THE SEVENTH CHANCE By Pat Garcia

@patgarcia@bsky.social @pat_garcia @rrbc-org.bsky.social #romancereader #bloghop,#writingjourney @amwriting

Hello, Everyone,

I am continuing with a snippet from last week’s introduction of The Seventh Chance, a flash fiction I am developing from a compilation of stories that will be released sometime this year.

Bob-Ann stretched and yawned at the same time. She had not slept well. The memory of the broken glass she had left on the floor by the entrance into their home, the fact that she hadn’t heard Amato come home, and the pounding headache that she had caused her to sigh heavily. She unwrapped her body, twisted in the bedsheets, and glanced at the watch near her bedstand. She had flunked her last chance not to act like a speechless, bashful mouse. Her husband, Amato, always told her that what others thought of them was unimportant. But she hadn’t been able to accept his way of thinking. Their age difference made her doubtful, mistrustful, and jealous. She’d never believed he was offering her a future with him.
Bob-Ann flung herself on the bed and thought about Amato’s longtime friend and schoolmate, Lila. When Bob-Ann first met Lila, she tried to befriend the woman, but Lila noticed her insecurities and used misconstrued truths to gnaw away at Bob-Ann’s confidence one brick at a time. Since their marriage, Lila promised her that Amato would leave her because Bob-Ann wasn’t his type.
For the sixth time, Bob-Ann believed her. Lila sounded so convincing that Bob-Ann’s tears started flowing, and she left the party without telling Amato she was going.
He had given her many chances to see the beautiful woman she was, but she failed every time. She mumbled, “There’s no such thing as a seventh chance.”
Curling herself around her pillow, she covered herself with her feather down as she thought about the cruelty of others and her inability to fight back.

Shalom shalom