The Spy Who Loved Me – Excerpt No. 5

6 September 2026

“Excusez-moi,” someone said in a young voice. (Excuse me.) “I didn’t see you.”

Jimmy steadied himself, while his jaw muscles bulged. After taking a quick breath he turned to find out who the idiot was who almost destroyed his phone.

The skirt that went to just above her knees, white headphones, and that growing bubble gum balloon threw him off entirely. When it popped he snapped out of it, and remembered what he was up to.

“I… uh…” Jimmy said. “Nevermind.”

“You dropped your phone, Sir,” she said.

A young blonde woman wearing white over-ear headphones, a grey zip-up hoodie, and an olive-green backpack lunges forward mid-motion on a wet city street at night. Her face shows a look of sudden panic as her smartphone tumbles toward the pavement mid-air, surrounded by scattered contents from her pockets like cards, coins, and a small container. The street is shrouded in a heavy, atmospheric orange fog illuminated by a distant streetlamp, contrasted against a vibrant cyan glow emanating from storefront windows in the background. The shot has a filmic, analog texture with visible grain, soft edges, and organic color bleeding, enclosed within a square, cream-colored instant-film style border.

Disclaimer: This novel is an work in progress and readers may encounter grammatical errors and inconsistencies. Please view this a draft and not a published work.