Curing the Uncommon Man-Cold

Excerpt from Chapter 1

By J. L. Salter

For those who haven’t yet seen my recent novel, here’s a short excerpt from my screwball comedy, “Curing the Uncommon Man-Cold”.
A stubborn boyfriend with the sniffles is the last thing Amanda needs in her apartment during THIS work crisis, but how can she get clueless Jason to leave without just ending their relationship?

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Excerpt # 1
From Chapter 1
Amanda, in her apartment; her best friend Christine visiting; Amanda’s boyfriend Jason on his way over.

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“I don’t think I can hold up…” Amanda’s eyes were full. “Jason just left the doctor.” Her apartment suddenly felt smaller.
“What on earth is wrong?” Her friend Christine had just arrived and already plopped down on the small sofa. “Cancer? Paralysis?” She probably pictured even worse diagnoses because Christine zealously read supermarket tabloids.
Amanda groaned softly.
Christine grabbed her younger friend’s shoulders. “You’ll feel better if you talk about it.” She moistened her lips slightly. Medical news was known to be among her favorites, along with stories about nasty divorces.
Amanda looked for her nearest tissue box. “It’s… a… man-cold.”
Christine sighed heavily. “Don’t wind me up like that. I thought this was a real situation.”
“It is!” Amanda had been home from work about twenty minutes and still had her heels on. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Just ship that basket case back to his momma.” Christine snapped her fingers. “Let Margaret wait on him hand and foot for the next week.”
“More likely two weeks. Remember when he was sick in January?”
“I thought he had triple-Nashville-man-ditis or something.”
Amanda nodded. “Totally helpless. He could barely use the bathroom by himself.”
“Look, Jason was overindulged from the get-go. I bet Margaret nursed him too long. Ship him back.”
“I can’t.” Amanda closed her eyes. “She absolutely won’t take him.”
“His own momma?”
“The last time a sick Jason stayed at her place, it nearly put Margaret in the hospital.” Amanda lowered her voice. “She said Jason moaned every waking hour. Hardly ever moved from her couch for over a week… and he limped, for cryin’ out loud!” Amanda shook her head. “I can’t live with that.”
“You can’t let him stay here! You won’t survive two days with Jason’s sick-over.” Christine sputtered. “There’s got to be somewhere else… somebody else. Maybe he can bunk with a buddy.”
“A buddy? Just picture irresponsible Kevin trying to assist helpless Jason who’s down with a deadly illness. Kevin would hightail it out of his own apartment so quick you’d think he just spotted a fumigation fog sliding under his door.”
“Slow down and rethink this.” Christine touched her friend’s forearm. “Do you really know this person well enough to nurse him back from near-terminal man-sniffles?”
“Know him? We’ve been sleeping together since the Halloween party last year. My place and his!”
Christine leaned in closer, even though she should have remembered this development. “At his place too?”
“Three times.” Amanda was prepared to list the dates.
“Hmm. That is serious, I guess.” Christine waved her hand briefly. “Okay. So you do have an investment, so to speak. The issue is how to tend Jason enough that it even registers with him, yet not so much that the effort kills you.”
“Now you understand why I’m freaking.” Amanda moaned again. “Not to mention these are my Hell Weeks at work.”

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Back-Cover BLURB

A stubborn boyfriend with the sniffles is the last thing Amanda needs in her apartment during THIS work crisis, but how can she get clueless Jason to leave without just ending their relationship?
Fortunately, her divorced girlfriend hurriedly develops the devious scare-cure. Amanda throws everything at Jason that Christine can dream up and that apartment becomes the least hospitable place a man could possibly imagine. Extensive potpourri and a glued-down toilet seat is just the beginning.
But how serious are the privacy risks as Christine blogs about her scare-cure? Can this crazy scheme really get Jason out of Amanda’s hair at home before she loses her mind at work?
Will Amanda’s relationship even survive the kooky cure of Jason’s man-cold?

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