Title: Greedily Yours
Author: Emma Hamilton
Published: Part One 15th June
Publisher: Bastei Entertainment
Today is my stop on the brilliant Blog Tour for Greedily Yours by Emma Hamilton. Greedily Yours is an 8 part ebook series and I am delighted to share an extract with you. Hope you enjoy!
Extract – Greedily Yours Episode 1
“Do you believe in destiny? The kind that changes the course of your life, that even when you hadn't planned for it, it takes you somewhere new and exciting and different; the kind that wraps you up and makes sure that things will turn out all right; a sort of destiny with silver linings if you like?” Mia paused for breath and looked at Lizzie to make sure she was listening to her latest theory on life. Mia’s appetite for struggling with the trials and tribulations of life matched her appetite for food and Lizzie, her best friend and flatmate, was her ever-sensible confidante on both fronts. “That's the kind of destiny I like to believe in. Sure, at some points in my life, it's been hard to see where destiny might be taking me — if the road I’m on is about to lead me over a cliff. But you have to trust to destiny don’t you?”
Having coped with multiple Mia meltdowns, Lizzie knew that at times like these it was better not to answer Mia with her own theories of destiny and whether or not it existed. So, she nodded sagely and let Mia – hot-cheeked and fervent - continue. Mia’s long, dark wavy hair was scrunched up in a bun on top of her head and whisping around her face. She was lying on her tummy on Lizzie’s floor, her head propped in her hands. Her long legs bent at the knees with her calves and feet scissoring and moving with emphasis as she developed her romantic ideas, sparks seeming to fly off as she mused and giggled.
“I think, Lizzie, my destiny is looked after by a kind of wise woman who knows a lot about herbs and has lived for hundreds of years. She's seen everything across the centuries and sometimes she shakes her head at what I'm doing, occasionally she wants to test me but she also has my best interests at heart. But she's old now, so when she's sleeping, or tottering about absent-mindedly in the garden, I might wander off down a path that seemingly leads nowhere, but even those little detours somehow later contribute to the main event. Do you know what I mean?” Lizzie nodded again.
In contrast to Mia’s energy and restlessness, Lizzie was the calm, fixed point in Mia’s life. She was almost a younger version of the herbal earth mother that Mia was busy evoking. Lizzie loved baking but, unlike Mia, she didn’t like exercise, especially running. However, she loved to dance and was good at yoga because despite her considerable curves, she was also incredibly bendy. She was, as usual, curled up on her bed, leaning back on some cushions, her curly red hair also piled up on her head and a pair of glasses perched on her nose. She listened calmly.
Mia had been reading recently about palmistry and that informed her latest theory. “If you look at your palm, all those little lines and off-shoots from the main life lines, that's what I think those times are in life when perhaps you're just acquiring survival skills for when life’s big waves hit you. That's what I like to believe anyway, because at the moment I feel a little bit lost, like I’m on a boat out at sea and can just make out land, but don’t quite know if I’ll be able to reach it.”
“Does this have something to do with Paul?” Lizzie asked. Paul was Mia’s boyfriend. They’d been together for four years, through various ups and downs due to Paul’s workload and depending on whether Mia felt satisfied he had sent enough texts, made enough calls, and replied to enough emails. She had broken up with Paul several times for a month or two, only to Lizzie’s surprise, to get back together again after Paul had pleaded his case, made some grand romantic gestures and promised to change. But recently the relationship seemed to have stagnated, and Mia’s comments about Paul were becoming increasingly negative.
“Why do you feel so lost Mia?” Lizzie asked. “Which part of your life is rudderless?”
Mia was brought up short, when put like that, she had to admit that there wasn't really anything particularly lost about her life at the moment. On the surface, at least, things were fabulous. Great friends, doing a job she was passionate about in food PR, and a boyfriend, Paul, who worked in the City and was good at booking fun weekends away – as long as he chose the destinations and Mia didn’t interfere with his ferocious workload or his excessive – in Mia’s opinion - visits to his parents. Fridays for instance, unless they were going away for a weekend, was a night he spent with his friends and was off-limits to Mia, because, as Paul explained, “a guy needs some time with his friends, Mia, and Friday night is friends night.” Weekend mornings generally started with a jog, which would inevitably turn into a four-hour training session for whatever sporting event Paul had signed up to, and excessive alcohol was frowned upon. Most of these things, Mia was happy to put up with. She too liked jogging, and Paul was a good motivator; Friday nights with Lizzie and their friends, drowning in wine, meant that by Saturday she was often glad of a dry night off, and Sunday afternoons she liked to have to herself back at the flat to prepare for the next week. It gave the week a rhythm, Mia felt, and Paul’s adherence to his rules provided another fixed point in her life, which did have a tendency to careen out of control when she was left alone for too long.
Compared to Mia’s past boyfriends, Paul seemed dedicated and stable. He often talked of their future, of children and a house in the country, indeed, all the things that Mia said that she wanted.
“You're right Lizzie, I don't know why I feel so lost, I guess I'm just being stupid. But....”
“But....what?” prompted Lizzie, who had had been helping Mia her through problems like these since they were schoolgirls, whispering about getting the attention of the cutest boys in their class at the tender age of 11. At 31 now, their relationship hadn’t changed much. Lizzie still knew what she wanted and how to go about getting it. She was much more satisfied with life in general and Mia was still on the lookout for something new, exciting, and different that would get her fired up and take her down one of the many paths she had yet to explore.
Greedily Yours (eight episodes) is published twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays from 15th June, price £1.49 each.
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