She mixed two of her favorite lipstick shades and prepared for war.
Nicole is 43, a widowed Nashville journalist, and the narrator of The Mutual Appreciation Society. She writes a dating column for The Nashville Chronicle comparing modern courtship to Jane Austen's Regency era — which is either inspired or completely unhinged, depending on the week.
She lives in a small cottage next to the train tracks with her two daughters, a cat named Basil who never quite grew into a full-sized cat, and a prescription for anxiety that she takes every morning with her coffee. She has bylines she's proud of, friends who show up, and a nervous system that forgot how to regulate itself somewhere between "there's a mass on the scan" and "your husband has passed."
What she wants is simple: to be known. Not the version of herself she presents to make others comfortable — the actual her. Anxious and funny and wounded and trying.
She is not looking for a replacement. She is not looking for a father figure for her girls. She is looking for someone she doesn't have to audition for.
The Mutual Appreciation Society is her story. It's also, possibly, yours.
Available May 5 at papertiger.store.