Love, and Other Things to Live For
Jessica Wood is an aspiring photographer living in London. She’s had her heart broken, and her friends have pieced it back together again.But across the neon lights of Soho, in the smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke, on every night bus, in every song, every time she tries to forget: she remembers him. Now, in a battle between the past and the future, choosing between having a life and making a living, finding her feet or spreading her wings, Jessica must ask herself: who is she really living for?Love and Other Things to Live For is an ode to modern girls and triumph over heartbreak, perfect for fans of Holly Bourne and Dolly Alderton.
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Author photo © Scott Kershaw
LOUISE LEVERETT graduated from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London on a full scholarship before moving to study at the Lee Strasberg Institute of Film in New York. Since establishing her own business ‘Rock the Tribes’ she is now working on a collection of writings that will eventually be turned into adaptions for screen.
An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
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First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2019
Copyright © Louise Leverett 2019
Louise Leverett asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © April 2019 ISBN: 9780008237042
for mum, dad
and alex…
Contents
Chapter One – The Curse of a Burning Flame
Chapter Two – The Art of Intent
Chapter Three – How to Get Lost in Reality
Chapter Four – Virtual Insanity
Chapter Five – Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy (Or, in human speak – ‘To die of a broken heart’)
Chapter Seven – Oh, Starry, Starry Night
Chapter Eight – There Once Was a Girl Who Swallowed a Lie, Perhaps She’ll Die
Chapter Nine – Goodnight, Head/Good Morning, Heart
Chapter Ten – Doing the Wrong Things to the Right People
Chapter Thirteen – It’s a Girl Thing
Chapter Fourteen – Trying to Catch Water: Part One
Trying to Catch Water: Part Two
Chapter Fifteen – And a Partridge in a Pear Tree
Chapter Sixteen – Going Against the Tide
Chapter Seventeen – Rah, Rah, Relationship
Chapter Eighteen – A New Chapter
Chapter Nineteen – The Deep Blue Sea
Chapter Twenty – The Magical Hour
Chapter Twenty-One – Once Upon a Time…
Chapter Twenty-Two – Pushing Through Purgatory
Chapter Twenty-Three – Seeds of Change
Chapter Twenty-Four – Seek Happy Nights to Happy Days
Chapter Twenty-Five – Rainbows
Chapter Twenty-Six – Human Nature
Chapter One – The Curse of a Burning Flame
I awoke to the sound of a clock.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
Opening my eyes to the beginnings of a new day.
I don’t smoke, barely drink, have never experienced casual sex and so this was the tasting menu of new discoveries. I had decided to dip my toe in the final waters of youth as an almost goodbye to my carefree years, complete with late nights and a series of events that had caused my heart to pound and my head to spin. What began with a plethora of shots and inappropriate dancing with a man I barely knew but had worked with my friend, so not a total stranger; perhaps emotionally but certainly not geographically, had now ended with the realisation that the answer to my predicament did not lie at the bottom of a bottle. I had persuaded myself I would see him again, clinging onto the slim thread that last night meant something. But it didn’t. And to be totally honest, lashing out at the world as redemption for a broken heart just wasn’t as fun as I had imagined it would be.
I was getting over someone. Charlie. Perhaps not going the right way about it but trying all the same. And although my appearance suggested I was carefree, inside I was hurting. Slowly seeping through the cracks of my show, my life, was the added complication of a career low. On a whim that was no longer whimsical, I had left university and a path to study law, exchanging it for the butterflies-in-your-tummy notion that you should chase what sets your heart on fire. I’d lit the match only for it to fizzle into charcoal once the reality hit that photography jobs aren’t exactly easy to come by. My dreams had been dowsed cold by stress and financial burden. And now, adding the salt to my wounds, having made the somewhat optimistic decision to move in with a man I’d just met and barely knew, I was back in my old bedroom and back in the flat I’d shared for years with my best friend, Amber. Despite many a raised eyebrow, I’d ridden the wave of infatuation all the way to the shores of his flat overlooking the Thames and now I’d slunk back, just three months later, humiliated and alone.
As I sat on the edge of the bed waiting for my head to stop spinning, sipping on a glass of stagnant water filled with stale, iridescent bubbles, images from the previous night cascaded through my mind. There was wine, spirits, more wine… more spirits… and dancing. Lots of dancing. Crazy moves, big moves, bold moves, total abandonment of body, mind and self-control. Dancing with friends, dancing alone, dancing with the man now lying next to me. I slowly massaged my brow in a belated attempt to melt the thought away.
