“I’m quitting my job,” said the woman I was madly in lust with but had only just met.

“What?” I spluttered. “But you are that job?”

“I want to be someone else. Run away with me.”

“But we just got back from India?” We had entered a tuk-tuk race as strangers, returning as unlikely lovers. ”This is supposed to be our Happy Ever After. Can’t we just enjoy it for a while?”

“Don’t you want to see what’s after Happy Ever After? Let’s move to Istanbul. And I want to see Kurdistan.”

Did she really want me to follow her to a region slipping into autocracy? To Turkey, a country our Government now explicitly recommended not to visit? And another it didn’t acknowledge as existing?

“What’s happening?” I said. “Who are you?”

She laughed. “Come with me and you’ll find out. It’ll be an adventure. And we can test this relationship.”

I didn’t know then that she had a secret. It was why she was in such a rush.

“Can I think about it?” I asked.

“Sure.” She winked. “I’ll give you fifteen minutes…”

After Happy Every After is an unforgettable memoir of what happens when you run away with a stranger to try and turn lust into love.