For Best And Worst

On a Friday morning in early May, Kristie Tidwell is in her garage loading bags into her SUV for a weekend trip to Nashville when she hears her telephone ring. It's 8:00 am and who would be calling her at 8:00 am on her landline except a telemarketer? So Kristie finishes loading her bags and walks into the house to hear the last part of a message that is being left for her by someone in her high school graduating class, informing her that it's class reunion time. The caller subsequently gives her the reunion details and the address of a website that she can visit for additional information. Forget that, thinks Kristie, I didn't like those people then and I doubt I would like them now. Kristie had not been back to Wentworth High School since the day she graduated. Furthermore, she had kept up with practically no one that she went to high school with. Never-the-less, as soon as she got to work, Kristie visited the class reunion website and viewed then and now pictures of many classmates along with information and descriptions of what their lives had been like since high school days. As much as she tried, Kristie could not get the upcoming reunion off of her mind. After about a week, she decides that it's now or never for returning. While she could stand to shed a few pounds, Kristie's good looks were still intact and her SUV, while not exactly new, wasn't an embarrassment. It was settled, Kristie would attend her class reunion. After printing out the registration form and writing her check, Kristie emailed the site webmaster a few details about herself plus a current picture. Of course, the picture emphasized her long dark hair and didn't make her look fat. In attending the reunion, what did Kristie have to lose except a few dollars and a few hours of her life? Wentworth was located one hour and fifteen minutes from her home in the Birmingham, Alabama suburb of Helena. Shortly after her picture was uploaded to the website, she received a Facebook friend request from Eric Channing, one of her classmates. Eric was one of the best looking guys in the class, had played football, and had dated a very pretty girl who was a year behind them. According to Facebook, Eric was single, interested in women, and had the same political views as Kristie. Kristie had a wonderful time at her reunion and while she tried to speak to everyone in attendance, she sat by and did most of her talking to Eric Channing who had a home in west Wentworth County. As one might guess, Kristie and Eric started seeing each other socially and then got married. However, their courtship and eventual married life was far from idyllic. While Kristie, along with the rest of her classmates, had vowed to put her petty juvenile issues aside and go forward, she could not accept many of Eric's Wentworth friends, particularly Wiley Martin, a classmate of theirs who had tormented Kristie about her weight when they were growing up. Eric, who always claimed to be a small town boy, was having trouble fitting into Kristie's "big city" lifestyle. Kristie loved going out to eat at upscale restaurants and always ordered items such as escargot, veal cordon bleu, and creme Brule; whereas, Eric was just as happy with fried shrimp and French fries. Like most women, Kristie wanted a husband and felt that Eric would be the last chance that she would have to get married. Eric, on the other hand, was dumped by his high school sweetheart, was cheated on by his first fiance, and was married for a short time to an aspiring career woman who conceived their only child during a pre-divorce separation. Eric had spent much of his adult life alone and liked it. In writing "Best and Worst," it is my desire to take the reader through a myriad of emotions, making it difficult to choose sides. They say that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and both Kristie and Eric experience difficulties that strengthened them as they journeyed through life on this earth.

• | Author: Marie Nicole Harper
• | Publisher: Nmg Enterprises Llc
• | Publication Date: Feb 19, 2015
• | Number of Pages: 354 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 0692373276
• | ISBN-13: 9780692373279