Blessing or Curse Excerpt

I've finished final edits of the first Short Story in the Blessing or Curse Anthology.

It's called Who'll Mend This Broken Man. The right corner of the cover to the left features the couple in this story.

This Short Story can be purchased separately, with its own cover, if readers don't wish to read them all. I don't have access to that cover until the book comes out, since it was designed through Amazon Cover Creator. This one is set to be released, but I'm holding out until the other Short Stories are ready. Target Release: Beginning of August.

Here's an excerpt from that story for now, while I work on finishing the rest of the stories:

Ah, the wonderful love they’d shared. Why must it end this way?

“Diego, eat,” Consuela Morales said, holding out a spoonful of puree to her shrunken, wheelchair-bound husband. His dry parched lips remained obstinately shut, his gray eyebrows furrowed. He wanted to die and she didn’t blame him. God help her, sometimes she wanted him dead too. Till death do us part seemed a long time to live with half a man.

Placing the spoon into the jar with a clunk, Consuela gazed morosely at her husband. Mamacita, God rest her soul, had warned her not to marry a man twenty years older, but the ripe, chestnut-haired Consuela had paid no heed, choosing passion over common sense.

Diego of the raised eyebrows, straight black hair and cocky mannerisms had fevered her young blood, making her come alive as no other man could.

Though it had been almost twenty-five years, she still remembered the exact moment Diego strode into the basement of her friend Isabella’s brownstone. As their eyes met, her heart raced beneath the confines of her ample breasts, almost drowning out the sounds of New Year’s Eve revelry.

Quickly averting her eyes, she whispered to Isabella, “Who is that guy?”

Isabella glanced at the new addition, and frowned in concentration.

“Oh, that’s got to be Alessandro’s cousin, Diego. He’s hot, if you go for father figures.”

 “My father never looked that good. That man steams. I need to cool off some.”

Consuela crossed to the bar and reached into the tiny refrigerator for a wine spritzer. When she turned, there he was, in front of her, almost in her face. She could barely breathe as she gazed at his magnificence.

Coming Very Soon to Amazon!!!

Morgan Mandel

http://www.morganmandel.com