Excerpt from TWO LIVES WITH YOU by Lauren Ho:
Dana
2023: The Hour Approaches
It was the hour of the Maintenance Shag, and Dana had to hurry home. In spite of her best efforts, the morning was getting away from her, and she had much work to do in the house before she could flop down in front of her husband in choice underwear (i.e., those that hadn’t gotten gray and saggy in the wash), the door to their bedroom carefully bolted, and say, Ravish me, honey.
People in their forties—in her case, thirty-nine, but she was close enough—were supposed to ravish their partners still, after sixteen years of marriage, weren’t they? Popular media didn’t shed much light on such bedroom maneuvers; it was more interested in people in their twenties and early thirties, tops. But they had to, surely? And, more important, how often should they endeavor toward such ravishment? Their gimlet-eyed marriage counselor—or rather, the IG marriage therapist whose advice they could access for free (all they could afford given their household’s straitened purse strings)—had suggested that for couples in their age bracket (old, beaten-down millennials) who’d “been together for some time,” once every two weeks would be appropriate to “maintain the fire”—although fire was certainly optimistic phrasing at this stage, at least in Dana’s unbiased, unprofessional opinion.
So here they were, headed for their third scheduled biweekly ravishment.
But first, tomatoes. Dana stood blinking in the ugly white light of the big-box retailer in front of shelves of jarred and canned tomatoes: paste, whole, pureed, stewed, diced. Which type of tomato went in Bolognese? Her phone was dead and she couldn’t check. She wasn’t a cook; almost everything she made came from a box. And the food had to be home-cooked today, because Shobana, her daughter Bex’s close friend and possible love interest, was coming over for dinner—a first for Bex, who so far had preferred to keep her friends confined to the Cheng-Smileys’ gaming den / basement, and out of the house before 6 p.m.
It was deeply destabilizing to her that sixteen-year-old Bex might have a love interest—Bex was a child. It felt like only yesterday they had been watching cartoons together on Saturdays and discussing the merits of being a mermaid versus a fairy princess (Bex was firmly Camp Mermaid—she was part nautical, that one), and not too long ago she’d been a sweet toddler who called Dana “Mummy,” which always made Dana think, somewhat incongruously, of Prince Harry. The adorable way Bex had puckered her lips around the consonants made her heart ache with nostalgia.
The simple joy gave way to something else, something dimmer. For reasons she couldn’t quite articulate, everything was shot through with anxiety these days, even the good emotions and memories. Or maybe the truth is, you’re anxious because you’ve forgotten how to be around them.
Her fingers flickered back and forth between the diced and pureed options, the varietals:
Napoli, Roma
DOP San Marzano
Santorini, too
Just words in a haiku to Dana, albeit ones with real-world consequences that, to Bex at least, were life and death. Her mother had to impress Shobana, whose mother, Selvi, was some fancy litigator and amateur chef on top of being a single mom, or else. Bex only used italics when it was a matter of life and death (i.e., her mother’s).
If Bex killed Dana—Dana closed her eyes and sighed. She couldn’t begin to imagine the chaos that would unravel. Not that she actually thought her daughter would murder her, but hypothetically speaking, if she did decide to off Dana, where would that leave Nigel? How would he cope? Just yesterday morning, she’d caught him—when he thought she wasn’t looking—eating around a piece of bread she knew was moldy. She hadn’t had the chance to toss it out before he put it in his maw, probably because Bex was screaming and Emmie had jammed a fork into Gill’s curls and Dana was coming in to break up that fight after a dreadful night shift, but should it really be on her to make sure he took care of himself? What happened to Old Nigel, her can-do-any- thing man? Or was Nigel, in his infinite stubbornness, trying to prove a point—to himself and, by extension, to her? That he would endure. That he was a survivor, by eating moldy bread in spite of his allergies. Or was it because they were at the end of the month and money was tight? Even so, there was no need for such frugality, such stoicism, such acts of false heroism, really—not yet, even though they flirted with the danger of financial ruin on the daily these days. All they needed was a major accident, to be honest. He should not have been so cavalier around mold—unless this was some kind of statement, a slow, passive-aggressive flirtation with death?
Maybe this was on her for marrying a man named Nigel. Nigel: a name one either grew into or dragged through adulthood like roadkill. And to think, back in the early days of their courtship, she had cried that name out in passion—heat in every syllable. Nigel. It was almost unthinkable now. Because there was nothing about the name that should inflame one’s loins. Yet, somehow, once upon a time in Dana’s life, “Nigel” had been spicy.
Once upon a time, Nigel had been her everything. They had been so happy. So close. So in sync. But now—
Dana grabbed two cans of each type of tomato on offer, threw them in her cart, and started making her way home. The kids would be home from soccer practice in exactly two and a half hours, and the small window of opportunity to maintain matrimonial status quo in the Cheng-Smiley household would be over for the weekend. She had to hurry; her ravishment awaited.
Excerpted from TWO LIVES WITH YOU by Lauren Ho. © 2026, used with permission
TWO LIVES WITH YOU by Lauren Ho
What if they never married? For an overwhelmed husband and wife, that what-if wish comes true in an emotional and bittersweet novel about choices, sacrifice, and the love that they might lose forever.
When Dana and Nigel got married, they had such promise. After sixteen years, the cracks are showing.
Dana is a burned-out ER nurse, and Nigel is a recently unemployed stay-at-home dad whose professional identity is disappearing. Questioning the directions their lives have taken, Dana and Nigel are each granted a wish from a mysterious stranger. For one week they can escape the pressure of their lives in favor of ones in which they never married.
Waking up in an alternate reality where their youthful, individual dreams have come true is, at first, a marvel. When they meet by chance in Bali, Dana recognizes Nigel instantly, but he feels only an inexplicable connection to this stranger. And they discover there’s a catch to their wishes.
Returning to normal—and to the long-haul love they vowed would be forever—won’t be as easy as they thought. As the clock ticks down, Dana and Nigel face an impossible choice that will test the very foundation of their relationship and alter their lives forever.
Women’s Fiction Family Life [ Mindy’s Book Studio, On Sale: June 1, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781662541469 / eISBN: 9781662528071 ]
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About Lauren Ho
Having turned her back on the legal world, Lauren Ho worked in the humanitarian sector for several years before she realized that she was the one who really needed help. After she got the news that Last Tang Standing would be published, she promptly went on an unpaid sabbatical, to the deep chagrin of her mother and every Asian friend she had. Ho currently divides her time between Singapore, Malaysia, and France, ostensibly working on her next novel.
Last Tang Standing is not based on her mother.
At all.
Seriously.
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