and it has to be very different from the first one, why is it so hard to write, I can not do research or act out intimate parts.

She buried her head on the laptop for a while in frustration as the sun shone on the tiled floor and the breeze rustled.

She raised her head, the cursor blinking in and out mockingly, too many thoughts running through her head, she put her hand on the keyboard, unable to type. She started laughing hysterically, grabbed a bottle of liquor and downed it. At that moment she drank another bottle until she was completely drunk.

Staring at the screen, which had funny faces on it, she shouted, "Writer's block sucks!"

A brain appeared on the screen and said, "No, it does not."

"Who are you?" asked Carina.

"I am you."

"Hm ..." She said in complete shock and disbelief.

"Do not act so shocked. I am your writer's block and I have come to help you."

"How are you going to help me?"

"Do you know something more fascinating?" Asked it.

"No," said Carina, shaking her head.

"It's me. Your imagination is your power, believe me, you can make up a good story, it's all in your head." She disappeared into the screen.

Carina sighed, laid her head on the desk and fell asleep.