Romancing the New Year

Alanna Coca

Wel­come! I hope you’re hav­ing as much fun read­ing these scenes as we are writ­ing them.  If you’re just wan­der­ing by this post, check out the entire list of authors by click­ing HERE to go to the beginning. 

The fol­low­ing is a work of fic­tion. The char­ac­ters, inci­dents and dia­logues in this scene are of the author’s imag­i­na­tion and are not to be con­strued as real. Any resem­blance to actu­al events or per­sons, liv­ing or dead, is com­plete­ly coincidental. 
Text © Olivia Brynn, Pho­to © Aaron Rohde.

Okay, on with my ver­sion of what’s going on in this picture:

“Can we go home now?” Jen­nifer checked her phone again. William should be call­ing any minute. She real­ly did­n’t want to be in a noisy bar when he final­ly did.

“We can’t go home yet.” Chris­tine dragged Jen­nifer and Alex across the crowd­ed dance floor toward the bar. “We have to at least wait until midnight.”

“If I miss William’s phone call because you two kept me pris­on­er at a stu­pid bar all night, I’ll nev­er for­give you.” Jen­nifer pout­ed, but her jut­ting low­er lip was lost on Chris­tine, so she turned to Alex for help. “Can’t you con­trol her?”

“Con­trol her?” He grinned. “I can bare­ly keep up. See why I love her?” Alex’s eyes went to Christine’s ass as they wend­ed through the throngs of people.

“Which makes me a third wheel. Why don’t you dis­tract her, and I’ll call a cab?”

“William will call back if he can’t reach you the first time. Quit being such a stick in the mud.” Chris­tine faced them in a rel­a­tive­ly clear spot near the bar. “He’s prob­a­bly bring­ing in the new year with his bud­dies anyway.”

The new year came hours ago in Afghanistan. He did­n’t get to cel­e­brate.” Jen­nifer tried her pout again.

“I promise, once that ball drops in Times Square, you won’t want to rush home to wait for a phone call.”

“Don’t bet on it.”

“I’ll put my life sav­ings on it.” Chris­tine winked at Alex, whose lips twitched in a sup­pressed smile.

Jen­nifer watched the cou­ple curi­ous­ly. Some­thing was going on. “No deal. Your life sav­ings is pay­ing for my next drink.”

Chris­tine laughed. “Yeah you’re right. That’s why I’m dat­ing this Sug­ar Dad­dy.” She walked into Alex’s embrace, care­ful not to spill their champagne.

Jen­nifer could­n’t watch. As much as she loved Chris­tine and her boyfriend Alex, see­ing them togeth­er almost every day only made her long for the rela­tion­ship with William that she’d had to put on hold when he was called for duty.  He was sup­posed to be home for Christ­mas, but as usu­al, gov­ern­ment sna­fus delayed his dis­charge. Now she hoped he’d come home by Valen­tine’s Day. Jen­nifer pulled her gaze away from her feet to find Chris­tine and Alex still lost in each oth­er. Maybe she could walk home…

Alex was the first to come up for breath. “Get your­self anoth­er glass of bub­bly. Only two min­utes to midnight.”

Grate­ful for the excuse to leave the lov­ing dis­play, Jen­nifer found an emp­ty stool at the bar where a man was lean­ing.  As she wait­ed for the bar­tender to make his way over, Jen­nifer took a deep breath. Damn. The stranger beside her wore the same cologne  as William. Jen­nifer bit her lip, and swore to breathe through her mouth until her drink arrived. Was it her imag­i­na­tion, or did the entire bar get sud­den­ly qui­et? She snuck a glance at the man’s hands then up his suit jack­et until she reached his face. When she met his eyes, she blinked. It can’t be.

“William?”

“Hap­py New Year baby.”

© Aaron Rhode Photography

While I have you here… ahem…I just thought I’d point out that on Mon­day my next release comes out. It’s titled Last  Call, and it’s a short fun read. At least it was fun for me to write it. I hope it’s fun to read as well. Find more infor­ma­tion by click­ing the cov­er there. Thanks for stop­ping by. I hope you all have a won­der­ful and safe New Year, and good luck in the Kin­dle drawing!

40 thoughts on “Romancing the New Year”

  14. Being mar­ried to the mil­i­tary myself, I damn near cried when I read this! I know what it’s like to wait for that call on a hol­i­day. What a great way to start the new year!

    Reply

  17. That’s a super sweet end­ing! This would make an awe­some full-length sto­ry that I would love to see written.

    Have a very Hap­py 2011! And I look for­ward to your new releas­es in the new year!

    joderjo402 AT gmail DOT com

    Reply

  18. Great sto­ry!!!

    yadkny@hotmail.com
    ‑°*”˜˜”*°-.¸☆ ★ ☆¸.-°*”˜˜”*°-.¸☆
    ╔╗╔╦══╦═╦═╦╗╔╗ ★ ★ â˜…
    ║╚╝║══║═║═║╚╝║ ☆¸.-°*”˜˜”*°-.¸☆
    ║╔╗║╔╗║╔╣╔╩╗╔╝ ★ NEW YEAR ☆ 2011!!
    ╚╝╚╩╝╚╩╝╚╝═╚╝ ￥☆★☆★☆￥ ★☆

    Reply

  31. That would be soooo awe­some if that could hap­pen for some­one this year! Being mar­ried to an Army man I sooo get this. 🙂

    Reply

  32. Olivia, I just read the excerpt for Last Call and it was hilar­i­ous!! I can’t wait to read the rest! I’m sure I’ve sound­ed like Joanne on more than one occasion! 😉

    Hap­py New Year!

    cbandy10(at)hotmail(dot)com

    Reply

  40. Oh gosh, that gave me goose­bumps and so beau­ti­ful!!! Loved it. Now I’m teary eyed!

    Too huge con­grats on your upcom­ing book! So will check it out!

    Hap­py new years!
    cathiecaf­fey @ gmail.com

    Reply

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