Ask for Andrea (Ask for Andrea, #1)

by Noelle W. Ihli

“On a date that isn’t going well? Do you feel unsafe or just a little uneasy? Ask for Andrea at the bar. We’ll make sure you get home safe.”

I couldn’t understand what was happening. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even tell where I was. All I knew was that everything hurt.

I wasn’t wind: I was air. But air could go places. And that gave me an idea.

An hour ago, he had taken everything I had. I didn’t know how, but I planned to return the favor.

He was the kind of beautiful that drew you in before you even considered the fact that beautiful things can be poisonous.

I have learned, as you know now, that the people we love are not gone forever. That everything we ever loved, ever did, ever said, ever read, ever experienced, comes back to us.

There were foxes, and there were hounds. And then there were the animals who didn’t fit into the natural order of things at all. Who meant the hurt they caused every time.

Thou goest home to thine eternal slumber. Thou goest home to thine eternal bed. Thou goest back to thy home of winter, Thy home of autumn, of spring, and of summer; Sleep thou, sleep, and away with thy sorrow, Sleep thou, sleep in the calm of all calm, Sleep now, beloved in the shade of high branches Sleep, O sleep in the love of all loves; Sleep this night in the breast of thy mother, Sleep, thou beloved, while she herself soothes thee; Thy face is turned to thine old home, beloved Thou goest back to the womb whence thou sprang The sleep of the seven lights be thine, beloved, The sleep of the seven joys be thine, beloved, The shadow of death enfolds thee, beloved, But in nearness thy father stands by and by Sleep thou, sleep, and away with thy sorrow, Sleep thou, sleep, and away with thy pain. Sleep, O sleep in the guidance of guidance, Sleep, O beloved, the rest of all rest.

On a date that isn’t going well? Ask for Andrea at the bar. We’ll make sure you get home safe.