by Love Rehab
The labyrinth on the property was composed of stones laid in the sand. I watched my newfound friends, women and men whom, for the most part, I hadn’t known at this time last year. They had all come into my life in varying states of disarray, most of them a little bit broken. But together we had healed one another. And I had been a big part of making that happen. I smiled as I watched all of them wend their way through the maze of stones, shoes mostly in hand, knowing they would more easily be able to wend their way through the twists and turns of life.
From the outside it looked like a maze, but once you walked into it you realized that it was just a single path that led to the center after a series of twists and turns had led you close and then farther away from your goal.
As Joe and I walked it hand in hand, I couldn’t help but think that the labyrinth was like any relationship. Just when you think you’re getting close to something, all of a sudden a twist or a turn can put you right back where you started. And that had to be OK, or you would never get to the good stuff.
Joe might be my soul mate; he might not be. But I was in love and I was happy and that was perfectly good enough for right now. I had serenity.
Acknowledgments
Authors like to lament the loneliness of their working life. Writing Love Rehab wasn’t lonely at all for me. This book was inspired by more than a decade’s worth of stories my girlfriends have told me about their love lives. While none of the characters are representative of any particular person I know, all of the characters are composites of people I love, so I felt as though I was surrounded by friends throughout the writing process.
So many people read early drafts of this novel. I want to thank a few of them (and for those of you that I leave out, I will buy you a cocktail or set you up with my cute single cousin sometime in the near future): Emily Foote, Ursula MacMullan, Leah Chernikoff, Leah Popowich, Samantha Prestia, Jackie Cascarano, Megan O’Brien (who insisted that I actually name a character using her real name), Tre Miller, Cooper Lawrence, Paula Froelich, and Christine Ryan.
Special thanks to my girlfriends from high school: Rebecca “Becky” Prusinowki, Andrea Pasquine, and Julia Fisher Nastasi, all of whom participated in many a late-night drive-by of one or another Holy Ghost boy’s house when we were sixteen, and actually watched my high school boyfriend’s 90210 video tape collection with me.
I dedicated this book to all the boyfriends who have inspired me to behave in ways unbecoming to a lady. I have a special place in my heart for each and every one of them, except for that one guy who cheated on me with thirty-seven women. I hope he got herpes.
I drank a lot of wine while writing this book, so I really want to thank the kind people at Wine.com for your impeccable service and moderately priced, full-bodied California reds.
I also aged a little bit throughout the process, so I want to thank Dr. Michael Reed for his laser focused Botox.
Of course, thanks to my wonderful editors: Jen Pooley, who never ceased to tell me that the book was awesome even when I felt like it wasn’t anymore, and Nicole Passage, who knows that I do not know, where commas, should always, be.
Jane Friedman, Tina Pohlman, Rachel Chou, Mary Sorrick, and Libby Jordan from Open Road totally believed that I could write a novel and because of that, I actually did it.
And as always, John and Tracey. Thanks for messing me up just enough to have something to write about. Love you guys.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Jo Piazza
Cover design by Mimi Bark
ISBN 978-1-4532-8761-3
Published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
Admit you are powerless and your life is unmanageable
Find something greater than yourself to make you sane again
Make a decision to turn your life over to a higher power
Make a moral inventory of yourself (a.k.a. figure out what's wrong with you) and keep the hell away from Facebook
Admit to yourself and someone else all the crazy shit you have done
Become entirely ready to have a higher power remove all these defects of character
Humbly ask our higher power to remove our shortcomings (fix us, please!)
Make a list of all the persons (exes) we have harmed, and become willing to make amends
Make amends whenever possible, except when doing so might cause someone harm
When we are wrong, promptly admit it
Listen to that higher power (whoever she may be). She knows her shit.
Having had a spiritual awakening, carry our message to others
Acknowledgments
Copyright