Friday 23 August 2013

Out Now - Novella Prequel To The Love Programme


Lucy thought she was finally going to be free of her ex-boyfriend Marcus. He had ...other ideas. They’d grown up together, been childhood sweethearts, but in the past few years Lucy had felt as though she was starting to grow apart from Marcus. Trying to make a new life for herself when they both live in the same small town proves tricky. Beginning to date other people seems to be impossible. Lucy finds Marcus isn’t at all keen to let go of their past, making her wonder where her future really lies and who with…

Purchase Links: Astraea Press

Extract from Back To Square One:
A knock at the door made her jump. She finished fastening her earrings, quickly slipped on her shoes, and went to let her best friend Fiona in. "Wow, don't you look gorgeous!" Fiona said, stepping into the hallway. "You too. Where's Luke?" "Waiting for us in the car. Are you ready?" Lucy paused, taking a deep breath. "Almost. Come upstairs whilst I just do my lipstick." "This is a big day. No regrets?" Fiona peered at her cautiously. "No. Definitely not." "I could never quite make you and Marcus out, you know," Fiona mused. "There was always this on again and then off again thing between you. Sometimes you were like love's young dream, and the next you were saying you'd split up. Again." Lucy nodded, ushering Fiona inside and up the stairs. "I know. I think we drove each other crazy — and everyone else as well, probably — many a time over the years. Perhaps it was because we met when we were so young, then went through all of the growing-up phase together. Everyone changes as they grow up, don't they? We started to want different things. I wanted to do something with my life. I wanted to travel and have great adventures, but all Marcus ever wanted to do was settle down and start building up his computer business. He said travel was a waste of time and money and adventures were greatly overrated." "When you were apart, you never had those adventures yourself, though, did you? Why?" Fiona quizzed. "I don't know." Lucy shrugged. "I'd got my job in the travel agent's by then and I got to go on some freebie trips overseas with work, and then I suppose I somehow settled for living my life vicariously through all of the customers at the agency. I watched them collect their travel tickets and foreign currency and jet off to get on cruises around the Med, enjoy weekends in New York, skiing in Austria, and I imagined myself doing the same." "You never dated much, either, during those times." "I know. It's tricky in a small town, though, isn't it? Everybody knows everybody else, knows what is going on, what you're doing, where you're going. Marcus always made me feel so guilty when I tried to go on dates with other guys when we were apart." Lucy paused, remembering back to those times she had attempted to date someone other than Marcus. Funny how those dates more often than not ended up as disasters. Standing outside the Odeon Cinema in the pouring rain, watching everyone else meet up with their friends and dates and slowly disappearing inside the building, until it had just been her left out there, all alone. Stood up by Handsome Harry from the phone shop, which just happened to be located next door to Marcus's computer repair shop. Not a word of explanation or apology from Harry. It hadn't been the first time, and wasn't to be the last one, either.

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