A Reason to Stay — Till Noever

At high school and college Tessa and Evan disliked each other with a passion. He considered her stuck up and arrogant. She thought he was a supercilious geek, who thought of women as computer keyboards and characters in video games.But when, over ten years later and quite by accident, they met again in  their home town, Portland, they slowly became close friends; though hiding that friendship from their friends. Just because they could, and it was kind of exciting. Safer, too.Until one day Evan told Tessa he was going to leave Portland for good.If only, Tessa thought, she knew why!Because Evan wasn't telling... A romance with a dash of comedy, a few thrills and a lot of heart, containing love scenes with mildly explicit sexual elements. The story was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend, with whom I worked on a long-term voluntary internet project. He told me how, in his forties, he accidentally ran into a woman he had known at high school, and with whom he had shared a mutual dislike. They're married now. Of course, I made up the story around it to give it some excitement beyond the personal relationship. And of course the names of the protagonists are entirely fictitious.