Half A Heart Without You: Short and Sweet Series, #22

By Luna Moon

I moved my mouse towards the menu.

"Time to say good bye, jenny," I said while chewing on three gummy bears.

And then I heard the ping.

"What?" I said, leaning closer to the screen.

"A new friend request?"

Probably another thirsty old man.

"Let's have a look."

I clicked on the icon while taking a swig of my energy drink.

Sean Ru...what!

I coughed loudly. It was a miracle that my lungs didn't pop out, really.

"No, no, no. This must be a mistake."

Refresh.

Still there.

A friend request. From Sean Russell. The Sean Russell.

I hovered over the accept button.

 

CLARE REAGAN has a box of things she'd prefer to forget stored in the back of her closet. One of those things is prom night and Sean Russell, her brother's best friend and her ex-best friend.

 

SEAN RUSSELL is still trying to make up for all his past mistakes. He's a better person than he was back then in high school but still he feels caught playing the part that he feels is expected of him.

 

When Clare gets a friend request from Sean on her fake profile on Facebook, Jennifer Snow, she accidentally accepts and it turns into a late-night conversation with Sean Russell, the guy she swore to hate forever. To top it off Sean and Clare strike up a deal the next day. If Sean can get Jennifer to show up for their high school reunion as his date Clare will pose in her underwear online. And if not, Sean will be banned from their house forever. The stakes high, Sean has no idea that Clare is Jennifer and through more and more conversations Clare starts to doubt if she really wants revenge on Sean after all. But Sean is in love with Jennifer and not Clare.

 

AND THERE'S NO WAY CLARE CAN COMPETE AGAINST A UKRANIAN MODEL.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Short and Sweet Publishing
• Release date: Oct 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201790271

Luna Moon

LUNA MOON is a writer (or professional chatter - because she cannot SHUT UP! - whichever one works for you) who writes Contemporary Romance Novellas and short stories. She loves coffee, her beautiful shiny cat and her two possibly insane dogs and reading all day long.

Book preview

Clare

It was the last thing I wanted, nay, needed. But there it was in my mail.

A letter.

No, not from a secret admirer (pfft, that would be the day) or an acceptance to my dream university (heavens know I was done with studying). No, it was a different kind of letter.

An invitation.

Well, you're probably thinking Clare, what's all the fuss? Invitations are good, right? Well there, my dear friend, you are very, very wrong.

Clare Reagan didn't get invitations (I mean, who still does that? Just pop an email or something).

No, this meant only one thing.

Relieved I’d stumbled in through the door wanting nothing more than to forget about today and my horrible job that seemed to keep me alive and kill me at the same time. I was tired–no exhausted–and covered with petrol stains on my arms and my hands.

I wasn’t in the mood for an interrogation from my mother and quickly ran upstairs before she could notice me. I heard her yell hi at me and I quickly shouted a reply and closed my door after she added,

Your mail is upstairs, honey!

Thanks, I shouted back again and closed my door, leaning against it and finally releasing that groan I’d kept in the whole day in order to stop myself from attacking my boss with a spoon. And I don’t mean in a sexy way.

Shoulders slumped I went into my connected bathroom and washed my hands and my arms to get rid of the stains. I walked towards my desk and picked up the mail. Three bills, indicating my horrible adulthood, that I glanced over shortly before putting it at the back of the pile.

And there it was. And I knew exactly why.

My high school reunion was coming up.

I mean to be honest I’d known it was. Oh, I had that month saved in my calendar, alright. You obviously know what comes next.

I’m not going.

I threw the damn letter in my trash. I stared at it for a few seconds, then with a sigh took it out.

Okay, so maybe I wasn't going to throw it away just yet. But it was going into the box. What is the box you ask and why is it called that?

Well, it's called that because I suck at names. And, the box is a shoe box in my closet next to that pair of black high heels I only wore once and regretted immediately. The box contained all the things I’d rather forget.

Like my actual acceptance letter (yeah, it's a shock to me too that I had one. University was hell).

And my letter I wrote when I resigned from my first job (one of Mandy I’m afraid).

My high school diary that dispelled the intimate (and very bland) details of my crushes at that time (there were Mandy of that as well).

The string of my ballet shoes that I had cut up after promising myself I’d never dance again. That stupid test I failed when I was in grade three (okay granted I didn’t fail it. But a seven out of ten was pathetic). But most importantly it held the one memory I never wanted to think about again.

My high school prom.

The photos my parents took of me before I went. I knew I should've burned it, but I just never could. Heck knows why. Who would want to remember your most embarrassing moment for the rest of your life? But then again the box wasn't opened a lot. And that's why I quickly threw the letter in, shut the lid and stuffed it back into the closet.

Good. That's over.

I sat down on my bed, then looked at the door.

Derek.

He probably got his today, too. Perhaps I could lie to him. Say I have an important meeting on that day. But wait, didn't it say it was on a Saturday? Great. Meetings could be held on Saturdays, right?

For the millionth time I regretted my twin.

Derek was the complete opposite of me. In fact, he'd be happy about the reunion. He'd take any chance to have an excuse to chat up his old girlfriends. And boy, there were Mandy. Something he was very proud of, too. And Derek wasn't the only one I was worried about. My brother's copy (as if one wasn't bad enough).

Sean Russell.

The Sean Russell - high school football captain, prom king, top of the class, mother-in-law's-dream. Ha! I still can't believe he won that title. Three times in a row. My brother would bring up the reunion when Sean came over. And then what? Would Sean evade my eyes? Would he make a quick joke about how dumb school was? Would he finally talk about that night? I shook my head. It was no use thinking about that. They could both go jump off a cliff and straight into hell.

Today’s the worst.

And truly it was. First it started with my car not wanting to work. Then my boss was in a bad mood and started dumping all his work onto my desk. I had to finish all of it and had to stay late just to finish my own work, had to deal with horrible suppliers and unhelpful secretaries.

To make it worse on my way back home, my car decided to stop in the middle of the road causing me to go in panic mode as a line of cars honked for me to get out of the way. At least a kind stranger helped me and pushed the car to the side where I could call for help.

Of course no one I called answered.

But as if some magic hand graced me with its kindness the car started when I gave it a last try and I headed home. I honestly needed to get the thing fixed, but I didn’t have the money right now. After the pipes broke in my mom’s house and my mom lent money from me, I had to spend so much money to fix it I hardly had enough left for this month. And this month just started.

And to top it all off I was getting minimum wage for all of my trouble. And that promotion I was promised after a year of working there? Yeah, never gonna happen. It was a rough one, alright, and all I wanted right now was to take a long bath, eat chocolate and drink a glass of wine (maybe two). And maybe add a good book.

But to tell the truth I haven't felt like reading that much these last couple of days. Valentines this year was gonna suck, and it was only a month away. It would be a painful reminder of Carter, my ex boyfriend who I broke up recently with. All I can say is it wasn’t a civil break up. Yes, I really did need a bath right now. Maybe I’d finally be able to scrub off Carter’s memories from my mind.

I’d leave the book, though.