phase 2 chapter 2

How many self help books does one girl need. “Change your life in 7 days,” “Experience the amazing changes,” “learn to love yourself.” It was the fourth one Annabelle had picked up that day. The thing was these weren’t for Annabelle, they were for her research. She had been asked to write a monthly column in one of the new woman magazines, named after her column “thrisis.” It means it’s for anybody aged thirty or over that might need help in finding where they are in life, there were columns relating to love, future, money and happiness. The one that Annabelle was in charge of was writing about the here and now. Discussing and answering peoples problems in emails that she received. The trouble was she could barely sort out her own life let alone anyone elses.
The first email had arrived that morning,
Dear Annabelle,
I am not sure what to do, my husband is having an affair, I have found this out by going through his emails, should I confront him or not?
From desperate Susan.

Annabelle had read it and then gone to make a cup of tea whilst she mulled it over. She realised she was in a very important position, offering advice on such delicate matters. So was she going to have the chocolate hob nob or digestive with her tea?
After much deliberation over the accompaniment to her cup of tea she resumed her seat in the kitchen. She hadn’t made an office yet, even though she knew she had to as she was now a professional writer and needed the space to let her artistic juices flow. The trouble was the little flat in Chelsea had sounded a lot bigger initially, that was before she tried to fit all her and Francesscas furniture in it. Francessca had gone away with Freddy for a week so she could get sorted in the flat and start her new job.
She decided just to check facebook and twitter before she got down to the serious writing. Trouble was before she knew where she was, it was middle of the afternoon and she hadn’t even started her first reply. The editor was expecting at least three replies to be on her desk by tomorrow afternoon at the latest along with her piece of advice for the week. This wasn’t turning out to be as much fun as she had thought. Maybe she needed a drink. Although it was a little too early. This was no good everything was distracting her, she needed inspiration and a place to think.
She thought back to her little villa in France, there had definitely been too many distractions there, but she hadn’t minded that! Maybe that could be her piece of advice: Take what life throws at you and go with it. Maybe that sounded too hippyish but it would be OK for now.
Ok back to Susans letter. Well she could either confront him or she could do the same or make him pay without him knowing that his she knows. It was difficult giving this kind of advice when she had no background on her email writers. So she had a great idea, maybe she could be more than the advice giver maybe she could actually help these people by getting into their lives, almost like a detective. A love detective. At least it would mean she could give true advice. She would suggest it to her editor tomorrow. For now though she decided to go off to her new local and see what it was like and what kind of people went there. A good excuse for more inspiration.