Series: Boston Classics #3
Publication date: April 29th, 2021
Synopsis:
Some scars go further than skin deep...
1988 doesn't end well for Jessica Abraham. In just one week she turns thirty, loses her day job, and loses the role of Ophelia to a younger actress. Rallying, she goes after a part at a theater outside of the city, but the director's plan to hide her beauty behind hair, makeup and wardrobe from Cosmo's "Don't" column shakes her confidence to the core.
For the first time in her acting career, she won't be able to rely on her carefully managed physical charms. Only her craft will count.
On a snowy night early in January 1989, a woman calls into DJ Callihan Alonso's alt-rock radio show at the end of her commute. He asks her to call back the next night, and the next, just so he'll know she's home safe. There's something about her voice that has him wanting more, but the longer they talk, the closer she gets. Compromising each and every wall he's built around his heart.
If two lonely people fall in love over late-night phone calls, will meeting face-to-face make them, or break them?
In this heartfelt, slow burn retro romcom, it may be the end of a decade, but it's the beginning of a love story.
Available at:
Playlist
Excerpt
When Jess calls Thursday night, I've prepared a few stories. I may have lost out on being a talk show host, but I am not going to lose her. On our Wednesday call, I was still in a funk from the interview failure, and I don't want her to get bored with me.
I'd be happy to listen to her talk about the weather. Or read the phone book. Just the sound of her voice is entertainment enough for me. A mellow caress when she recites Shakespeare, a sharp prick when she's moved by a friend's troubles. When she imitates members of her family or other actors in her play as she tells a story, she never fails to make me laugh.
That's something I've done more in the past couple of weeks talking to her than I have in years. I'm determined to do the same for her with the stories I've saved up.
"So, since tomorrow's Friday the 13th, nobody's releasing anything new, but I called over to Fort Apache studios in Cambridge earlier and talked a guy I know into getting us a copy of a single from the album that Throwing Muses is releasing next week."
"Oh, I think I heard you play that."
"Yeah, it's a great track. I'm looking forward to hearing the whole thing. Anyway, when the bike messenger dropped it off a couple hours ago, he accidentally let a few people in, and they've been partying in the station offices since then."
"You didn't hear them?"
"They're at the other end of the building. Talia--the night producer, you've talked to her--
"Right."
"Anyway, she went to get a soda, and there they were, sprawled all over the cubicles where the ad sales people work. They'd broken into the vending machine and made a huge mess."
"Like what kind of mess?"
"You know, wrappers and cans everywhere. I think maybe somebody threw up in a trash can."
"Ew."
Good job, Cal. Gross the girl out. "Yeah, the office guys are going to be pissed tomorrow." Now I'm questioning my choice of stories.
"Do a lot of people just show up at the station door?"
"Yeah, they push the buzzer over and over until someone answers. Talia breaks it every once in a while, but someone always fixes it again. A volunteer will usually take their requests off the squawk box out there, but they have strict instructions to never let anyone in who doesn't have a badge. Unless they're actually someone's friends. Gracie brings people in all the time."
"Do you?"
"Nah, too distracting."
"But it's not too distracting to talk to me?"
I can't help but grin. "I'm sure if you were here in person, I'd be very distracted."
"I could figure out some ways to distract you."
The tease under her words tempts me with possibility, but I can't get my hopes too high. "Anyway, there are fewer people here this late to keep an eye on things. I don't want to be responsible."
"Oh, before I forget, I'm done with rehearsal early tomorrow, so I'll probably go to my family's for Shabbos. I won't be driving home late."
"Shabbos?"
"You might have heard it called Shabbat? It's the beginning of the Jewish sabbath. We light candles and have a special meal at sundown on Fridays."
"Right." The thought of going three whole days without talking to her has me scanning my brain for ideas. The flyer for the DJ marathon this weekend catches my eye. "You now, I've got some extra tickets to a club where I'm spinning Saturday. Do you want some?"
"So we could meet up?"
Shit. I have got to learn to think before I speak. "Well, I can't guarantee that. It'll be kind of crazy. But I can give you a bunch. you can bring friends."
"That'd be cool. But if it works out, I'd really like to meet in person."
O Positive's "Walk Away Renee" is winding down, giving me an excuse to say good night--as well as a reminder of what I should do with Jess. After quickly giving her the details for Saturday, I say, "Call me tomorrow night if you can, okay? But if not, I'll have tickets in your name."
KAREN GREY is the pen name for award-winning narrator Karen White. A stage, screen and radio drama actor in Boston, New York and Los Angeles in the late 20th century, she started recording books in 1999. Now back in her home state of North Carolina, she shares a home with her family and (probably) too many pets, where she continues to narrate audiobooks as well as make up stories.
The first three books in her Boston Classics series of retro romcoms released in 2020, with more to come in 2021. What I'm Looking For, #1 in the series is the winner of AudioFile Magazine's Earphones Award, the NJ Romance Writers' Put Your Heart in a Book contest and Hearts Through History's Romance Through the Ages contest in the Modern History category.
