Meet Mia and Jensen in Paper Hearts.
This beautiful standalone contemporary romance by Claire
Contreras is NOW LIVE! #ClaireWrites
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1KSiifj
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Synopsis
I lost her.
No, I didn't lose her. I threw her away.
She was my best friend.
I was never supposed to fall in love with
her.
I was careless.
She was heartbroken.
I thought I was doing fine. But here she
is, years later, forced to work with me, reminding me why I fell in love with
her in the first place.
And this time I'm going to do everything
in my power to never let her go.
Prologue
Jensen
I don’t take ownership in a lot of things. I rent an
apartment, lease a car, and go to a no-contract gym. I have a wandering
heart—an incessant mind. It’s hard for me to look at something and see forever;
though I had a forever once.
I let her go, not
because I loved her too much to ask her to stay, but because I couldn’t bear to
hear her tell me she wouldn’t. Still, every once in a while I wonder.
And nothing is more
haunting than regret.
Chapter 1
Mia
I used to wonder what I would do if I had the chance
to go back in time and right something. Would I take it? Would I look at it as
a second opportunity, or would I just let it go, knowing the experiences I went
through and learned from?
Discomfort spread
through me as I walked into the building of my new, albeit temporary, job. The
feeling stayed there, stuck to the lining inside of my uneasy stomach, echoing
its way into my mind until I reached the twentieth floor of the building. As I
exited the elevator and stepped into the lobby of the magazine, a smiling
brunette, who was sorting through a colorful cup of pens, greeted me. Something
about her—maybe her fidgetiness, the Lisa Loeb look she had going, or the
welcoming smile on her face—made me breathe a little easier.
“How can I help you?”
she asked in a singsong voice as she swiveled slightly in her chair.
“I’m here to see Mrs.—I
mean, Dr. Zamora.”
“Fran,” she said. “She
likes to be called Fran. Are you Mia?”
“Yes.”
The girl smiled and
gave me a quick onceover. “Cool. I’m Katie. Let me make sure she’s in. Take a
seat.”
I let out a breath as I
placed my bag on the floor and sat across from her in a sleek white chair,
taking in the vast space filled with photographs shot by people whose work I
admired. In an effort to calm my nerves, I picked up one of the magazines
beside me and leafed through it, and even went as far as to try to channel my
inner zen, remembering what an incredible yoga session I’d had earlier that
morning. But nothing worked. That sticky feeling of what did I get myself into?
could not be soothed.
It felt like the time I let my twin brother
talk me into letting him cut my hair so that we could “really be twins,” and I
ended up looking like Peter Pan for two months while my mother cried into her
pillow every night. I fished out my phone and contemplated sending him a text.
Rob had always been the brave twin, with words of wisdom to get me through
these times. But, I’d dug my grave, and now I had to lie in it.
When I ran into my
favorite college professor months ago, a local magazine had just published some
of my pictures for a special they were circulating. The accomplishment I felt
at telling her this dwindled when she asked the dreaded words: what next? But
then she offered me the opportunity of a lifetime: to take pictures for a huge
magazine, one I probably wouldn’t have had an opportunity to work for had my
professor’s sister not been the person in charge of the project. The catch, of
course, unbeknownst to my professor or her sister, was that my exboyfriend, The
Dream Crusher, wrote for the same magazine. But I’d have been an idiot to turn
it down. Regardless of where I worked after this, to have this experience on my
resume would be incredible.
“She just got here,”
Katie said, jerking me out of my thoughts. I stood quickly, hitching my bag on
my shoulder as the glass door to my right opened and a tall woman with an
uncanny resemblance to my professor—wild red hair and bright green eyes—walked
through it.
I laughed when she
winked at me. After she hired me for this job, we started following each other
on any social media that allowed for stalking.
“It’s like we’ve been
friends forever.”
“Social media will do
that,” she responded with a laugh as she turned on her heels. “Let me show you
around.”
If Fran were a car,
she’d be in fourth gear at all times. By the time she finished showing me
around the place and we got back to her office, my legs felt like they were on
fire. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the heels I was wearing, or because I
had to take four strides to her two. Being short could be a bit of a curse.
