Teaser Tuesday

Exactly 3 months ago today I posted an excerpt from the first chapter of my WIP called, Daughters of Earth. I've been dreadfully lax in following up with another teaser. I'm about 10,000 words away from finishing the first draft, so there was no excuse. Here's the opening of the second chapter. The novel has two parallel story arcs set in our time and the post-apocalyptic future. The first chapter was in our time and the second is in the future.

LILAC: Celebrities

Great Expectations: The world’s most famous—and hottest—couple, Naomi Abravanel and Yasmin, prepare for their first child

By Karima Nour
Photographed by Basya Klein
Styled by Gilah Marziano

Posted 67.04.25.01:17 UTC+2

The photo was bound to shock and titillate, but so did most things Yasmin—the world’s best footballer and LQ’s sexiest woman of the year two years running—has done. Yet this was different. Yes, Yasmin’s photospreads have glossed many a magazine homepage, including this publication on numerous occasions, but not like this. This time, Yasmin featured her lovely spouse Naomi Abravenel, the daughter of two of the Founding Mothers, the Prime Minister Dassah Shaul and the late former Prime Minister Leah Abravanel. In other words, she’s the closest thing we have to royalty here in the great nation of Azura.

Naomi, eight months pregnant, stands nude before the camera, her bent left arm covering her swelling breasts and her right hand up to the back of her spouse’s head. Yasmin, nude as well, stands behind her with only a tantalizing glimpse of her rippling torso. Her left hand is on one shoulder and her right hand is strategically placed below Naomi’s rounded belly. Naomi’s face is turned to the side, her pouting lips parted and ever so close to Yasmin’s. It’s a perfect shot. When the photo was posted on our site in anticipation of this week’s issue it immediately became this year’s most downloaded picture.

Yasmin and Naomi intended the photo to be a celebration of life on the 40th anniversary of the birth of the first child conceived by bioengineered human bimaternalgenesis, BHB, which the editors of Science voted the greatest invention in human history a few years back. Yasmin’s detractors have called the photo needlessly provocative. When she’s not wearing her classic blue and white Tel Aviv United strip, Yasmin is often spotted in retro clothing of push-up bras, high heals, and miniskirts—which accentuate the world’s most gorgeous legs—when the norm is either bare or ComSos[1], fashionable flats, and loose or slim slacks. Her long hair and exotic coiffures are also a point of contention. Her critics claim she is a negative influence on her legion of young fans who want to follow her in wearing revealing clothing and garish makeup such as eye shadow, mascara, and lip plumping lipstick.

“You don’t have to wear constricting attire and be painted up like a clown to be sexy,” chides conservative former prime minister and current opposition leader Ziona Massala. “Why would any woman objectify herself?”

“This is who I am and I’m proud of it,” Yasmin responds. “I’ve always loved the old-time clothing. Even as a little girl I preferred dresses over pants. I’m not alone. These gray-hairs just don’t get it.”

Yasmin is a polarizing figure outside the football arena, adored by the younger generation and reviled by the older crowd. Inside, she is loved by all after leading the Azuran National Team to the World Cup Championship over Brazil last year in her first stint as team captain. Four years earlier at the age of 21 she had taken the football world by storm in leading the national team to the Cup Finals against England in a thrilling match that England won with a goal in the final minutes. Yasmin had a chance to tie, but her shot hit off the crossbar. In the postmatch news conference a distraught Yasmin guaranteed a championship the next time and she was proved right.

Twenty sixty-six was a momentous year for Yasmin and Naomi. After Yasmin led the Tel Aviv United to the back-to-back Premier League Championships last June and then the World Cup Championship in July, Yasmin and Naomi were married in a lavish ceremony at the magnificent Raghadan Palace in Amman, Jordan. The 300 guests in attendance included members of the National Assembly, countless celebrities, and sports personalities. Although security was high, the couple thrilled hundreds of spectators by coming out to wave and thank the cheering throngs. Always outrageous, Yasmin had opted against the traditional wedding abaya in favor of a vintage Nicolas Ghesquière wedding gown.

“We knew we wanted to have a child right away once we got married,” Naomi says. “We had to plan it out as best we could because the football season is so long.” She conceived in late September during the first month of the 2066-67 season.

The baby is due in late May—right in the middle of the playoffs—but Yasmin insists she won’t miss the birth no matter if she’s scheduled to play. “In hindsight, we could’ve planned it better, but who cares?” she says. “It’s not every day you get to become a mother.”

[1]Gigi Limited just released its third generation of “smart” comfort supporters that automatically adjust to the fluctuating breast shape and size during the menstrual cycle and weight gain or loss in addition to what its predecessors provided in proper support for every range of motion without pain or strain to the chest, back, shoulders, or neck.