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Page 22

by Neal Pollack


  “Speaking of potent formulas, I just sold a thousand bucks’ worth of potions to this Wiccan group in Iowa City.”

  “That’s unexpected.”

  “Not really,” Juliet said. “I’m good.”

  “Sometimes you’re too good,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “After what you did to me.”

  “And what did I do to you?” she said.

  “Gave me that potion.”

  “Did you sleep?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you feel better?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then that’s what I did to you.”

  Brad took Juliet in his arms and kissed her—hard but not too hard. He’d learned she didn’t respond well to desperation.

  “Why the passion?” she said.

  “It’s been too long,” he said.

  Brad and Juliet lived in the crappiest rental house in Southern California. Their careers were unstable, their daughters understimulated, their health mediocre. The browning hills above them were nature’s tinderbox. Humanity was probably going to end sometime in the next fifty to a hundred years. But for now they were flush, they were together, and they were happy. Brad Cohen enjoyed this moment like he’d never enjoyed another moment before in his life. Or any of his lives.

  He couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to the fine people at Amazon Publishing, including, but not limited to, Alan Turkus, Alex Carr, Brian Mitchell, Caroline Carr, Courtney Miller, Jeff Belle, Jodi Warshaw, Kristi Coulter, Terry Goodman, and Tiffany Pokorny. Thanks also to David Downing for giving this here book such a thoughtful read, my agent Daniel Greenberg, and fellow travelers Jami Attenberg, Deborah Reed, Owen Egerton, and Emily Gould for their friendship and support. Let’s not forget my fellow Jeopardy! contestants, including, but not limited to, Hillary Kwiatek, Loni Geerlings, Jared Hall, and especially Sarah Zucker, the only person who’s ever beaten me. Many thanks to the staff of Jeopardy!, particularly the contestant coordinators, for helping make my game-show dreams come true. And, as always, love and gratitude to my wife, Regina, and my son, Elijah, to whom I dedicate this book, in this life and all the lives to come.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Photo © 2013 John Keatley

  Neal Pollack is an American satirist, novelist, short story writer, and journalist. Pollack has written eight books: The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, Never Mind the Pollacks, Beneath the Axis of Evil, Alternadad, Stretch, Jewball, Downward-Facing Death, and Open Your Heart. A certified yoga instructor, international motorsports correspondent, and three-time Jeopardy! champion, Pollack lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and son.

 

 

 


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