Robyn Amos - Lilah's List

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Lilah’s List is for my dear friends Judy Fitzwater and Pat Gagne, and my husband, John Pope. Without them, I never would have gotten through this book.

Lilah’s List

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Epilogue

1. Date Reggie Martin

8. Shake hands with someone famous

12. Get a professional makeover

13. Learn to knit

16. Sing at a karaoke bar

19. Eat escargot

21. Visit a fortune-teller

25. Ride a mechanical bull

26. Throw a wild party

27. Get a tattoo

28. Kiss a stranger

29. Ride a motorcycle

30. Crash a party

31. Do something scandalous

32. Protest for a worthy cause

33. Leave a $100 tip

35. Practice a random act of kindness

38. Have multiple orgasms

41. Have 15 minutes of fame

42. Go out in public with no underwear

43. Fly first-class

44. Buy something without reading the price tag

45. Spend an entire day in bed

46. Own an expensive designer dress

47. Drink Cristal champagne straight from the bottle

49. Climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty

50. Ice skate at Rockefeller Center

Multiple orgasms were among the many things she wasn’t going to get to experience before turning thirty, Lilah Banks decided as she stared at her well-worn pink stationery. She hadn’t seen her list since college graduation in 1999.

That day she’d crossed off fall in love and neatly tucked The List inside her grandmother’s antique jewelry box. The jewelry box had been packed up along with her other college memories and had landed in the attic of the house she’d shared with her husband Chuck.

Until today, that box had remained sealed like Pandora’s box. When Lilah had opened it, all of her unfulfilled hopes and dreams had tumbled out with her American University sweatshirt and a ton of old photos.

Lilah had been a good girl and followed the rules. She’d married her college sweetheart, lost her virginity on her wedding night and perfectly balanced her career in real estate with her duties as a domestic goddess. Yet here she was divorced after only six years of marriage.

She smoothed her hand over The List, studying the handwriting of a sixteen-year-old girl as it transformed into that of a young woman in her twenties.

At sixteen she’d wanted to date Reggie Martin—never happened. At eighteen, rebelling against her goody-two-shoes image, she added visit a nude beach to The List—that did happen: spring break 1997. At twenty, the awakening of her social consciousness, she’d wanted to protest a worthy cause—but never did. And at twenty-one, the awakening of her sexual consciousness, came the thing about multiple orgasms.

Lilah shook her head. A lot of really fun things were still unchecked, and her thirtieth birthday was only three weeks away.

“So much for that.” She dropped The List to the floor and dug back into the box. She pulled out a framed photo of her kissing Chuck at the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity cookout senior year.

Saving the frame, she tossed the photo into the waste bin at her right. Her world had been so different then.

At this point in her life she’d expected to be preparing for motherhood instead of readjusting to single life. She should have been remodeling their fabulous three-story suburban home instead of unpacking her Georgetown condo after three months of living out of boxes.

The only part of her life that had stayed on track was her career. As a real estate agent she was at the top of her game, making more money than she knew how to spend. But, with her personal life so deep in the trash bin, it was hard to celebrate that success.

She plunged both hands into the box and pulled out the last picture frame. Lilah and her best friend Angie. They were lying on their dorm room floor, staring up into the camera she’d held above their heads. When the two of them were together, they were trouble. Their parents had nicknamed them Lucy and Ethel because of their madcap adventures.

Angie was still Lilah’s best friend, but they’d grown apart since college, and Lilah’s marriage had had a lot to do with that.

After college Angie had moved to New York City to pursue her career as the next big name in fashion. Lilah had been certain she’d be spending a lot of time in the Big Apple visiting Angie, and had added a couple of New York-related items to her list. But, over the years, Chuck had always found reasons for Lilah not to make the trip.

Lilah bit back her rising anger over all the times she’d given in to Chuck’s emotional manipulations. He’d been needy and insecure, and she’d been spineless and desperate to please. What a pair they’d made.

Her gaze dropped back to the two girls in the picture. Feeling a surge of wistfulness, Lilah grabbed her phone and began to dial. It was ten-thirty on a Saturday night, so the odds were strongly against her friend answering, but it had already been too long since they’d last spoken.