| 3x Featured | | ONC 2023 Shortlister | "I'm not scared of heights. I'm afraid of falling from them." - - - A love-cynical high school athlete and a helpful, ailed high school senior work together, maintaining a dating platform to escape family and forget time, but distraction isn't the only thing that awaits them. - - - When sixteen-year-old love cynical Natalie Greene takes a job with a dating company, it's not because she wants the job. Rather, she wants to escape from her new reality. What's more, Natalie knows the recruiter, a lively acquaintance from school. The acquaintance, Winn Elsher, a boy of seventeen with bright eyes, a sunny smile... and cancer. Even though his time here is short, Winn acts like his world is right as rain, keeping his illness under wraps. But he may not be able to hide behind over helpfulness forever. Natalie wants a distraction. Winn wants to help. Tangled in the dating company's regular recruiting procedure, they are destined to spend more hours together. And before they know it, feelings spark. But Natalie doesn't believe in love, and Winn isn't keen on sharing his secret. They are both afraid of falling... and not just for each other. - - - ONC 2023 entry. Prompt 57: Unknown to everyone you are battling a life-threatening condition. With only a couple of weeks to live you help your friend get the partner of their dreams, except they're in love with you. Completed: April 30, 2023 Word Count: 35,000 - 40,000

Answers are the only comfortable mysteries. Recently single and literature-loving Emilie Taylor is tired of living the same old life. She works two jobs just to pay the rent and now that her cheating fiance has moved out, she is lost. So when she receives a plane ticket to Scotland from an anonymous source with an address of where to go, she jumps at the chance for something new. A foreign country, a chance where she can start over. Upon her arrival in Scotland, she meets Fionn, a handsome heartbroken bookkeeper who runs the shop below the apartment where she is staying. While they clash at first, the secrets he hides may just be what Emilie needs to find herself again. But there is mystery lurking in the air about who sent her to Scotland and why. Emilie might just have to step out of her comfort zone to find out and maybe, just maybe, get a second chance at love. --- Title creds: @SayWatt74 Cover & banner by: @starisredy First written (offline): Feb 9, 2023 First published: March 14, 2023 Completed (offline): May 18, 2023 🥈 2nd place in The Campfire Awards 3.0 Copyright © 2023 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED All plot concepts are my own. Characters are of my own imagination. I do not own any real-life locations or inspired locations. This book should not be copied or reproduced in any way. Exclusive to w a t t p a d