No Strings Attached
by Joanne Rawson
Wedding invitations are supposed to bring a smile to your face, with thoughts of a happy occasion that two people would be joining in Holy matrimony, publicly declaring their love for each other. However, for Laura Lee, it was just confirmation that at thirty-three, she had spent all her time and efforts on her career and was still single.
After finding out that her ex will be attending the same wedding, Laura Lee has three days to find herself a date. In desperation, she calls on the help of her best friend Lisa, the who's who of Nottingham's eligible bachelors.
Discovering that Nottingham's most rich and handsome men find her icy, Laura has to take her only option, the man she most despises, her work colleague Adam Ford.
Excerpt
It would almost be about a month, yes a month ago now. I arrived home from work, a pile of mail greeting me on my doormat. Sifting through the usual bank statement, household bills, and a whimper at the balance of my credit card bill, I winced at the next letter, a thick cream-colored expensive envelope, striking thick black letters, bearing just my solitary name, MISS LAURA LEE.
It suddenly dawned on me, it was the month of May. Inwardly I groaned, knowing that by the end of September, I would have a line of these cream cards, embossed with gold letters on my mantelpiece, inviting me and one guest.
Wedding invitations are supposed to bring a smile to your face, with thoughts of a happy occasion that two people would be joining in Holy Matrimony, publicly declaring their love for each other. But for me, it was just confirmation that at thirty three, I’d spent all my time and efforts on my career, and before you get any preconceived ideas, I’m no super model, fashion editor of a glossy magazine, or a world renowned surgeon, I’m a plain Jane, boring auditor for a large chain of bars and restaurants, who has fought her way through a world of male bureaucracy, thus enabling me to buy my own house, and filling it with cherished belongings, in the process having forgotten my main cherished possession, a man to share it all with. It seems I would spend a lifetime receiving invites to Miss Laura Lee and guest.
There had been one man, three years ago—Robert—that after years together I thought would be a lifelong, possession. However, my friend, (now ex friend) had swept him from under my nose, like a professional bargain hunter at the first day of the Next sale. You know what I’m talking about, ladies, don’t you? Having admired it for weeks, but you knew it was way out of your price range. Then for hours you stood in the queue waiting, knowing exactly what you want, and then, when you finally see it on the rack, you can’t believe that it is still there. You take a minute to admire it, knowing it fits perfect, makes you feel good, and then, before you know it, some silly bitch who wants everything, snatches it from your reach. You know bloody well, that in a few weeks she will toss it aside, unwanted, and soiled. Well, that is exactly what Marsha Doyle did to me, the bitch. She’d always wanted everything I had, and when she finally got her perfect manicured claws on Robert, she played with him like a cat with a mouse.
So here I am a month later, and only three days to my cousin’s big event, not that I was counting. Normally such trivialities as a wedding would be pushed to the back of my mind, if it hadn’t been for the phone call.
