[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-115854-en":3,"doc-seo-115854-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":11,"is_downloadable":11,"audit_status":11,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},115854,549768702563,"Sage","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/8000c4aa63b76e948b?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1786536092046926083",1,"Story & Novel","THE PROJECT - Prologue","A memoir-like opening follows a single woman trying to return to sleep while wrestling with guilt after an intimate mistake the night before. She silently escapes, planning to leave before her partner wakes, using Uber’s countdown and scanning for evidence that she has not lost her mind. Back at the party, she descends to a basement dance floor with her best friend, masking anxiety with music and movement as a complicated relationship and lingering hope for “him” surface in her private thoughts.","[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nAbout the Author  \nAnnie Lord is a writer for Vogue and the author of the memoir Notes on Heartbreak. She also writes for the Sunday Times, Guardian, New Statesman, i-D, Independent and Dazed.  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nALSO BY ANNIE LORD Notes on Heartbreak  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nAnnie Lord  \nTHE PROJECT  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nFor single women  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nPrologue  \nI try to coax myself back to sleep, pulling the duvet over my head to hide from the daylight that’s warming the backs of my eyelids pink. I’m not ready to confront what I’ve done yet, who I know is asleep next to me, weighing down the mattress so that my body rolls into him. Eventually Idare myself to look at his face smushed against the pillow, a tendril of spit flickering in the air with every breath out, mousy hair fluffing from his head in all directions, the deep seam of his back ending at a pair of Calvin Klein boxers, below a tattoo that says ‘Rimmer ’ in swirled script because of a joke between him and his home friends that I’ve forgotten. James Stanley.  \nWhat the fuck have I done?  \nI open the Uber app on my phone. I need to get out of here before he wakes up and we have to do the whole ‘Hah last night was crazy! I can’t remember anything!’ routine as a way of letting the other know that we didn’t mean for this to happen without explicitly having to say it.  \nEight minutes. Okay.  \nThe floorboards groan under my feet as I stand up from the bed. It’s loud, but when I look over he’s still out. He sleeps in the same position I do, on his belly, one leg cocked up, although I’ve been trying to teach myself to sleep on my back because it’s better for wrinkles. I go to take a picture of him. I’m not sure why. Perhaps so there’s evidence that this actually happened, proof that I’ve not gone mad. But before it captures, I remember that’s a weird thing to do, so all I get is the golden blur of his wooden floor.  \nTwo minutes.  \nI’m just going to go home in the clothes he lent me. The thought of getting dressed right now is gross – the seam of my jeans scraping over my skin, tits falling out of a baby-blue halter neck. He’ll probably want this stuff back. I’m in a Hackney Half finisher T-shirt that I imagine has sentimental value. The tracksuit bottoms are so soft on the inside they must  \nbe new. Although he’s probably used to women taking his stuff when they leave in the morning.  \nI get dressed and sit on the end of the bed watching the little Peugeot icon moving closer as though I were playing some sort of video game. There’s movement down in the kitchen. Pans scraping against the hob. The smack of a bin bag being shaken out. I try to think of an excuse if I run into anyone, but I can’t think of anything. I left something up here? I passed out and then –?  \nArriving.  \nI open the door and lower the latch down slowly, so it doesn’t make a noise. Hopefully we can both just pretend this never happened.  \nI was trying to make myself feel better about Fin.  \nBut I know I’ve made it worse.  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \n1  \nWe head down to the basement where the dance floor ’s been set up. It smells like damp, and blue disco lights dapple over the walls. At the back, a guy in an Irish football top nods over the decks. He’s got a bony, birdlike face, one where you can see the skull underneath it. Maya, my best friend, who I dragged here tonight, hates this kind of music, this unce-unce-unce. She’s trying her best to look like she’s having fun because she knows how much I need this night to go well, sliding her hips left and right, braid snaking through the air, so shiny it could be glass. A little dishevelled knit top and then her toned stomach, a line moving down the middle like an R’n’B singer from the nineties.  \nMy eyes flick up to the stairs to see if it’s him coming down but, again, it’s not. I can’t help it. When I was in the living room earlier I was the sam","cbCairHVZikB5QJi","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCairHVZikB5QJi","pdf",1653768,9,295,"English","en",105,"# Prologue\n## Morning escape and internal conflict\n## Returning to the party and masking feelings\n## Flashbacks about him and their private dynamic","[{\"question\":\"What triggers the narrator’s panic in the prologue?\",\"answer\":\"She realizes she has done something she is not ready to confront, and she worries about what will happen if he wakes up and they have to address it.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the narrator try to leave without making things obvious?\",\"answer\":\"She opens the Uber app, times her departure, moves carefully so she doesn’t make noise, and plans to go home in the clothes he lent her.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the party scene reveal about the narrator’s emotions?\",\"answer\":\"Even while dancing with her best friend, she keeps looking for “him” and reflects on how others misread her, showing that hope and anxiety are still driving her.\"}]","THE PROJECT - Prologue | PDF",1785477331,454,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":28},"the-project-prologue","",{"@graph":36,"@context":86},[37,54,69],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-project-prologue/115854/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":41,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-08-22","2026-07-31",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"What triggers the narrator’s panic in the prologue?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"She realizes she has done something she is not ready to confront, and she worries about what will happen if he wakes up and they have to address it.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"How does the narrator try to leave without making things obvious?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"She opens the Uber app, times her departure, moves carefully so she doesn’t make noise, and plans to go home in the clothes he lent her.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"What does the party scene reveal about the narrator’s emotions?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"Even while dancing with her best friend, she keeps looking for “him” and reflects on how others misread her, showing that hope and anxiety are still driving her.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":88,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":90,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":93},[94,97,101,105,110,115,120,125,129,132,136],{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":121,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":122,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":124},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":133,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":133,"slug":135},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":137,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":138,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":139},19,"General","general"]