Everything Fades Away: An eShort Story

By Zane

An ebook original short story from the New York Times bestselling Queen of Erotica about what explodes when a man and woman—both suffering marital problems with their respective partners—coincidentally find themselves involved in a steamy love affair with each other despite the peril that looms at home.

Amanda is bored with life. She spends hours a day on Facebook, her parents act like they are too ancient to enjoy life any longer, and her military husband, Ralph, is deployed to Afghanistan. Gideon is not totally content at home either. His wife, Nina, is a lifetime overachiever and a workaholic. She has moved her mother into their home so she can have a live-in sitter, and Gideon has fallen to the bottom of her priority list.

On Black Friday 2012, both Amanda and Gideon end up at a Best Buy to take advantage of the massive price cuts. When the store opens its door at midnight, the potential customers rush the glass doors and end up in a brawl. Built-up excitement turns into mass pandemonium as the police show up in riot gear. Tear gas containers are being tossed around like lollipops and strangers are beating on each other like a heavyweight fight at the MGM Grand in Vegas.

Amanda and Gideon both end up in the skywalk overlooking the madness and, even though they are complete strangers to each other, the adrenaline rush overwhelms them and they discover quick ecstasy among the chaos. After putting their clothes back on, followed by making formal introductions, they embark on a sexual journey together that re-ignites the flames in their souls. Both are forced to make choices that they never thought would have to be made; marriages are placed at risk; heartbreak is inevitable. What starts out merely as casual sex becomes much more than mere physical attraction and their lives begin to unravel. No matter how incredible something wrong can make one feel, eventually, Everything Fades Away.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Release date: Nov 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781451690637

Zane

Zane is the New York Times bestselling author of Afterburn, The Heat Seekers, Dear G-Spot, Gettin’ Buck Wild, The Hot Box, Total Eclipse of the Heart, Nervous, Skyscraper, Love is Never Painless, Shame on It All, and The Sisters of APF; the ebook short stories “I’ll be Home for Christmas” and “Everything Fades Away”; and editor for the Flava anthology series, including Z-Rated and Busy Bodies. Her TV series, Zane’s Sex Chronicles, and The Jump Off are featured on Cinemax, and her bestselling novel Addicted is a major motion picture with Lionsgate Films. She is the publisher of Strebor Books, an imprint of Atria Books/Simon & Schuster. Visit her online at EroticaNoir.com.

Book preview

LESS THAN THIRTY MINUTES EARLIER

AMANDA

The mall was nothing short of a madhouse. The parking lots and garages were overflowing with cars. People were all in a panic, speed walking across the pavement, trying to line up to get in at midnight. Well, not exactly lining up; more like piling up. I don’t know what possessed me to even leave the comfort of my warm home to voluntarily get caught up in such foolishness. That’s a lie; I know exactly what motivated me. The hundred-dollar laptops at Best Buy.

Like most people, I needed a new laptop as much as I needed a hole in the head. I had three desktops in my home, a corporate laptop that I docked in my office and transported home as needed, and a Mac laptop that I used for personal use. The last thing that I needed was the company IT department clocking my Internet activity.

I confess: I was a serious Facebook addict. If I wasn’t logged on until at least midnight—even though my alarm blasted off at six a.m.—I felt like I was missing something crucial to my survival on the planet. I realize how crazy that was now. Living my life vicariously through the comings and goings, the rantings and ravings, the hyberbole and bullshit of complete strangers. Sure, I actually knew about five percent of the people on my friends list from either work, college, or from way back in the day, but I wouldn’t have recognized the other ninety-five percent if they fell out the sky and landed slap on top of me.

I guess that’s why I was really out at the mall, waiting for the stampede to begin for the Black Friday sale. If I was at home, I would have been on Facebook looking at some chick’s new hairdo, photos of various dinner spreads that women I did not know had prepared for their families that day, various inspirational quotes that had hundreds of shares, or reading some erotic poetry some muscle-laden sex god had posted. The inspirational quotes were my favorite. They would get me hyped up, empower me, and convince me that the sky was the limit . . . until I turned the computer off and forgot all about them when my reality slapped me in the

Reviews for Everything Fades Away

[sreedevi · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

A bad read.