All The Write Stuff: Anita Farleigh Unpacks

Anita Farliegh's cheating lover caused her to walk away from the only place she’s called home, and she's had it. Until a chance meeting with Oliver Gogh, a talented nurse with a charming bedside manner, who has her thinking he may be the man who gets her to drop her guard and try romance one more time.

Anita Farleigh Unpacks

by Laurie Woodford

Genre: Contemporary Romantic Comedy

One More Time?

Anita Farliegh's cheating lover caused her to walk away from the only place she’s called home, and she's had it. Until a chance meeting with Oliver Gogh, a talented nurse with a charming bedside manner, who has her thinking he may be the man who gets her to drop her guard and try romance one more time.

Free-spirited English professor, Anita Farleigh, thinks she has it all — her ambitious boyfriend, Zach, and a teaching career that actually pays her to travel. Then, ten days before Christmas, Anita returns home from a work trip in Shanghai to discover that Zach has dumped her for a domestic goddess with enough faux fur ottomans to fill a Hobby Lobby showroom.

On one of the worst days of her life, a hungover, disheveled Anita shows up for a routine doctor's appointment and meets Oscar, a medical professional who just happens to be compassionate, funny, and absurdly handsome. When Oscar keeps showing up in her life, Anita can't deny their chemistry (Is it her fault that Oscar fills out his scrubs in exactly the right places?). Or their terrible timing (It'd be wrong to fall for someone so soon after a bad breakup. Right?). Neither can she ignore her emerging wish for stability as steadfast Oscar challenges her penchant for living with one foot out the door.

When a remorseful Zach reappears, wanting to woo back his world traveler, Anita must decide whether to follow familiar flight patterns or finally open her heart and make a safe landing.

EXCERPT

"The hard rev of an engine and tires crunching on driveway gravel startle me awake. Rubbing my eyes, I lift my pounding head off the garage floor.

What the—? Why am I face planted on a purple rug in Zach’s garage?

I squint, and an empty bottle of Malbec comes into focus, as does the maze of furniture, boxes, end tables, bookshelves, and—holy hell—are those rhinestone-beaded lampshades?

As I slowly sit up, last night’s crap fest comes flooding back into my brain. I came home from Seoul to the news that Zach, the cheating bastard, dumped me for Vivian, the greenhouse girl with enough sequined pillows and cowpoke chairs to fill a craft store showroom.

I lick my lips, cringing at the vile taste in my mouth. At some point last night, I must’ve raided Vivian’s blanket bin and pantry box, because I’m buried under layers of ballerina pink fleece, and there’s an empty sleeve of graham crackers and open box of Nilla Wafers next to my feet.

My phone dings, and I search blindly beneath the blankets to find it. Appointment with Dr. Lichtman.

December 16 at 8:15 a.m. Today? Seriously?

I rub my forehead and run my tongue across my teeth that feel coated in Elmer’s glue.

What time is it? Dr. Lichtman’s clinic is a fifteen-minute drive away. Between the scary-as-hell receptionist, Bernice, who enforces the $75 short-notice cancellation fee, and the fact that I had to book this annual gynecological exam four months out, rescheduling is out of the question.

I push off the blankets, then crawl to my feet, my head spinning. Between all the tears spent and alcohol consumed last night, I feel completely dehydrated.

Seven forty-eight.

I have twelve minutes to shower off my stank, throw on clean clothes, and get in the car.

My knees and hips creak in protest as I pad through the garage and hurry to the house with one thought in mind: hot shower. I twist the doorknob, but the door doesn’t give.

No. Not happening.

What did I do with the blasted key last night?

I dart back to the garage, scan the space, looking through the rows of furniture and boxes. My purse. It’s wedged between Vivian’s velveteen settee and a box marked EARMUFFS. After clutching it, I race back to the house.

Seven fifty-three.

It’s thirty degrees in Grande Lake, but my upper lip is sweating profusely as I dig through my purse. Talk about déjà vu. Only this morning the universe takes pity on me, probably because I’m a pathetic mess, and I touch the key lying at the bottom like a sunk stone.

I scramble upstairs and pull off my clothes, leaving them in a heap on the bed.

With three minutes to spare, my hot shower’s out of the question. I rush to the bathroom, grab a washcloth and soap, and perform a strategic tactical cleaning of critical parts and crevices. Then in the bedroom, I pull clean undies, bra, and socks from the top dresser drawer, yoga pants and sweatshirt from the bottom, and run down the stairs, slide my feet into boots, and full-throttle it to my car."

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Book Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DDN9T6CZ

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/anita-farleigh-unpacks/id6649684607

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/anita-farleigh-unpacks-laurie-woodford/1146200309?ean=2940167727069&

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/anita-farleigh-unpacks

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1606006

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/anita-farleigh-unpacks-by-laurie-woodford

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/202333341-anita-farleigh-unpacks

About the Author

Laurie Woodford is the author of the romantic comedy, Anita Farleigh Unpacks, and the travel memoir, Unsettled. Before writing full-time, she taught college English in the U.S., China and South Korea and earned an MFA in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte. Originally from upstate New York, she now lives in the outskirts of Austin, Texas with her amazing husband, Bruce, and wonder dog, Journey.

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