Bliss

 

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Table of Contents

About the Authors

Copyright Page

 

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this book is dedicated to everyone and anyone out there trying to find their bliss. dream big and never give up … live the life you love.

 

acknowledgments

We want to thank the people closest to us in our lives; though we would love to list you all, we would need a whole chapter to do it! To our families: thank you for putting up with us and always having our backs. We love you.

For the rest of our friends and family, you know who you are. Your unwavering support never goes unnoticed and we are thankful to have you all in our lives. A special thanks to everyone who helped us shape the book into what it has become: DD, SC, Mark, Bunny, and to our co-writer Val, thank you. Taking so many ideas and stories and pouring them onto pages while making sense of it all is not for the faint of heart and we thank you all so very much, for guiding us.

This book is about finding our bliss. So it is only appropriate to send a huge thanks to everyone and anyone who has crossed our paths and made an impact big or small, positive or negative. Cutting us down taught us to build ourselves back up. Sharing a laugh in the middle of a storm taught us humility. And endless support when we needed it most taught us to trust and love. You have made us who we are and we thank each and every one of you. Impacting another person's life usually goes untold or unnoticed and this is an acknowledgment to all of you:
thank you
.

And as Shay's dad always says: “The world is your oyster.”

 

Hey fans, I know you want to read our book (thank you), but this novel deals with some mature topics, so if you're under eighteen, talk to your parents first!

 

prologue

Let's get lost.

That was their goal for the night. Demi had just gotten her license, and they decided to drive around Vancouver in her dad's Mercedes without a plan. Windows down, wind in their hair, music blasting: freedom. This was what it was all about. Getting lost in their own world in their own city. You can't really know a city until you're hopelessly lost in it.

The almost-summer night was clear and full of stars, and just warm enough to keep the windows open. They all smoked then—it was the coolest thing to do, right?—and laughed at how they must have looked, cruising down the road, a big car with three arms straight out the windows.

They headed downtown. They were too young to get into any of the cool bars and clubs, but were drawn to them anyway. The three friends gawked at the college kids and the beautiful people lined up outside. Seventeen was a frustrating age. They were so close to real life, but not quite there yet.

Demi headed south, over the Lions Gate Bridge, through Stanley Park, and made a detour into English Bay, where local hipsters and tourists sat on logs on the beach to smoke weed or cigarettes. The girls sat on the rocks, listened to the waves, and smoked without worrying about the smell. In the distance, they could make out yacht lights and the sound of the newest dance track—Bob Sinclar's “World, Hold On”—bouncing across the water.

“Party cruises,” said Demi. “House music. Hot guys. Tons of booze. Three hours of fun.” Demi was the most petite of the three of them—she bristled when Sophia or Leandra called her cute—with bright hazel eyes, a tiny dot of a nose, petal pink lips, and soft chestnut hair that she usually wore in a pony. She looked sweet and innocent, until she opened her mouth.

“We should go on one!” said Leandra, the self-acknowledged sexiest of the trio, with lusciously shaped long limbs; high, hard melon boobs; bouncy, aggressively blond waves (they all agreed she went too light this time); and upturned green cat eyes that made strong men weak and smart boys stupid.

“Can we bring Jesse?” asked Sophia, gorgeous and exotic, mixed race (Irish and Filipona), tall, with nearly black thick hair, a killer smile, bottomless dark eyes, olive skin, and born-that-way grace. When she walked, or sat, or just stood there, people stared at her. Jesse was her boyfriend. Even on the rare night they weren't together, he was always on her mind. Demi and Leandra, who were currently single, spent so much time together they were like a couple themselves.

“If only we could just hop on one of those yachts and get out of here,” said Demi. They were all ready for high school to end, and real life to begin.

“And go where?” asked Leandra. “What place on Earth could
possibly
be more exciting than Vancouver?”

The girls all howled with laughter at that one.

“Wherever we go, we'll go together,” said Demi, throwing an arm around Leandra.

“Travel is definitely on my list. And Jesse's,” said Sophia. “But you guys know what my number-one priority is.” The others nodded. Sophia had wanted to be an actor since forever. Her parents were on the fence about her dream. They were in business, and thought acting was a major gamble. “But being successful and traveling go together,” she said. “When I'm a Bond girl, for instance, I'll have to shoot in Tokyo, Milan, and Dubai.”

