AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The Chase
The Confession
The Commitment
STAND ALONES
Small Town Second Chance
Innocent Uncaged
And She is Lust
By
* * *
Annabel Joseph
For Brittany, Amani, and the rest of my naughty AWC friends
“A Chorus Girl” by E.E. Cummings was originally published in Eight Harvard Poets, New York, Laurence J. Gomme, 1917. It and the following poem are used in this work by rights of public domain.
“Adrift! A Little Boat Adrift!” by Emily Dickinson, written circa 1858, published posthumously.
Chapter 1
Chere
I woke with a man’s face pressed to my cheek. Through a haze of pained, hungover confusion, I realized it was not the man I’d recently married. I reached over to explore the hair tickling my neck. Long, spiral curls, somewhat tangled.
“Andrew?”
“Craig,” he whispered, pulling me closer.
My head throbbed and my mouth was dry. “I’m not your fiancé,” I told my best friend. Then, “Where is he?”
Andrew made a sad sound as I pushed him away. “He might be lost. Is Cray-Cray lost?” He blinked at me with sleep lines on his baby face. “We had a stag party.”
“I know.” It hurt to talk. “I was at your party. Are we lost?” I squinted at the window. The sun shone bright, too bright. What time was it?
Where the hell were we?
Yes, there’d been a stag party. Andrew, Craig, and a dozen of their closest friends had been invited, and we’d gone to the best bars New York City had to offer. Fun, wild, alcohol-soaked bars, none of which I could remember now.
Were we still at a bar? Had we fallen asleep? No, this was someone’s apartment. I looked up at the high, white ceilings. There was a bed nearby, but I couldn’t see if anyone was sleeping on it.
Strippers. There had been shots and strippers and glitter cannons. I remembered dancing and celebrating, and drinking from a cock-shaped tumbler with a straw.
“Is Craig here?” asked Andrew softly. “Have you seen him?”
“No, I’ve been asleep. I fell asleep.”
“Me, too. This floor is hard.” He stretched, then groaned. “I’ll look for him later. I’ll find him in a little while. I love him, Chere. I love him so much that I’m going to marry him.”
“I know. We just had your stag party.”
He gripped his blond curls. “Ohh. I think I drank too much.”
