Lockdown Valentine: A Pandemic Romance

By Michèle Laframboise

Can she take the risk? 

 

Cerise's life hangs in a precarious balance as she waits for the  results of her Covid test. Worries about her mother's health make her oblivious as she crosses a busy street. Only the quick action of a masked stranger prevents her from becoming a statistic. 

An instant attraction to the gorgeous hunk spikes in Cerise, who had sworn off Valentine Day after her fiancé abandoned her. Can she dare risk a new humiliating heartbreak? Then she discovers a heart-shaped chocolate box in his grocery bag. Can she follow her heart and hurt another woman? 

 

A short romance in difficult times, told by multi-award winning author Michèle Laframboise.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Echofictions
• Release date: Feb 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781988339795

Michèle Laframboise

A science-fiction lover since childhood, Michèle Laframboise has written 17 novels and more than 30 short-stories, in French and English. Her short-stories have been published in Solaris, Galaxies, Géante Route, Brins d’Éternité, Tesseracts and a few other anthologies.  Some of her works were translated in Italian, German and Russian. Michèle is also a comic enthusiast who drew a dozen of graphic novels. As a science-fiction writer, she endeavors to find creative solutions to the many challenges that lay before us. / Michèle Laframboise est une ex-scientifique devenue auteure de science-fiction. Elle a publié 17 romans et une trentaine de nouvelles, récoltant plusieurs distinctions et prix littéraires. Ses nouvelles ont été publiées dans les revues Solaris, Galaxies, Géante Route, Brins d’Éternité, Tesseracts et d’autres anthologies. Elle a été traduite en italien, en allemand et en russe. Dessinatrice enthousiaste, elle a aussi publié une douzaine de BD. Sa science fiction cherche toujours des solutions créatives aux défis qui nous attendent

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title Page

Lockdown Valentine

Heartfelt Thanks

About the Author

Other books by Michèle Laframboise

Yearning for more Stories?

Copyrights

Michèle Laframboise

LockdownValentine

A pandemic romance

For Kris Kathryn Rusch,

with my thanks

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SNOWFLAKES HAD NO RIGHT fluttering in the sun like fairy dust, falling oh, so gently you would think Hardwood Street and its high-end fashion shops had been teleported inside a snow globe. The flurries floated down in lazy figure eights, each small and flawless, and shiny. A spectacle that would have been perfect one year ago.

Cerise Joseph pushed down the rim of her pink and violet fabric mask, sewn by her mother’s skillful hands months ago. By offering her face to the dainty snowflakes, the young woman tried to dial back happier times.

When she was hoping instead of moping.

Nowadays, a vise of guilt was twisting her innards when she thought about her mother’s empty apartment. She had visited to water the violets and the cat grass pot, and to leave a portion of kibble for the calico cat lounging on the second-floor windowsill.

Cerise pulled back her mask. No one had seen her and her portion of the sidewalk was empty, but she did not want to lower her guard with an everchanging virus.

She had dispensed with the glossy lipstick that complimented her brown skin. What use was it, hidden under a square of tissue? Not even mentioning blood-red smudges inside the gauze material…

Cerise pushed back the hair-killing knit hat to get a better sight of the sky, crisscrossed by electric lines and streetlights. From where came those slow-dancing flurries, she had no idea. Around her, the sounds of traffic and the smell of gas seemed subdued, muffled by the snow.

Of course, the Covid-19 lockdown had lowered the car density in downtown, but there were always exceptions. Or people who, thinking themselves exceptional, challenged the lockdown.

She almost bit her lips as anger welled inside her. To distract herself from those dark ideas, she tilted her head back to find out the generous cloud.

The sky was clear, luminous, devoid of any stormy mushrooming masses, except the faint outline of hair-like cirrus clouds at plane-altitudes. This fairytale, luminous snow seemed to materialize from nothing. The flurries