Love In The Time Of Corona: Inklet, #96

By Amy Laurens

The coronavirus lockdown means that Saria's anxiety flares even when hanging the washing. Pegs all the same colour would help… If she can brave the trip to the shops.

Out of toilet paper, Dan heads to the store, prepared to fight for one last roll. But his competition? Significantly cuter than he envisaged.

A sweet, meet-cute romance about finding love in unexpected places.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inkprint Press
• Release date: Dec 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201835767

Amy Laurens

AMY LAURENS is an Australian author of fantasy fiction for all ages. Her story Bones Of The Sea, about creepy carnivorous mist and bone curses, won the 2021 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novella. Amy has also written the award-winning portal-fantasy Sanctuary series about Edge, a 13-year-old girl forced to move to a small country town because of witness protection (the first book is Where Shadows Rise), the humorous fantasy Kaditeos series, following newly graduated Evil Overlord Mercury as she attempts to acquire a castle, the young adult series Storm Foxes, about love and magic and family in small town Australia, and a whole host of non-fiction, both for writers AND for people who don’t live with constant voices in their heads. Other interesting details? Let’s see. Amy lives with her husband and two kids in suburban Canberra. She used to be a high-school English teacher, and she was once chewed on by a lion. (The two are unrelated. It was her right thumb.) Amy loves chocolate but her body despises it; she has a vegetable garden that mostly thrives on neglect; and owns enough books to be considered a library. Of course. Oh, and she also makes rather fancy cakes in her spare time. She’s on all the usual social media channels as @ByAmyLaurens, but you’ve got the best chance of actually getting a response on Instagram or the contact form on her website. <3

Book preview

Love In The Time Of Corona

INKLET #96

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AMY LAURENS

www.InkprintPress.com

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CORONA

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Thunder rumbled overhead, but one glance and Saria knew there’d be no rain.

There hadn’t been for a month, not since the hailstorms, so why would the weather change its mind and start now, vocal complaints aside? She pursed her lips and plunged her hands back into the half-empty basket of wet washing, savouring the coolness against the fierce heat of an evening that smelled dry, full of dust and concrete.

She hung a sock, lilac with two iconic dogs slurping a mutual bowl of spaghetti.

Socks were easy.

Socks were safe.

Saria fastened it to the line with an emerald plastic peg, went back for another sock, hung it with a faded blue peg, breathed deeply.

Thunder rumbled again, a sudden rush of wind racing past, fluttering the spade-shaped leaves on the ornamental pear behind her before disappearing. There was no good reason why it should raise a thrill of fear through her chest, that trailing, sparkling line of adrenalin she’d managed to forget. It did it anyway.

Saria inhaled, reaching for calm, the scent of laundry powder and the faint, lingering traces of vinegar from the wash curling around her.

A shirt next, a soft, white cotton tee. Deftly, Saria grabbed it by the underarm seams and flipped it over the line. A faded red peg on one side.

Her jaw twitched.

The closest peg was another of the green ones. In fact, the next ten or so were green. She’d have to take two steps to the right to reach the closest red peg.

Her jaw twitched again.

Thunder complained softly, dying away into the distance.

Shoulders tense, the taste of her cheek on her tongue as she bit down on it, Saria took the two quick steps, snatched the red peg, and snapped it over the white shirt with a little more force than necessary.

She pressed her eyes closed tightly, left hand curled tight around the rim of the wash basket.

Ten, eleven, twelve... Fourteen. It had been fourteen years since she’d last had this much trouble hanging washing. Heart knocking at her chest,