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    Narrow Escape
    Narrow Escape
    Narrow Escape
    Ebook55 pages3 hours

    Narrow Escape

    By Anna Cove

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    There's life... then there's living.

    When Julia Knowles hits it big with her first book, she can’t help but see the perks of fame. All the ladies she wants? Bring ‘em on! Her confidence soars. That is, until a chance encounter with an old friend throws her off her game.

    Susan Mayer’s life is full of bad news, until she happens to meet Julia again. With Julia, her husband isn’t dying, her kids aren’t furious with her. With Julia, she has no responsibilities. She feels twenty years younger. With Julia, she can smile. 

    The temptation to leave is strong, but the timing couldn’t be worse. 
    If she leaves, she’s a horrible person. 
    If she stays, she might lose herself to sorrow.

    Can Susan resist the temptation of Julia? Should she?

    This 10,000 word short is a prequel to SWEET SURRENDER, the first novel from Anna Cove. Read now for a passionate, steamy, and sometimes heartbreaking ride.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAnna Cove
    Release dateOct 18, 2017
    ISBN9781386885726
    Narrow Escape

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      Book preview

      Narrow Escape - Anna Cove

      Narrow Escape

      Anna Cove

      Copyright 2017 by Anna Cove

      All Rights Reserved

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

      Trademarked names may appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner's trademark.

      www.annacove.com

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      CHAPTER ONE

      JULIA

      There's this moment when you step off a plane and you're still in limbo, where you're not quite in your landing place, nor are you in the place from which you took off. Expectation impregnates these few quiet moments, where your ears are adjusting to depressurized air and your legs are tingling from sitting too long, even if you got up and walked around every hour. You may be tired and hungry and stiff and irritated, but there's this little voice that says you don't know what's waiting for you on the other side and so you straighten your shoulders and widen your eyes and hope.

      I blame the systematic brainwashing of us all by romantic comedies for that shit. For the thought that maybe, just maybe, the love of your life will be standing at the top of the ramp, with arms wide open.

      I knew no one would be waiting for me today. I'd blown up the relationship with my last girlfriend three years ago when I left for Thailand and China and India to find myself. Before I'd traded in my jeans for lightweight linen pants and flowing shirts. Before I'd shaved my head and returned with a pixie cut. I'd blown it all up, so of course I'd arrived back to New York City to find precisely no one except a very nice flight attendant wearing a French twist and a Jackie O dress telling me with her ruby lips to have a very nice day.

      Yet my heart sank nonetheless. Curse you, Julia Roberts. You have a cool name, but curse you and your beautiful huge smile.

      I clutched the straps of my worn backpack and looked left and right. People dressed in suits hurried from place to place barely looking at one another as they moved past. Kids pulled tiny Spiderman and Dora the Explorer and Frozen suitcases, and clutched the hands of their parents who looked around, squinting at the Departure boards, trying to find their gates. Flight attendants and pilots, dressed like they were heading to a military ball, lounged in chairs, drinking coffee, waiting for the next flight. A woman popped a pill, washed it down with Gatorade. Another hunched in the corner while yelling into the phone. It was similar here to the Beijing airport. To the Indira Gandhi airport in Delhi. To all the airports in the world. Different faces, same movements.

      Sighing, I strolled through the gated areas, following the baggage claim signs. Maybe it was all my time in the countryside of China and India, but I wasn't in a rush. I had nowhere to be and nowhere to go. Worst of all, I had no one to meet me. I had the urge to pull out my prepaid phone and dial Maria's number. I still knew it by heart, though I hadn't dialed it in years. Why do these things take up space in our brains long after they're useful?

      I thought better of it. I knew how this would go. I would call her and she would show up and give me the silent treatment. I would apologize and she would forgive me and we would sleep together and then I would disappoint her some inexcusable kind of way and she would

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