UNTIL IT DOESN'T
By Zoë Marshall
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Out June 19, 2015
Bailey Swanson is
relentlessly addicted to ice cream, hates jeans - yet thinks leggings are
basically just colored sausage casings - and would be completely lost without
her best friend Mark. He’s the only one that gets her, and sees through her
difficult-to-love exterior.
Mark has known
Bailey since they were both children. As her manager, he handles her failing
acting career and is always there for her. As her friend, he's held her hand
through her most recent break up, all the while wondering if she'll ever be
whole again.
But Bailey is a
disaster when it comes to romance — and while she’s trying to move on from her
cheating ex, she can’t drown her sorrows forever in Ben & Jerry’s. She
knows she has to get past this eventually... right? Unless a happily ever after
just isn't in the cards for her, in which case her plan to swear off all
relationships forever is a good one.
Or maybe the answer
is right in front of her face. Things aren't always as they seem when it comes
to the heart. That fickle little thing tends to get the best of all of us at
one point or another...
“I feel better,” he
says as he gets up from the swing and stands facing me. He’s standing so close,
it feels like something has shifted, as if the balance has been tipped slightly
in an unexpected direction. Wait a second. What am I even thinking? This is
Mark, for Christ’s sake.
I take a step back
and let out a deep breath. The smell of the flowers surrounding us washes over
me and I feel a weight lifted. “So, where does that leave you guys? Are you
going to try to be friends?”
He looks up at the
sky. “We’ll never be friends. I don’t think any exes ever are. There’s always
something there, lying in wait. It can be disguised, but never destroyed. You
can pile as much shit on top of it as you want, but in the end, it’s always
there.”
I smile at Mark.
“I’m proud of you, kid.”
He rolls his eyes
and replies. “Who do you think you’re calling ‘kid’? I’m four months older than
you are. You’re the kid.”
“Ok then. I’m proud
of you, old man.”
He laughs and walks
over to me, then gives me a playful punch on the arm. “Well, I’m proud of you
too, jerk.”
We spend the next
few minutes standing next to each other in silence, staring at the few visible
stars. That’s something I love about Mark. We can be silent together. No matter
how crazy fast the world is spinning, we can always just stand still. Together
Zoë was born in
Santa Rosa, California, but spent the majority of her "growing up"
years in San Francisco. After high school, she attended University of
California, Santa Cruz, where she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in
Business Management Economics and Accounting. She tried the corporate thing,
working at two of the Big Four accounting firms, but cubicles just weren't her
thing.
She's
currently living the ultimate cliche- an aspiring writer working two jobs, one
as a server and one as a bartender. She's living in San Ramon, California,
spending her limited free time reading and writing. Her biggest vices are pizza
and ice cream, which is why she lives in yoga pants and leggings. And she
thoroughly believes jeans were invented by the devil.
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