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I’ve been unsure about many things in my life except for one thing, that I have always loved him. Every single minute of every single day that I have been on this earth, my heart has belonged to him. It has never been a question, never a doubt. The love had taken on many different forms over the years, but it had always been a constant.

Everyone has their definition of love. There have been countless songs sung about it. A gazillion books, articles, and poems written about it. There are experts on love who will tell you how to get it, keep it, and get over it.

We’re led to believe love is complicated. It’s not the love that’s complicated. It’s all the crap that we attach to it and put in front of it that makes it difficult. If you’re smart, you’ll realize this before it’s too late and simplify.
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Amanda Kelly spent her entire life trying to control every aspect of it, while striving for perfection. Her obsession with being perfect, along with her feelings of worthlessness, consumed her. The one thing she thought was perfect in her life was the bond she shared with her best friend, Noah.

Everything was going according to her life plan until she woke up one day and realized she had fallen in love with him. The one thing she couldn’t control was the affect he had on her. Noah had the power to give her one hundred lifetimes of happiness, which also gave him the power to completely devastate her. He was the one thing in her life that was perfect, but she couldn't allow herself to have him.

Her life begins to unravel. Events take over and force her to let go of her dreams and desires. She needs to realize that a person cannot control the events in their life, only their reaction to them...but will it be too late for her to save her relationship with her best friend?

Present Perfect is a story of how past events have present consequences and how perfect your present could be if you stopped fighting and just allowed it to happen.




I am looking forward to the next book Past Imperfect about  Brad who we met in this book. I gotta say I know I was not supposed to not really like him that much, but something about him appealed to me despite his obnoxiousness.  I am already intrigued by his story.



It took me about a month and a half to adjust, but college life suited me. The hardest part so far had been getting used to being away from home. I had no idea how good I had it at home. At school, I actually had to do laundry and was put on a schedule to clean the bathroom. It took moving away from my mom to really appreciate her.

My roommate, Lisa, was a no nonsense country girl from Missouri. She was beautiful with wavy copper colored hair that hit right at her shoulders, huge bright green eyes, and curves exactly where they should be. She was smart, funny, and a great roommate. It was nice to have a friend, again, and I did consider her my friend, even though we had only known each other for a short time.

My course schedule was fairly ambitious for a freshman. I was taking five classes, one of which was for my major. The campus was huge and spread out, but I was finding my way around pretty good now. All of this added up to some very long days. There were times when I was so tired at the end of the day I would just eat a couple of big spoonfuls of frosting I had stashed in the mini-fridge or I didn’t eat at all. The upside to my new, too busy to eat diet, was that I avoided the freshmen fifteen, so far I hadn’t gained an ounce. I had actually lost a little weight.

I hadn’t been home for a visit yet because I knew going back too soon would cause me to backslide and so far I was doing okay with getting over Noah. I was too busy most of the time during the week to focus that much on him. I had been filling the weekends up with frat parties and meeting people. Nighttime was the hardest. I studied in my room most of the time. It was easy for me to let my mind drift to thoughts of him during those times.

Five months had passed since I had any contact with Noah. When I thought of him, I still felt the same pain and loneliness. It was even stronger than on that day when I destroyed our friendship. If I allowed my thoughts to linger too long the tears would start and I’d spend most of the night in the bathroom hiding, so Lisa wouldn’t see me and start asking a bunch of questions.

One night while studying for a psychology test, Lisa noticed that I hadn’t turned a page in the past twenty minutes. Hopping off her bed, she grabbed two red cups and a bottle of wine she had smuggled in.

“Alright, space cadet, it’s wine time,” Lisa said plopping down in the chair across from me.

I looked up, surprised to see her sitting there. I was so lost in my thoughts, I didn’t notice her until she shoved a red cup of wine at me.

Sitting back in the chair, her feet propped up on the desk, she asked, “Are you going to tell me who you were spacing out about?”

“I was concentrating,” I said just before I took a sip of wine.

”Yeah, you were concentrating. What’s his name?”

“Who’s name?”

She shook her head. “The guy you cry about at night in the bathroom.”

Her words caught me off guard. “I didn’t know you heard me. I went in there so I wouldn’t bother you. Sorry.”

“So spill.”

“Nobody, really.” I was ashamed of myself for saying those words. Noah won’t ever be a nobody to me, even if I never see him again. “I mean, he was someone very special, but isn’t in my life anymore.”

“I got to call bullshit on that one. We’ve been here over a month and I’ve heard you crying at least once a week and…um… what’s with the sleeping around?”

I choked on my wine when I heard the words come out of her mouth. “Excuse me?”

“I just didn’t peg you as being a sausage biscuit.”

“A what?”

“A sausage biscuit. You seem to open your biscuit for every sausage you meet.”

“No, I don’t!” I wasn’t really offended by her. I was more shocked that I gave out that impression. I wondered if other people thought that.
“You and I have gone to four parties since we’ve been here and you’ve already hooked up with three different guys that I know of. You’re either trying to forget someone, get even with someone, or you’re just a good old fashion sausage biscuit. I add the crying into the mix and I figure you’re trying to forget someone.”

I took a long sip of wine and tried to decide whether I wanted to share all that was Noah with her. I’ve always had a hard time opening up to people. Noah was the only person I did that with. Maybe if I talked to Lisa, get it out in the open, the pain would hurt less.

“His name was Noah, we grew up together as best friends, and now we’re not.” I took a gulp of wine. It felt good to open up.

She sat up and pointed her finger in my direction. “You listen to me, beotch. I did not open this five dollar bottle of wine for the abridged version of your high school heartache. Details. Now.” We stayed up late that night, drinking wine and talking. I told her most of the details of my life with Noah. It was a relief to talk about it. Lisa was great. She listened, but never judged.
Alison G. Bailey Facebook/Twitter/Goodreads/Blog


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