SHORT STORY PREVIEW:
“Somebody Famous” from Tough Love: Modern Noir Romances By Thomas Shess
London, rain-slicked and anonymous. A man turns forty alone in a foreign city, carrying the quiet fatigue of an international reporter who has seen too many departure gates and too few reasons to stay anywhere very long. A last-minute concert ticket.
A raw American voice tearing the ceiling off the Royal Albert Hall. And then, by accident or appetite, a late-night detour into the Playboy Club on Park Lane—velvet booths, cigarette smoke, champagne, and the hum of people pretending they aren’t lonely.
At a small table sits a woman who does not explain herself. What begins as flirtation becomes something more intimate and more dangerous: a shared meal at the Ritz, a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, the unsettling thrill of being mistaken for ordinary when you are anything but. She is American. She is bored. She flies Concorde as casually as others take taxis. And she refuses—gently, almost kindly—to give her name.
“Somebody Famous” is a story about anonymity and desire, about the strange relief of being unknown, and the quiet ache that comes with recognition. It explores the collision between celebrity and privacy, youth and fatigue, glamour and the hunger for something unremarkable and human. In classic noir fashion, the night is brief, the connection electric, and the truth withheld just long enough to matter.
Tough Love continues the Cantina Psalms universe (Shess' first novel) with a collection of modern noir romances—stories where attraction is sharp, dialogue cuts close to the bone, and intimacy arrives without promises. These are not love stories with clean exits. They are encounters that linger, echo, and leave their mark.
Arriving early March 2026. Internet bookstores.
E-Book Arrival: If you'd like a personal email notice of "Tough Love" landing in bookstores like Amazon and Barnes & Noble please contact author: Thomas.Shess @gmail.com
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