[5 in #literasia, 14 in #lesbianstories] It was the twenty-seventh of May when it all began. In a single night, Indira Mistry gave her heart hope, wore it on her sleeve, got it beaten up, drowned it with alcohol, smoked it with cigarettes, poured it out and got it torn through and stepped on, all in the space of a few hours. She was convinced that was where her story ended, where her two-year liking for the only boy she had truly felt this strongly about came to an end. Indira Mistry, after seven double vodka and Cokes, four cigarettes and an almost trip to a strip club, had decided to tell the boy of her dreams things she had been too scared to even admit to herself. But little did she know, her time was just beginning and nothing could prepare her for the summer where she would finally start living for herself.

WATTYS WINNER When her fiancé ends up in a coma and his secret mistress, Halley, shows up, Mary feels like her world is falling apart. What she doesn't realize is she's actually falling in love...with Halley. ***** Eight years after a traumatizing accident that killed one of her loved ones, Mary Kincaid is about to marry her childhood sweetheart when the universe yanks the rug out from under her yet again, leaving her fiancé badly injured and in a coma. Of course this is when his secret mistress shows up, a beautiful person whom Mary should by all rights hate - so why does she find herself inviting her to stay in the spare bedroom? She soon learns that sometimes the person you're looking for comes when you're not looking at all. Content and/or trigger warning: This story mentions violence, addiction, and childhood trauma, which may be triggering for some readers. [[word count: 150,000-200,000 words]]