“Exactly,” said Demi. “I'll meet you in whatever city and be your ‘normal person' friend. Every celeb needs one.”

“I'll retire in Tuscany. But during my Oscar and Emmy years, we'll maintain a Hollywood base so I can drive my white Range Rover to lunch at Il Pastasio in Beverly Hills.” Sophia followed a lot of travel bloggers on Instagram. She knew the hot spots in LA. “You guys can come, I guess. But only if you don't give me shit about my taking a thousand pictures. It's not a choice. It's a need.”

“It's your
addiction,
” said Demi.

“It is,” said Sophia, whipping out her phone and started snapping.

“Okay! Enough!”

“One more!”

They started laughing hysterically, and fell onto the sand. Sophia stood over Demi and Leandra, shooting away. “Stop!” Demi was laughing so hard, she didn't making a sound.

“I'm going to miss this when I move to New York,” said Leandra. “Or Washington, D.C. I'm torn. Do I want a Wall Street husband and live in a penthouse on Park Avenue, or should I marry a senator, and live in a town house on Dupont Circle? Decisions, decisions.”

“That's your dream? Marrying a douche bag who'll dump you for a younger model in ten years, leaving you to raise the brats by yourself?” asked Demi, grinning.

“A
rich and powerful
douche bag. And don't worry. I'll get a good settlement in the divorce.”

“Goes without saying.”

“What about you, Demi?” asked Sophia. “What's the five-year plan?”

“Are we doing a college interview now?”

“Quit stalling.”

“I definitely want to be successful, not sure how. While I figure out what I want to do, I'll just hang out in Leandra's town house, mooching off her rich husband.”

“We'll find you space, like in a closet somewhere.”

“I can mooch off Sophia and Jesse, too, or be the hired caretaker of their villa in Tuscany.”

Leandra smiled. “Glad we've got it all figured out.”

The girls laughed on cue, but this whole conversation was making them a bit anxious. Longing for their lives to begin didn't mean they weren't scared shitless about it.

“We can have whatever we want, you realize,” said Sophia. “All we have to do is stay positive and never give up.”

Demi barked a laugh. “Right.”

“No, it's true,” said Leandra. “Don't you read all those quote boxes on Insta?”

“You mean, ‘Breathe it all in,'” she said sarcastically, and then took a deep inhale of her cigarette. “‘And love it all out'?” The smoke streamed out.

Sophia said, “More like, ‘Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.'”

“Who said that?” asked Demi. “The woman who wrote
The Bullshit
? I mean,
The Secret
?”

“What's the alternative? Blow off bliss, live a boring life, get old and bitter, living alone with eight cats?”

“So the choice is ‘follow your bliss,' or ‘die alone, with cat drool on your chin,'” said Demi.

“Yes,” said Sophia. “So why not go for it?”

Why not?

They decided “Why not?” would be their mantra for life. “Let's make a pact,” said Leandra. “We promise to keep each other on track, follow our bliss, and love, honor, and cherish our friendship, from this day forward.”

“Is this a pact, or a vow?” asked Sophia.

“Both.”

“To bliss,” said Demi. “And making out with men, getting drunk, and having the time of our lives.”

 

Four Years Later …

 

1

that's one way to beat meat

As soon as she got home, Demi noticed James's suitcase by the door. He wasn't supposed to get back from his bank conference in New York until later that night. She reached for her phone to check for a text and panicked to find the phone missing. Then she remembered she left it at the office. (Typical. She misplaced it every hour.) James probably caught an earlier flight to surprise her. The irony was, she came home early from work to surprise him with a special dinner to celebrate their three-year anniversary. It had been two days ago. James never remembered stuff like that, but she didn't care. Sophia always said it mattered, that the thought counted, that James took her for granted, and that Demi turned a blind eye to it. Demi's attitude was more casual. Why find faults if everything was fine?

“James?” she called out. No response. He must have dropped off his suitcase and gone right back out, probably to his office. He busted his ass at work.

Demi brought the grocery bags into the kitchen and unloaded the ingredients for a decadent osso buco with a mushroom risotto. She'd never made it before. What if she fucked up and it tasted like garbage on a warm day? “Shut up, it's going to be fine!” she told herself.