Tag: Novella

Small Cuts (13) James

~ Meg ~ 33 Comments

To find links to all parts of this story, please visit the Small Cuts Page. Now back to James.

My gaze shifted from my reflection in the rearview mirror as the car passing my house suddenly sped up. Could my eyes have been deceiving me? That looked just like Oliver’s car. I watched the driver turn the corner, barely pausing at he stop sign at the end of the block. With a second look, I was positive it was Oliver. And that could only mean one thing —he was coming to my house, while I wasn’t home, to be with my wife.  

I hit the gas and made the turn to follow him. I expected the silver Volvo to circle the block and return to my street but it continued out to the boulevard. What was Oliver up to? Maybe he saw me. I slowed and put some distance between us but not so much that I would lose him. 

At each intersection where he could make the turn to go back to my neighborhood, he continued on. This didn’t make any sense. If Oliver was heading into Center City —the way he appeared to be— there was absolutely no reason for him to have driven past my house. In fact, it was in the opposite direction from the route he should have taken from his own home. Once we were on the expressway, I had no way to easily turn around and so I figured on seeing this through. Perhaps when I discovered exactly where Oliver was going, his detour would be explained.

My initial reaction —shock and anger— had given way to confusion and doubt. Would Elaine really do this to me? Would Oliver? My wife and my best friend. This wasn’t the kind of thing I ever expected to happen to me. This happened to other people. I blew out a breath. Ok, maybe it wasn’t really happening. Oliver must have had some other reason to be on my street. He obviously wasn’t in a hurry. He’d been staying relatively close to the speed limit the whole way. Finally, he put his turn signal on and merged into the left lane to take the Vine Street Expressway. I stayed a few car lengths back. 

He took the first exit onto Broad street, heading south. This could get tricky. Following in city traffic was much more difficult than on the highway. Nevertheless, I managed to keep up as he wound his way over to Rittenhouse Square. I slowed as the silver Volvo pulled into the parking garage of The Park Hotel. A breakfast meeting? With a client maybe? Had to be. Although it still didn’t explain what he was doing driving past my house on the way. 

I glanced at the time. Damn. I was really going to be late for the golf outing. I would definitely miss the buffet breakfast but if I hurried, I could be there for tee time. I drove around the square planning to retrace my route and found myself in the wrong lane for the expressway. I passed the on ramp and merged into the right lane so I wouldn’t miss the next one. Of course, everything goes wrong when you’re already late. I took the next on ramp and immediately realized it was the eastbound expressway which would take me back to center city. Now I’d have to circle around a second time. I hit the gas and prepared to merge with traffic. I never saw the other car change lanes. 

Philadelphia Skyline Image via Flickr

Double Seduction: (2) Loneliness

~ Meg ~ 60 Comments

 

Fictional Kevin and I are collaborating on a novella of suspense that we hope you all will enjoy. Kevin wrote the first chapter, I have written the second. We’ll continue to alternate writing and posting a chapter a week until the conclusion of Double Seduction. We are both anxious to hear your comments and feedback.  If you missed the first chapter, find it here.

Chapter 2 – Loneliness

Divorced. It was final. After eighteen long months, the dissolution of Dr. Melody Rivers’ marriage was official. Mel sat back in her leather armchair and sipped her merlot. She would allow herself one glass of wine in celebration. She wasn’t however, feeling very celebratory. Jack had nearly ruined her. He’d taken their house, their Chiropractic practice and nearly all of their friends. Mel was the one who had to start over from scratch. When she’d signed the business contract with her now ex-husband, she never imagined the clause compelling her to move at least twenty-five miles away to open another office would ever have to be enforced. She and Jack had married right out of Chiropractic college, and they had been so in love. It had blinded her to the implications of owning a business with someone. But oh, the lessons she’d learned. How quickly love can turn into hate.

Sighing, she set the letter from her lawyer on the desk and powered up her laptop. Thank goodness she’d had her writing to help her through the whole ordeal. Who would have imagined that a woman fighting in a nasty divorce could be a successful romance author? Mel smiled, thinking of those few tentative words she’d penned in her notebook. Her first two novels were Amazon best-sellers, the third was quickly achieving that status. She had a fantastic group of followers on her blog and her recent queries had been welcomed by two literary agents. Finally. She was actually going to have an agent. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Jack!

She scrolled through the Reader till she found it —a post by her favorite blogging buddy. He called himself Fictional David. Today, he’d written another piece about his girlfriend, Savannah. Mel had no way of knowing whether or not that was her real name, but every time she read one of these posts, she felt just a little twinge of jealousy. David was so romantic. The posts about Savannah were usually pretty steamy and Mel imagined someone loving her that way. Maybe even David. This post was like that. The header image showed a naked couple, strategically covered by sheets. A black and white photo of two beautiful bodies, neither face visible to the viewer. Muscle and curve, a swell of breast and a mane of long hair. Mel sighed again, her heart beating just a little faster in her chest. She took another sip of the wine.

Her eyes drifted to David’s avatar — a pencil drawing, very artistic. It portrayed a handsome, strong-jawed, dark-haired man. Mel knew it was foolish because there was no way to know, but that’s how she pictured David: tall, dark and handsome. They were close in age, according to his blog bio, so they could talk as contemporaries. Mel liked that about him, too.

She read the post and commented like she always did, with praise for his writing and the sentiments it expressed. In the few months they’d been connected through their blogs, she and David had formed a friendship. Well, at least as close to a friendship one could have through online interactions, anyway. They joked around and teased each other. He even featured her in one of his posts a couple weeks back. Mel had been ridiculously flattered. She responded with a post of her own. That’s when he suggested they correspond through e-mail. How could she resist?

“That’s what loneliness will do you,” she murmured under her breath. “Have you grasping at the first sign of attention someone shows you. I must be out of my mind.”

She began typing: Dear David… No, too formal. Hey, David… Better. I’m really happy we connected, too. Thanks for your kind words… Delete. Delete. Delete. Why was this so hard? They talked on their blogs almost every day. She started again.

Hey, David! I’m really glad you gave me your e-mail address. Sometimes I feel like we’re just clogging up the comments with our nonsense! Although, it doesn’t seem like anyone minds it. I hope you had a great day. I’m off to bed early, I have a busy one tomorrow. I just wanted to let you know I was happy to share my private e-mail with you. I’ll be in touch. Goodnight. Sweet dreams. Mel

She hit send, immediately regretted it. Was the ‘sweet dreams’ too much? What if he got the wrong idea?

“Well, too late now,” she said.

After draining the last of her wine, she rinsed out the glass and went upstairs to her bedroom. While the bath filled, she stripped naked and looked at herself in the mirror. Gone were the soft curves of eighteen months ago. They’d been replaced by sleek muscle, lean and strong. She stretched her arms overhead and smiled. She looked a lot like the woman on David’s blog. What would he think of that? Piling her long hair up in a messy bun, she slid into the warm bubbles and hummed with pleasure. “Sweet dreams, David.”

Continue reading Chapter 3