Interim. A Novel - Sarah Elizabeth Sanchez

I had a plan.

It was precise, practical, and mapped out like a well-designed experiment: save money, get into med school, build a life that made sense.

Then everything fell apart.

When a sudden loss leaves me without stability, direction, or certainty, I'm forced into a reality I never accounted for-one filled with rejection letters, financial pressure, and the quiet fear that maybe the future I wanted was never really mine.

And then you offer me something I didn't expect.

A place to stay.
A temporary solution.
An interim.

You're my colleague, a literature teacher who sees the world in stories instead of systems-steady where I am unraveling, perceptive in ways that make it impossible to hide. Living together was supposed to be simple. Practical. Safe.

It isn't.

Because somewhere between late-night conversations, shared routines, and the fragile honesty of being seen at your worst, the space between us begins to shift. What was once friendship deepens into something neither of us planned for-and neither knows how to define.

But misunderstandings, past ties, and the weight of unspoken fears threaten to pull us apart just as everything begins to feel real.

Set in the uncertain space between who we are and who we're becoming, Interim is a slow-burning, emotionally charged romance about identity, timing, and the courage it takes to choose something-and someone-when nothing in your life feels certain.

Because sometimes what we call temporary... is the very thing that changes everything.