Spotlight
Synopsis:
British business manager Paula has never been lucky in love. She decides to move to New York City in search of a new life and hopefully...get a new boyfriend? But a fateful phone call from her brother Ben and his subsequent week-long visit inadvertently reopens old family wounds, forcing both of them to review their life and the choices they have made so far. Will they have enough courage to make the necessary changes to become emotionally available and find happiness?
British business manager Paula has never been lucky in love. She decides to move to New York City in search of a new life and hopefully...get a new boyfriend? But a fateful phone call from her brother Ben and his subsequent week-long visit inadvertently reopens old family wounds, forcing both of them to review their life and the choices they have made so far. Will they have enough courage to make the necessary changes to become emotionally available and find happiness?
Excerpt
Sunday
Paula walked out of the subway station. The fresh, crisp air was a relief from that stuffy, claustrophobic place. A lot of tourists were sitting outside of the Museum of Natural History, eating hot dogs, resting. She did her best to avoid them by crossing the street onto Central Park West. She adjusted her backpack, set her chronometer and...Go! This was the only meeting she never cancelled. Running was the only thing that relaxed her enough to be able to cope with her punitive working schedule. Her legs started going slightly faster and faster, until disconnecting themselves from the rest of the body, making her feel as if she was flying. Yes, that would be the best explanation she could give to someone who had never experienced the feeling: slightly flying above the ground. She quickly got to the entrance of the Jacky O reservoir track and started running even faster. She loved it when she felt so tired; she could barely feel her body any more. Was that what you felt when you died?
It was the beginning of autumn. Dark brown leaves had already started covering the path, making a soft, crunchy carpet under your feet. There weren’t many runners today. The weather forecast wasn't a hundred percent sunny, but what the heck, she hated running when it was over 80F anyway. Johnny, one of her colleagues, liked to tease her about that. "Ah, you British people can’t cope with heat!" He was a Latino from Miami, for whom heat waves, hurricanes and thunderstorms were common occurrence. He was right on that one: she couldn’t see herself living on a tropical island.
An elderly couple was walking their dogs on a leash. She hoped their pets wouldn't end up running behind her, pulling their poor owners along, as it often happened. She quickly manoeuvred around them, but these pooches didn’t seem energetic enough to run after her this time. She smiled, imagining what would be the life of a pampered pet in upmarket Carnegie Hill: salmon steaks for lunch, weekly appointments at the local beauty vet parlour...Paula had seen one of their ads once in the paper, offering blow dries and pawn pedicures; the list of services was impressive.
She managed to run around the whole reservoir in under twenty minutes. Not bad. She then got near a recreation area which was full of screaming little children. She used an empty bench to do her stretches. Her body wasn't too achy today. She got her towel and water out of her backpack. She then sat there, looking at people playing happy families. That was one of the things that had always impressed her about New Yorkers. People didn't have much space, but that never really stopped them having a family. This was a working, living city. You could feel its vitality wherever you went.
Her phone started beeping in her bag. Two missed calls and an email. They were from Ben, her brother. It was strange.
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