Mum, Dad, Genevieve, and Ryder, when you visited New Zealand this year, half of this book was already written. Given the number of fabulous lunches, fantastic dinners, glasses of whiskey, and bottles of wine, it’s a miracle I recovered in time to write the rest. See you all again soon!

To Barry Houston, a grandfather to Oliver, and a wonderfully kind man to me, we will always miss you. Thank you for all the happy memories you gave to us.

Thank you to all my friends who never stop handing me a glass of wine and making me laugh.

And to all my lovely readers, thanks again for your support.

About the Author

Michael Faudet is the author of the international bestsellers Dirty Pretty Things, Bitter Sweet Love, Smoke & Mirrors, and Winter of Summers. His books have been nominated in the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Poetry. Dirty Pretty Things was also selected by Sylvia Whitman, the owner of the iconic Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, as one of her personal favorite books of 2016.

He frequently explores the intricacies of love, loss, relationships, and sex in poetry, prose, and short stories. His lyrical and often sensual writing continues to attract readers from all around the world.

Before turning his hand to writing books, Michael enjoyed a successful career in advertising as an award-winning executive creative director. He managed creative departments and developed advertising campaigns for major brands in many countries.

Michael is represented by the literary agency Writers House, New York. He currently lives in New Zealand in a little house by the sea with girlfriend and author Lang Leav.

INDEX

Introduction

A Certain Something

A Different Person

After the Party

A Little Part of Me

All the Time I Possess

A Midnight Call

A New Romance

A Secret Place

A Slow Pirouette

Awake

Black Rain

Black Umbrellas

Burnt Toast

Change the World

Chopping Onions

Crazy

Cult of One

Daffodils

Devotion

Disappointment

Disposable

Far Too Late

Fearless Girl

Fingers Burnt

Guilty Sex

Happy New Year

Heaven

Herding Cats

Horizon

How Love Feels

How Strange

Humility

I Am the Girl

If Someone Really Cares

I Had No Idea

In Love with Words

Inside Every Cherry

Introduction

In Your Eyes

In Your Silence

I Often Wish

It’s the Little Things

It Was the Night

I Want Your Love

Kaleidoscope

Let It Go

Look at Me

Love Defined

Love’s Light

Mass Delusion

Mousetraps

My Fear

Never Again

Never Close Enough

Never Us

Old News

Only You Could Write

Our First Breath

Our Little Garden

Our Pretend Summer

Overwhelmed

Perfection

Perhaps

Pleasure Bound

Priorities

Rage Against Love

Rebellious Spirit

Red Cotton Panties

Rejection

Riding the Subway

Rise Above It

Risk Everything

Saint-Germain

Screaming Sex

Second Helping

Six Seconds

Stain on My Heart

Sticky Tape

Strangers in the Snow

Sunshine in Raindrops

The Broom Closet

The Eleventh First Date

The Explicit Request

The Hardest Goodbye

The Last Days of Summer

The Mad Princess

The Past

The Staircase

The Truth