From Jamie Burchell’s email inbox:
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Hi Jamie,

Thanks so much for your article on #FOMO. We all loved it, including, most importantly, our editor, Marilyn. We would like to publish it in our February issue, which will hit newsstands on 16 January.

Our rate for freelancers is R3 per word. Please submit your invoice within 10 days of publication. You can email it to me and I will forward it to the accounts department.

Many thanks for a fun contribution!

Warm regards,

Eliza Rainers

Content Editor

Her Magazine
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Hi my love,

I’m sorry things got a bit heated on the phone today. You can’t expect your father and me to sit idly by while some maniac threatens our daughter. But I do understand you can’t be expected to put your life on hold for this either.

So, we’re coming up to Joburg this weekend. We won’t stay more than a couple of nights. We just want to see with our own eyes that you really are fine. Dad wants to take a look at the security at the house and see if there’s anything more that can be done to upgrade it. We’re both very glad you had that electric fence put in.

Why don’t we have a braai on Sunday and invite your sisters? And Peter too, I suppose. Caroline isn’t seeing anyone at the moment, is she? Actually,

I think she might be. Anyway, the five of us haven’t been together since our 30th anniversary in June, so it’ll be fun. Don’t prepare anything yet, darling. We’ll go shopping together on Saturday.

Can’t wait to see you!

Lots of love,

Mom
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Dear Jamie Burchell,

Congratulations! Your blog is now trending on Thinkblog. Follow this link to see your latest blog stats:

www.mythinkblogstats.com

Regards,

The Admin Team

Thinkblog
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Hi Jamie,

We’ve been following your blog via Twitter and we’d love to have you on the show to take part in a discussion panel about stalking.

Our other guests will include a lady who went through the stalking experience years ago, as well as Dr Erik, our resident psychologist. The show is scheduled for next Thursday at 9.30am. If you could be at the studio in Maude Street by 9am that would be perfect.

Really hope you can make it! We’re very excited about having you on the show.

Kind regards,

Jenna Pappadopoulos

Assistant Producer

The Thandi Thandeka Show

Jozi Talks Radio

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Jamie’s pleasant, predictable life seemed to have taken on the qualities of a freight train. A parental invasion. A radio appearance. An article sold. Her blog going viral.

She still managed to post an instalment of her novel every day, but only just. And the posts were much shorter than usual. Her personal blog was taking up more and more of her time. And with her parents coming for the weekend, she wasn’t likely to get anything else done.

A braai.

She needed to think about that. It was all very well for her mother to say “don’t prepare anything” but she wasn’t the hostess, was she? It wasn’t in Jamie’s nature to entertain without putting some thought into it. She could be spontaneous if she had to, but she preferred planning.

Gazpacho for the starter, maybe? She got up and wandered into the kitchen to feed the cats. Or an icy vichyssoise rather? Ella and Peter would probably prefer the gazpacho because it had fewer calories. Maybe she’d make both and serve them in tiny ramekins so that people could choose which one they liked. Or was that too dinky?

Hotel training died hard. She had to remind herself that not everything had to be presented in adorable doll-sized portions.

Jamie found she was pacing the kitchen. The cats cast irritated glances at her as they tried to eat in peace. She had so much restless energy at the moment. She’d run fifteen kilometres that morning, hoping to wear herself out and settle down for the day’s work. It hadn’t worked, but then she hadn’t really expected it to.

She knew what ailed her, and it wasn’t existential angst.

Her system had been revving ever since that kiss she and Tom had shared. It had accelerated out of control very quickly. She’d been ready to take that swan dive into the unknown, but Tom had pulled back. He was worried about her fragile emotional state, about whether this was what she really wanted.

She didn’t feel in the least bit fragile. She also knew that sex with Tom was exactly what she wanted. The little taster she’d had made it clear that the main course would be stupendous.

She’d been attracted to him from the start, and getting to know him had deepened that attraction into respect and affection. He was a good guy. She had no doubt of that. He made her feel safe, as though intimacy with him were something she could risk.

The very fact that he’d stepped back from the brink the other night reflected well on him. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t frustrated. Very frustrated.

So. Sex with Tom. It was definitely going to happen. The only question was when and where.

The fact that he was a single father complicated things. It took away the spontaneity. But that was all right. All Jamie asked for at this point was Tom Elliot, naked and horizontal in her bed for twenty uninterrupted minutes. Okay, thirty minutes. In fact, call it an hour to be safe. Now, how to set it up?

She reached for a pen, tore a piece of computer paper in half, and started to write.

Dear Dog,

I have been observing my human closely and note that she shows no signs of mental perturbation, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety or poor judgement. She does, however, seem to feel that she has some unfinished business with your human. What are we going to do about that?

Regards,

The Cat