“We already got the
clearance from W Magazine and are keeping the title ‘What Would You Do With
Your Second Chance?’ I’m sure they told you already,” she said as we each took
a seat.
They hadn’t told me
anything. Not that it mattered. I’d taken pictures for an article with a
similar name, but it was for a small, local magazine, nothing of this stature.
“I hope your friends
don’t mind that we’re stealing their limelight,” Fran added with a smile. She’d
become completely fascinated by the fact that the couple on the cover of the
magazine, my best friend and her now-husband, were a second chance love story.
“They definitely don’t
mind,” I replied with a laugh. “They wanted to kill me when they saw the
magazine in our grocery stores, so replacing it will be a good thing.
” She laughed. “Were
they uneasy because they weren’t an official couple yet?”
“Basically. Her brother
wanted to kill Oliver … the guy,” I paused to clarify before continuing, “when
he found out about the whole thing.”
“But it’s so romantic,”
Fran said, letting out a deep sigh.
“I guess it is.”
“Oh, don’t tell me
you’re one of those girls!”
“One of what girls?”
“The ones who are all
‘I don’t need a man’ and ‘I hate romance.’” She rolled her eyes, but I could
tell she was biting back a smile as she said it.
I shrugged. “I’m not
any kind of girl. I don’t need a man, but I don’t hate romance. I think I’m
kind of obsessed with romance, really, which is probably why I’m still single.”
Fran laughed loudly.
“Funny how that works, right? I’ll tell you what, had it not been for Match, I
would have never met mine. I’m sure you don’t need any help finding a guy,
though.” She waved the length of my torso as if she was presenting me to
someone as some kind of trophy.
“Finding a guy isn’t a
problem. Keeping a guy is a problem, and finding the guy is a complete
catastrophe.”
Fran nodded in
sympathy. “Yep. I’ve been there. But alas, you’ll find the one. You’re young,
adorable, funny, talented, and smart. Hell of a combination.”
I smiled and looked
away. “One day.”
“Anywho, enough about
boys. Let’s talk about work. As I stated in the email, you’ll be taking your
headshots today. You don’t need to come into the office every day, but feel
free to use our facility for anything you need. I sent you the contact
information for the couples you’ll be shooting so that you can schedule their
test shots first, and after that, we’ll let you know who we narrowed it down
to. We only want to select four couples to feature: two young, and two older.
They all have different stories, anyway, so that’ll be fine.”
She paused for a breath
as I nodded, taking mental notes. “And … oh yeah, here are the names of the
writers working on the special. Carlos and Deborah are regular staff; the other
two are freelance, but work with us often. I wrote down their emails and will
send them yours now so they can contact you. Sometimes they like to go along
for the shoots and do their interviews there.”
My eyes scrolled down
the list as I nodded. I stalled when I saw his name. Just words on a page, but
they made my heart flip once, twice, and finally nestle its way into the pit of
my stomach. I was prepared for this.
“You should meet us for
drinks on Wednesday,” Fran said, pulling me out of my thoughts. I was so not
prepared for this.
“So I only see them on
days that I shoot?” I asked, waving the paper slightly.
“Well, that only happens
if they want to interview the people in their element. Otherwise, we only see
each other during meetings, and we don’t have many. We’ll be having one this
Wednesday over drinks, though, and then again to lay out the final plans.”
I swallowed loudly and
nodded. “Okay.”
“It would be great for
you to come on Wednesday and meet them,” she said again. I felt like I was on a
downward spiral, moving here, knowing this job would mean I would be insanely
close to him, secretly hoping that I was, while reminding myself of the reasons
I’d avoided him in the first place. I took a breath and braced myself for the
inevitable fall.
“Sure. Drinks sound
great.”
Author Information
Claire
Contreras graduated with her BA in Psychology from Florida International
University. She lives in Miami, Florida with her husband, two little boys, and
three dogs.
Her
favorite past times are: daydreaming, writing, and reading.
She has
been described as a random, sarcastic, crazy girl with no filter.
Life is
short, and it’s more bitter than sweet, so she tries to smile as often as her
face allows. She enjoys stories with happy endings, because life is full of way
too many unhappy ones.
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