REVISED x 2 - XO - Adult Contemporary - M. A. Nicholson

 XO is a 90K Adult Contemporary interweaving two timelines.

Forty-one-year-old Juliet's marriage is on the brink. Her husband, Ethan, has already moved out because of her single act of infidelity. For months, she's fought to win back his trust, but she's exhausted and demoralized from apologizing to no avail. Out of nowhere, rose-colored memories of a boy she once loved surface and hit her at odd moments. With nostalgia and a little pride, she recalls how she once caught the eye of the unattainable Nick Hanson.

Sophomore Juliet has harbored an unrequited crush on senior Nick since the first day of high school. On her sixteenth birthday, when he finally reciprocates, she thinks her dreams have come true. But she soon learns that the emotions and sexual tensions of a romantic relationship are far more complex than she ever anticipated — especially when her new boyfriend has an abusive father, a stalker ex-girlfriend and a plan to leave home as soon as possible. Shell-shocked by the darkness in Nick’s life, her infatuation fades. She's far too young to realize her love for him surpasses the butterflies and tingles of a simple crush - until it's too late and Nick is miles away.

Now twenty-five years later, she looks Nick up on the internet believing she can innocently reminisce about times gone by. When she does contact him, she finds she has to reconcile her white-washed memories with hard truths she's pushed into the shadows of her mind. 

Faced with two failed relationships to repair, she's torn between rebuilding a secure future with Ethan and rekindling a past romance she already abandoned once before. But she's going to have to learn from history, or she's doomed to repeat it.