How many times have you walked past your soul mate before you noticed her? College senior Leah McAllister is quickly approaching a new chapter of her life, and she’s not ready for any of the things that come after graduation. The job market is grim, adult responsibility looms, and when her job writing for the school paper sends her to interview the magnetic Morgan, she even begins questioning her sexuality. Morgan Park, a few years older and more worldly than Leah, seems to have it all – or at least she did, until her girlfriend started showing signs of bipolar disorder just as they decided to start a family together. Now her life is unraveling before her eyes and she just needs something – or someone – to hold onto. Life in a small town has been weaving Leah and Morgan slowly together, but their worlds collide in one intense meeting that leaves them each with a decision to make – follow their hearts to each other, or go their separate ways and keep sleepwalking through life. This 15,000-word novella is the prequel to Cara Malone’s debut novel, Awakened (April 2017).

Once you've been awakened to love, can you ever go back to sleep? Leah McAllister is starting a new job in a bland maze of tan cubicles where she hopes to blend in with her surroundings

Once you've been awakened to love, can you ever go back to sleep? Leah McAllister is starting a new job in a bland maze of tan cubicles where she hopes to blend in with her surroundings – she’s had enough attention for one lifetime. What she never expects is to find herself working under Morgan, a mesmerizing woman who turned her world upside down when they met one year before. A lot can change in a year, though, and Morgan Park is a different person now. She’s reserved and sullen, and trying to get over a broken heart that came with a heavy dose of guilt after her troubled girlfriend, Allison, disappeared one day leaving Morgan with nothing more than a vague goodbye note. Thrust together in the cramped quarters of a cubicle, Morgan and Leah can’t deny – or resist – the forces of attraction driving them together. Morgan even begins to think she can find happiness again when Allison suddenly blows back into town with a terrible secret that threatens to tear Morgan and Leah apart permanently. Is the mystery of Allison’s lost year enough to destroy Morgan and Leah’s budding relationship?