Prom Fright: Midnight Tea Shop, #1

By Dina James

Welcome to the Midnight Tea Shop, open from 3PM to 3AM.

 

Irina Kelsey is in trouble.

 

Prom night has arrived on the Oregon Coast, and her very small business is not prepared for an influx of high school students looking for somewhere to continue the party after the dance is over.

 

On one hand, she desperately needs the customers.

 

On the other, she doesn't serve coffee.

 

When the girl in the pink dress arrives with her entourage, Irina has to make a choice– serve more than double her shop's capacity all by herself, or turn everyone away and close early.

 

Maybe for good.

 

Teenagers like Earl Grey, right?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dina James
• Release date: Dec 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223419235

Book preview

cover.jpg

PROM FRIGHT

by

Dina James

Prom Fright

Copyright © 2023 by Dina James

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Cover Art © 2023 by Skyla Dawn Cameron

First Edition October 2023

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

This book is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this or any copyrighted work is illegal. Authors are paid on a per-purchase basis. Any use of this file beyond the rights stated above constitutes theft of the author’s earnings. File sharing is an international crime, prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice Division of Cyber Crimes, in partnership with Interpol. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is punishable by seizure of computers, up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 per reported instance.  Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material.

I know.

I know, all right?

For this short story (WITH ITS PINK COVER OMG), you have Liz Crow to thank.

Back in August of 2020 (I SAID I KNOW), my handler enabler friend was raising funds for a vet bill. An author friend of hers offered her readers a challenge: purchase one of Skyla’s pre-made book covers and that author will write you a 5-10k word short story based on your choice. It was a brilliant idea all around, and I offered my readers the same challenge.

Enter, Liz.

Liz bought not one, but TWO covers for me, and as of this writing, this very moment, it’s three years to the day I was sent the image files she chose.

One of them is the cover on this story you’re reading now.

Three years is a long time (look, 2020 was three years in itself, so roll with it), and a deal is a deal.

So without further ado, I give you a short story involving a girl in a pink dress.

I really, really hate pink.

Fuck you, Liz.

-Dina

August 26, 2023

Prom season.

Both welcomed and dreaded alike by local businesses on the Oregon Coast.

There’s not a whole lot for young people to do out here, during prom or any other time, and anything that brings in money off-season (tourists―I’m talking about tourists, which