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Contents (126)
  1. The Meeting Point
  2. Olivia Lara
  3. Contents
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. A YEAR LATER
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. June 2
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. June 3
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. June 4
  33. Twenty-Six
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. Help Wanted: Seasonal employment, June–August
  37. Twenty-Nine
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. June 5
  41. Thirty-Two
  42. Thirty-Three
  43. June 6
  44. Thirty-Four
  45. Thirty-Five
  46. June 7
  47. Thirty-Six
  48. Thirty-Seven
  49. Thirty-Eight
  50. Thirty-Nine
  51. June 8
  52. Forty
  53. Forty-One
  54. June 9
  55. Forty-Two
  56. Forty-Three
  57. Forty-Four
  58. Forty-Five
  59. Forty-Six
  60. Forty-Seven
  61. Forty-Eight
  62. Forty-Nine
  63. Fifty
  64. Fifty-One
  65. June After Midnight: By Ethan Delphy
  66. Chapter 15
  67. Fifty-Two
  68. June After Midnight
  69. Chapter 20
  70. Fifty-Three
  71. June After Midnight
  72. Chapter 21
  73. June After Midnight
  74. Chapter 22
  75. Fifty-Four
  76. June After Midnight
  77. Chapter 28
  78. Fifty-Five
  79. June After Midnight
  80. Chapter 29
  81. June After Midnight
  82. Chapter 30
  83. Fifty-Six
  84. Fifty-Seven
  85. June 11
  86. Fifty-Eight
  87. Fifty-Nine
  88. Sixty
  89. Sixty-One
  90. Sixty-Two
  91. June 12
  92. Sixty-Three
  93. Sixty-Four
  94. Sixty-Five
  95. June 13
  96. Sixty-Six
  97. Sixty-Seven
  98. Sixty-Eight
  99. Sixty-Nine
  100. June 14
  101. Seventy
  102. Seventy-One
  103. Seventy-Two
  104. Seventy-Three
  105. Seventy-Four
  106. June 15
  107. Seventy-Five
  108. Seventy-Six
  109. Seventy-Seven
  110. Seventy-Eight
  111. Seventy-Nine
  112. Eighty
  113. Eighty-One
  114. June 16
  115. Eighty-Two
  116. Eighty-Three
  117. Eighty-Four
  118. Eighty-Five
  119. June After Midnight
  120. Chapter 28 (Draft 1 Version)
  121. Eighty-Six
  122. Eighty-Seven
  123. Eighty-Eight
  124. Acknowledgments
  125. About the Author
  126. Also by Olivia Lara

Seventeen

I’m taking a final look around the apartment. Half a decade comes with some nostalgia for sure. I thought I was happy here for a while. Things were good. Fresh out of college, starting my journalism career, I was in a relationship with a man all my girlfriends wanted to date.

We’re not the same people we used to be back in 2013. I’m not the same person.

I’m about to go out the door when my cell rings. It’s Alisa.

She sounds agitated, and her voice is pitchy—a sign that she’s excited about something.

“You won’t believe what I’m reading now.”

“What?”

A locked-room mystery? A baffling disappearance? Definitely another submission she’s enthusiastic about. Alisa now handles the Thriller/Mystery Fiction Division for her publisher. She’s been on a roll lately, signing new authors left and right. I got to read some of those early copies—she always mails them to me—and every time I do, I understand why she wants to sign those authors right away, and I get jealous and insecure all over again.

“Listen, OK? This is Max Meridian’s story, a thirty-something unlucky in love Californian who has big dreams of becoming a successful artist but works as a rideshare driver to make a living. On a day like any other, while Max is on his way to pick up a client, a phone rings inside his car. A woman is calling. When Max answers, he doesn’t imagine that in the next twenty-four hours, this woman will mend his lonely heart and make him believe again in the magic of love and fate. Will this story end tragically or with a happily ever after when the morning comes and he doesn’t meet her as planned? Inspired by the real-life love story of a young artist the author has known all of his life. This is a deeply touching and spellbindingly beautiful novel about the kind of love that once found, cannot ever be forgotten, about the magic of serendipity and the heartbreak of ill timing.”

I gasp. “What is this?”

“The blurb for a book that’s about to be published.”

“A book? One of your books?”

Such a dumb reaction, but my brain is completely blocked.

“Does this sound like a thriller to you? Nothing to do with me or our imprint. I just heard about it from a scout I met who couldn’t stop raving about it so I got her to send me the blurb. Apparently, the man who wrote the novel is a New York Times bestselling author, but I’m not up to date with romance authors. His name is Ethan Delphy.”

“Ethan Delphy,” I repeat. “Can you please read the whole thing again? And slowly.”

She chuckles. “Sure.”

When she finishes, I’m just as shocked as I was the first time she read it.

After I finished my manuscript, I wrote a blurb for it as a way of killing time. I don’t know if I kept it, but it sounded just like this one. Except it wasn’t the story of Max Meridian, the driver who meets a woman, it was the story of Dawn Davis who meets a driver in California.