Love's Complicated// Flee

Chapter One

The early morning sun shined around her as she walked down the usually bustling New York City street. It was early, so there were only a few people around, allowing her to take her time and really appreciate the city she'd grown so fond of in her 25 years. Noticing her favourite vendor on the side of the street, she slowly walked over and hovered for a moment until he noticed her.

"Faye," he smiled, "the usual?"

"Please," Faye replied as she opened her purse to get some money out

Faye Tozer was a fairly tall, skinny young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She'd lived in New York City her whole life, the daughter of a senator and his wife.

As she stood, waiting quietly, her ear picked up a faint sound coming from the radio. She scowled and rolled her eyes. Lee Latchford-Evans. He was a well known radio talk show host in the city, and Faye did not like him one bit. He annoyed her to no end and she couldn't understand why anyone would enjoy the garbage he called a talk show.

"I saw that eye roll, Faye" Adam laughed slightly, "you should give it a listen, maybe you'd like it"

Shaking her head, she handed over the money, "not a chance. You know what I do like though?" Faye questioned as she took the paper cup from his hand, "your coffee. Thanks, Adam"

With that, she slowly backed away from the stall and carried on in the direction she was headed. It wasn't long before she arrived at the colossal building which was home to her publisher. Taking a deep breath, she threw the empty cup in the trash, and headed straight for the 14th floor.

-----

Twiddling her thumbs, she sat quietly across the desk from Claire, her manager, as she re read over the finished manuscript Faye had given her the week before. Finding it too awkward to watch as Claire read, Faye's eyes landed on the wall behind her. The large book cover for "The Senator's Daughter" stood pride of place, mounted in a wooden frame. The bottom of the cover read "Faye Tozer", and she smiled to herself slightly, reminding herself of the great success she'd had with her first novel. Caught up in her own world, she didn't notice Claire finishing the final page, and placing the manuscript on the desk. She cleared her throat and caught Faye's attention, looking across the desk at her silently for a moment before opening her mouth,

"I absolutely love Amber Rose," Claire began, "She is an amazing and strong character. Very well written."

"So you like the book?" Faye asked, hopefully

"No," Claire deadpanned, "It's boring, there's no conflict, nothing happens. No problem, no solution"

"Oh," was all Faye could say

"Come on Faye, I know you can do better, look at "The Senator's Daughter", that was an amazing novel that actually had some storyline"

"Well, that was easy, I was just writing about myself, you know. This one is completely different" she sighed

Opening a desk drawer, Claire found a folder and handed it over to Faye, "Here are some notes the development team and I made, to help improve the novel"

Eyes widening at the size of the folder, Faye hesitantly took it and placed it in her bag.

"Oh don't look so worried. It's just a few notes on a few chapters" Claire reassured her

"Well you know what Hemingway always said, it takes ten years to write a good book", Faye joked, trying to lighten the mood

"Yes, well Hemingway didn't have a massive grant behind him" Claire reminded her

With a meek nod, Faye got up and left the office, heading for home to start on her rewrite.