****Captured Muse Cafe****

Hi Ash,

 it's great to get a new story in here and yours certainly had an intriguing beginning!!

Please continue - I look forward to those extra paragraphs!!

 auds

Hey Ash do you think it would be possible to post the beginning of your story when you post the new part? I missed everything from a few weeks before the site change and since there isn't an archive of the old posts, I would love to start from the beginning! Hope everyone is having a great new year and can't wait to read some new stories!

Katie

I also am trying to find Jo's blog.  I hope that someone here has it.

Thanks Charu -- now I can go read her latest.

 It amazes me how many people were asking for my blog addy. If you ever need to find it again, it's in my profile on here. :) I havent been writing a lot, I've been ignoring it a lot, which is awful. I will hopefully be starting a new story soon to counter what most people think is my depressing new "Life" story. haha. Love to all,

                                                               Jolene

Thanks Adeline.

Yeah.I know, it still doesn't look right all squished haha my face looks even worse tiny. haha. Maybe I'll post the full-size pics on my blogger fr you all.

Should we call this one dead?

because when it was AR there were soooo many people posting soooo many different stories...and I know they are all here somewhere! Who knows...

I have to admit to being (almost) always a lurker in this site, and AR before.  It was fabulous reading the stories, some of which really blew me away with their quality.  I did try to post one or two of my own but it seems I am not a "closer"!

I'm sure all those guys are still around somewhere but perhaps life has moved on or they are now working towards being published, I certainly know there was plenty of talent in here.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!! 

That sounds about right.  7 years.  My daughter is 5 now and I was reading in here before she was born.  I vaguely remember searcing through the old archives to find other stories.  So, yeah, I'd say 7 years.

And since the change over all the stories are no longer property of eharlequin.  So most have taken their stories back in hopes of being pubbed.

I'm sorry to see it go to, it was great while it lasted.

that was by Katie - KT.  She has a web site she was finishing it on, but I don't think she's added to it in a while.

Hey- i completely lost the beginning of the old story and couldn't find it here, so i gave up on it.  anyways, this is new and i give no promise of posting frequently.  I'm in the middle of my first year teaching and we're approaching the big standardized test and lets just say i am extremely busy alllllllll the time.  ok... here we go.

Stars bore down on the shore, the dark midnight blue sky choppy reflections in the waves.  The scent of sea, sand and magic danced in the wind.  Melina titled her head, listening to the sounds of the night.  Her long black hair shimmered beneath the moon, the long tresses tickling the small of her back.  Settling down into the sand, she buried her feet beneath the crystals and gazed out at the slowly calming sea.  She crossed her arms across her knees and rested her chin, pondering the weeks, the days, the minutes and seconds of her life over the last month.

As she stared longingly at the sea, thinking of escape, changes were reflected back at her as she thought of the past and changes were still promised for the future.  A month. A month ago, Melina had been the assistant director at Lackey Productions.  A month ago she had been in love with the man of her dreams only to discover she hadn’t been the only woman to think so.  Had she imagined walking into Jordan Lackey’s office a month ago to discover not one lady, but two ladies servicing him, she would have blamed it on her unnaturally untrusting nature.  After he had spent numerous late nights with potential clients she hadn’t scheduled, she had asked the only question swirling in her brain.  How could he not be cheating?  Yet he had blamed her unfounded suspicions on her unnatural untrusting nature.

“How could you think it of me?”  He’d said.  “I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He’d claimed. 

Oh.  Melina ground her teeth together and let out an angry groan.  Untrusting nature her butt.  Had her untrusting nature made up the two women she'd witnessed fawning over Jordan, one on her knees, the other on her back.  That wasn’t part of her nature.  Another thing he’d complained out- her unimaginative nature in bed.  Her fingers curled into tight fists, and she took a long breath, counting to ten before letting it out.

A month ago she had been in a faithless relationship with a faithless man, and the truth was the freedom from Jordan’s constant criticisms was welcomed.  She’d broken off their “very near engagement” as her girlfriends called it, quit her job as assistant director at Lackey Productions, ditched her girlfriends who claimed cheating wasn’t the worst thing he could have done, and sold her condo in Denver.  If it hadn’t taken three weeks and four days to sell it, she would have packed her bags sooner and moved back home.

Home.  The very home where her parents still lived.  The very home she had grown up in, two bedrooms, one bathroom and old creaky floorboards.  The very home where she had left behind the first love she’d ever had.  If she’d feared any awkward reunion with Devin Delaney, she was in luck.  As it turned out Devin had gone on another spontaneous trip across the coast.  Considering he did this every other month or so, it wasn’t quite that spontaneous.

Looking out at the very waters they had sailed on together during her teenage years, she remembered the night they had first made love.  He’d showed up outside Sea Breeze Diner where she had been a waitress since her sophomore year in high school.  She’d stood looking out the window at him, clutching a pen and notepad in her hands as he grinned at her, holding up a small white flag.  They’d fought just the evening before over some small trifle they always seemed to bicker over.  She’d clomped down the steps to hang her head out of the entrance. 

 “What is that?”  She asked, motioning at the white flag.

 “I surrender.”  He grinned sheepishly.  “I hate it when you’re mad at me, and I figured I might as well make myself a little white flag because I’ll be needing it over the years.” 

Melina had flushed with pleasure at his small mention of a future together.  “I’m working Devin.”

   “Well, stop working.  Run away with me.  Be my wench while I sail my vessel around the world.”  He pleaded with a crooked grin. 

“Your wench?”  She raised her eyebrow and couldn’t help but laugh. 

Melina chuckled at the memory.  His wench.  And she had ran.  Ran straight into his arms, letting him carry her aboard his small sail boat and laid her down among the blankets and white flag.  They’d made love slowly, and she’d bared her heart to him.  He’d asked her to sail away with him forever and live their lives upon the sea.  But she hadn’t been able to give up her dreams.  Dreams of becoming a TV producer.  Much luck that had done.  Yet she’d only been a step away before Jordan had made any chance of her staying at Lackey Productions impossible.

She’d turned her nose up at a real possible chance of happy ever after only to find her dreams shattered with a rarely ever happy relationship.  It wasn’t that she regretted her decisions necessarily; she closed her eyes and pressed her cheek against the cold of her hands.  It wasn’t regrets at all that haunted her.  It was the memories.  Those fleeting moments of innocent dreams of love, marriage, and a family.  Ever since she’d come home, those dreams had been chasing her even when she was awake.

She pushed herself up from the dunes, turning so that her back was to the water and the isolated moon that so reflected her loneliness.

 *                      *                      *

That was great Ash.