SEVEN HOURS AHEAD is a contemporary love story about a woman who will stop at nothing to get her fairy tale. I always thought I’d meet my Prince Charming the traditional way, at church or through a friend of a friend. But after years of being miserably and desperately single, I had resigned myself to a sad life in my hometown with fourteen cats (never mind that I was allergic to cats). Then Piotr’s friend request, sent from across the globe, unhinged my loveless existence. Through an online language exchange program, I became Piotr’s English tutor. After chatting regularly for eight months, a serious online relationship progressed. When I flew to Poland to meet him, he told me he loved me, and like any lovesick, desperate girl would, I dropped my successful wedding photography business, sold my house and all my belongings, left my family, and moved to London, where I planned to start a new life with the man I loved. I just knew he was the one, but then my fairy tale started to fall apart. Immigration complications began to overshadow our blossoming love story. My conservative Christian parents shut me out because I was living in sin. And then the man I loved so dearly and left everything for told me he didn’t want to marry me. I moved back home nearly destitute. No house, no money, no job . . . no boyfriend. Then Piotr called me from the emergency room with a life-threatening brain aneurysm, and by nearly losing him, I learned the meaning of true love. http://aleabebenek.com/seven-hours-ah...