Alexandra Parker stretched long legs

She liked tougher, shorter, and smaller

She was the firm first choice.

She had a fine mind and great skill...besides which, she was one of the best-looking women

She was solid, she knew, and she had great intuition

      ...her face so lightly made up you could hardly see it

She was a striking woman.

      ...her careful, intelligent notes

She was efficient, intelligent, capable, wily in just the right ways, and beautiful in the bargain,

            not that she seemed to care about her looks particularly

She loved the pace and the pressure and the frenzy

she felt weak in the knees as she watched him

He was fascinated by her intelligent and thoughtful analyses

She saw all sides and expressed the risks and advantages

They stayed at the Bel-Air

to Chasen's and L-Orangerie for dinner

and she hadn't even slept with him

she had lost her parents by then too
 

Alex had no idea how beautiful she was
 

They got married in June

            their friends provided the warmth and celebration

They had gone to Europe on their honeymoon

      and spent a romantic weekend

      and went to a party

      and sailed to Italy

      and all of Sam's favorite restaurants and nightspots

      and jewlery at Garrard's

      and he bought her all kinds of

      and they had never been happier

      and she moved into his apartment

      and he bought her expensive

      and a beautiful simple diamond necklace

      and the sparks flew
 
 

They had been married for six years by then

They'd been married for nine years by then

      They flew to France every chance they got
 

Their life was too set, too well-regulated, and too easy without kids. After twelve years

They were coming back from a trip to India

      acute pains in her abdomen

      hemorrhaging all over the bathroom

      crying miserably

      consumed with guilt and grief
 

to fill the void

sheepishly told Sam the news with barely concealed glee

they decided to call after their favorite club in London



Born on the Ganges, and with “a rugged everyman’s approach unusual in upper-echelon creative writing” (Andrew Jackson Quarterly), John Spiers is a graduate student in English at the University of Georgia. He received undergraduate degrees from the University of Minnesota–Moose Lake and Universidad San Francisco de Quito and has published in political journal Wangoed, and Daphne, the Quad Cities' third-oldest literary journal. His current project is a genre novel based on the work of Danielle Steel.


SO BEAUTIFUL & SO PERFECT by John Spiers
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