Hearts Made of Stone (Short Story)
Author: Arthur C. Carey
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Synopsis: Breaking up is hard to do. So why not get someone else to do it for you?
Better still, why not capitalize on romantic failure and turn it into a
profitable business?
That's the plan Aaron Felting and Dana Larson hatch over tea and cookies after meeting in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Although Aaron falls for Dana, he soon finds she’s more interested in being the CEO of their successful Silicon Valley startup created to end the romantic entanglements of strangers than their own relationship.
How much more interested? Let's just say Aaron is about to get something worse than a cold shoulder...
That's the plan Aaron Felting and Dana Larson hatch over tea and cookies after meeting in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Although Aaron falls for Dana, he soon finds she’s more interested in being the CEO of their successful Silicon Valley startup created to end the romantic entanglements of strangers than their own relationship.
How much more interested? Let's just say Aaron is about to get something worse than a cold shoulder...
Review: In a world
where reality TV seems to be taking over and originally crafted shows are
falling to the waste side, where you can select a husband from a buffet of
twenty-five men or higher a Millionarie Matchmaker to set you up with the love
of your life, Hearts Made of Stone is
a fitting tale to show the consequences of trusting technology and the mass
media to find you ‘true love.’
Aaron Felting is low on money and has no real direction for
his life, that is, until he makes eye contact with a cute auburn haired girl
and strikes up the nerve to actually talk to her. He discovers her name is Dana
and she is just as desperately searching for a way out of her relationship with
her boyfriend as Aaron is from his girlfriend. Dana talks Aaron into letting
her break up with his girlfriend for her as long as Aaron will break up with
her boyfriend for her. Thus begins the plan to turn breaking people’s hearts
into a business. But Aaron soon realizes Dana isn’t who he thinks she is and
breaking people’s hearts can be a lot more messy and deadly than just a simple
e-card message.
I enjoyed the short story and the premise behind it. I liked
how progressively darker Dana became and life threatening the break up
situations became. I liked how much of a nerd Aaron was but his lack of common
sense was ridiculous. I really just wanted to slap him! But I suppose that was
the author’s intention. Aaron is gullible and doesn’t pay attention to what he
needs to before it’s too late to change things because he is more focused on
impressing Dana. I liked the reflection between the fast paced and convenience
of speedy break up through a phone call or email paralleled to the demand for
quick answers by a speed induced society.
I think the author did a nice job with only seventeen pages. I
would have liked to have known what happened when Dana broke up with Aaron’s
girlfriend for him and when Aaron broke up with Dana’s boyfriend. I also would
have liked more depth to the narration since there were moments it felt one
toned.
Overall, a short story that is worth reading!
About the
Author: Arthur Carey is a former newspaper reporter and journalism
instructor who lives in the San Francisco Bay area. A graduate of the
University of Michigan and UCLA, he is a member of the California Writers Club.
His fiction has appeared in a number of print and Internet publications
including Funny Times,Future Mysteries Anthology Magazine, Writer’s
Journal, Golden Visions Magazine, Dark
Treasures Anthology, Suspense Magazine and Still Crazy. He is the author of The
Gender War, a recently published humor novel.
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