The Lost Weekend

Jasmine Hunt is vacationing with her parents in South Pointe, Miami, for one last weekend together before she goes away to college. Zain Perez is a college senior on a full-ride baseball scholarship to USC, home for the summer. What neither of them know is that their lives are about to change forever. Jasmine is from an affluent family in Maine who wants her to date young men from society. Zain is from a Cuban family who wants him to meet a nice Cuban girl and settle down. They both made promises to their families that they intend to keep but can’t deny their attraction. Jasmine promised her mother that she would wait to sleep with a man until she was married. But Zain comes up with a solution: Get married Friday and divorced Monday, while having the time of their lives for just one incredible weekend before going back to college. Sounds like a plan. But what was supposed to be a casual liaison ends up being their heart’s desire. Join Jasmine and Zain as they learn what it is to sacrifice for the good of family. But will their love be the ultimate sacrifice? Just One Weekend is a novel of a first love so epic that neither of them can forget… or deny.

I suffer from a hereditary form of amnesia. By the time I found out, I had only seven days left. On the first day, I found my boyfriend had fallen for my younger twin sister. With a bitter smile, I suggested we break up. On the second day, my most treasured Lego set was smashed by my sister. Everyone laughed at me, saying I was disgraceful, unworthy of being a daughter of the Fleming family. On the fourth day, I forgot that my sister was allergic to mangoes. She ended up in the hospital, and my parents glared at me with resentment. Even my ex-boyfriend accused me of being heartless. On the seventh day, I woke up in a hospital bed to see my father walking in with a stern expression. He demanded that I quit my job and devote myself entirely to taking care of the family, as nothing more than a housekeeper. But I only looked at them in confusion and asked softly, “Who are you?” When they realized I had truly lost my memory, they lost their minds.

An ordinary girl who can be defined by one word; adventurous...and well, maybe a little bit of rebellious. It's one thing that can set her soul free from everything. A boy who is known for three words; the sheriff's son. In other words—well-behaved. What happens when these two people collide? Have you ever painted a graffiti on a wall? Ever destroyed a Lamborghini? Or even try to outrun drug dealers? Well, he's about to experience that with her as The Three A.M Getaway begins.

“Oops! You’ve run out of your happy days,” she sang. After the tragic death of Noah's family, his heart was adorned with eternal cracks. He finally found a reason to live. Noah Parker and the love of his life, Ella, are married now. One night, the hallucinations about his twin sister engulf him to an extent that Noah injures himself. An argument breaks out between him and Ella because he refuses to see a psychiatrist. In the middle of the night, Noah is awakened by a blinding light. He discovers that his wife is missing. Ella’s quest leads him to the forest surrounding the lakehouse. He passes out in the woods. Searching for his wife will leave Noah’s heart with even deeper cracks. Veiled truths. Everlasting wounds. Harrowing past.

Maya is twenty four, independent and very good at keeping people at a comfortable distance. After a night she never planned with a stranger she never expected, she does what she always does — she leaves before morning and tells herself it is finished. It is not finished. The stranger is Caleb Reed, her brother Derek's best friend, and he has just moved back to Chicago. He knew who Maya was from the moment he saw her at the party. He said nothing. Now they are forced into the same orbit — family dinners, group hangouts, shared spaces — pretending a night that changed everything never happened at all. The tension between them builds slowly and then all at once. A secret relationship begins. Feelings neither of them planned for take root. But the closer Maya gets to Caleb the more unsettled her world becomes, because Derek is not handling any of it the way a brother should. His anger runs too deep. His protectiveness feels like something else entirely. When Derek finally explodes and the truth comes out, it reshapes everything. Maya was adopted. Derek has known for years. And the feelings he buried under a lifetime of playing the protective older brother were never entirely brotherly at all. Maya is left to grieve an identity she thought she knew, forgive people she loves for lying, and face a love that was built on a secret. In the end she has to decide who she is without the version of her life she always believed in — and whether Caleb, the man who knew her before she knew the truth, is the one she wants to walk into whatever comes next. She chooses him. Not because it is easy. Because one night was never going to be enough.

Three days before the long weekend, the Department of Labor called me. "We got an anonymous complaint saying your company is forcing employees to go on a holiday retreat..." I went still. Then I checked social media. Yep. There it was. An intern who'd started a month ago had shoved me onto the local trending page. [Greedy boss turns holiday weekend into mandatory company retreat. Employees are basically free entertainment.] [They say it's optional. Yeah, right. Who's brave enough to say no?] Thousands of comments rolled in, absolutely roasting me. Except our retreats had always been elite. Fully paid. No cheap corporate nonsense. This time, I was paying out of pocket. Seven days in the Maldives. Everything covered. A $2,000 travel stipend each. Senior employees could bring family. But apparently, a free luxury vacation was oppression now. Cool. I told the labor officer, "We'll fully cooperate." Then I dropped a notice in the company group chat. [Per Department of Labor guidance, the long weekend company retreat is canceled. Everyone should take the holiday off as usual.] [The travel stipends and retreat budget will be moved into this quarter's employee benefits reserve.] The second I hit send, something slammed into a desk outside my office.