My thanks to the lovely young woman who purchased the only Russian book I had on display today -- my lone sale.
Here's an excerpt from Threes, a story from the A Hitch in Twilight collection, available at Amazon & B&N, print, Kindle, Nook, link below:
Tabloid, umbrella and shopping bags in tow, Rebecca Starr entered her cozy midtown penthouse and opened the sliding glass door that led to the terrace, letting in the summer breeze she loved. She went to her answering machine. All messages were business-related -- agent, producer of her current project, publicist, personal secretary -- except one, her ex-roommate.
"Hi, Becky. I just called to see how you were and to remind you that the twins' birthday is in two weeks and that we really want you to be there. It's been too long. We miss you. Call me."
Although Jennifer was one of the few people in the world she loved, Rebecca cringed at the thought of attending a party for ten-year-olds. She did not understand how anyone could be happy with domestic life. She suffered a chill at the thought that Jennifer had nearly died giving birth to her girls. She did not understand why Jennifer and her husband, Steve, were not embittered by their failure to crack the profession. She would rather be dead than not working steadily, earning a living as an actress. And yet they were happy. She was happy only when the cameras were rolling. She had no idea why the public had taken to her and not to Jennifer or Steve, who were every bit as talented and attractive as she. She'd known them since Circle in the Square, when they were students committed to art, to serious works of the stage: Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen. They were founding members of an off-off-Broadway troupe that did several plays a year and attracted the attention of even the Times. It'd been a springboard for several members of the company, she the first and by far the most successful. A few others were still involved. The rest, like Jennifer and Steve, had entered the mainstream of life. She didn't know what she would do if roles stopped coming her way. Hemlock, she supposed. She was 35, an age when most actresses went into precipitous decline.
She poured herself a drink, sat at the kitchen table and gazed at the front page of the Post. She trembled, as she had upon seeing it at the newsstand. A rock star had leaped to his death from a hotel room in Asia. They would have been lovers had not his girlfriend walked in on them as they were tearing the clothes from each other in the bathroom at a gala years ago. She slapped him - not only because he was cheating but because he had a girlfriend at all. Why had he needed one when beautiful women were throwing themselves at him? One positive thing she could say about herself - she never cheated, unlike the men she'd dated in her '20's. And when she hit the height of her sexuality, she wouldn't even dream of a relationship, as she bedded several men and an occasional woman a week. Her career was her mate. And now that her hormones were no longer at full tilt, she turned to a vast collection of toys whenever desire called. They were infinitely more reliable than men.
She scanned Page Six. It'd been months since she'd been mentioned, months since her picture had appeared. For a time it seemed she was there every day, dubbed “our favorite wild girl.” She was thrilled even when the gossip was erroneous. She believed the only bad publicity was no publicity. She feared her star was falling and was filled with dread. She knocked back the rest of her scotch, poured another and lit a cigarette.
In the obituary section she learned that one of her favorite actresses, 90, had died a few days ago in a nursing home. She tensed. Everyone knew celebrities died in threes. Who would be next? She felt her tic return. Fortunately, it disappeared whenever she reached a set. She was afraid one day soon it would not. She rose and paced, keeping her distance from the sliding glass door, afraid she would be sucked out, pulled 20 stories to her death by some mysterious force.
Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Horror Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
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