Product Description For Chloe, it was enough. More than enough. So she packs her bags and heads for the bus station, headed for who-knows-where and who-knows-what. Where turns out to be Arizona, and what turns out to be a liberating journey of self discovery and the realization that freedom has as many risks as it does rewards. As Chloe's story unfolds in Victoria Lipman's beautifully written and wonderfully entertaining debut novel, it becomes clear that leaving Alva is not only the best thing Chloe could do, it's the only thing she could do.After a warped childhood of emotional deprivation, of being lonely, friendless, and motherless, Chloe wants only to feel loved. So when Alva comes along -- steady, kind, approving -- he seems to her a sanctuary, a rock-steady place where she can anchor and feel safe. But marriage proves to be a dead end rather than an escape, a safety net that turns into a trap. Quite simply, Alva loves Chloe too much, with love constant and unqualified -- and suffocating.So she takes off for the Greyhound bus station, leaving behind a note telling Alva that he deserves better. Her only priorities in picking a destination: no place cold or states with a North or South in their names. She settles on Phoenix, buys a one-way ticket, says good-bye to one life, and anxiously anticipates the new one. Her seatmate is Zeno, an outrageous, impulsive, and hugely selfish woman who charms Chloe with exotic tales of her past, present, and future. After Alva, the freedom Zeno represents is pure intoxication, so she accepts the invitation to stay in Phoenix with Zeno and her aunt Ethel.Despite the sense of freedom that comes with leaving Alva, Chloe still doesn't feel entirely at home with these two strange women. Ethel, who owns and runs a small flower shop, is the fattest woman Chloe has ever seen. And Zeno -- well, she's just plain odd.Finally it's enough to send Chloe back on the road, only this time she's more confused than ever about who she is, where she's going, and what she wants to find once she gets there. But at least she is free to take this journey, and what a trip it is -- funny, moving, filled with wonderful characters and stark, stunning insights.And what does Chloe find? Well, for one thing she comes to realize that in real life you can go home again, but you just may not want to... About the Author Victoria Lipman lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband and two teenage daughters. This is her first novel. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter OneI had been feeling restless for months, a kind of palsy of the mind, and only the thought of leaving town on a night bus calmed me.Indian summer had come and gone. The sky had taken on the bruised color of early winter. I had tried everything: yoga, tai chi, biofeedback, subliminal messages. I drove around in Alva's car, cutting a big swath around the bus station which centered the town like some gaseous sun. I prayed, chanted my mantra, gave myself self-help talks, sometimes in public places in a loud voice, just to make sure that I was listening. It didn't matter whether I told myself that I was a bad person and ought to be ashamed or that I was a good person and could resist this temptation or simply an OK person who needed acceptance -- none of it mattered. More than anything I wanted to get the hell out of that town and out of a life that shrink-wrapped me like a pork chop on a pink plastic tray.I'd be leaving a job. A no-benefits job with a boss who liked to get me in the darkened storage room and stick his tongue in my mouth. Mostly I just pushed him away, told him he had bad breath or his wife was on the phone."You know you like it." He said this while pressing his bony self against me. My back flattened up against a file cabinet and the handle gouged into my back."Woody, this is not right," I told him as I tried to drill my fist into his chest."Just one little kiss." Woody's idea of one little kis