Maddie Samuels is woman of and ahead of her time. She knows she doesn't belong in the kitchen, and she refuses to become trapped in a secretarial pool. In mid-1960s New York City, she's not only determined to succeed in a man's world, but to prove her work is as good as any man's. With "free love" redefining relationships with head-spinning rapidity, Maddie learns how to push the accepted boundaries of established old-boy networks while refusing to accept the all-too-pervasive harassment by men in power. And yet as a woman in love, she discovers that beliefs and actions are often very different things - especially when it comes to a man like the seductive and charismatic Rob MacLeod. Set in the era of Mad Men, I Love You Today is passionate, sexy, liberating and deeply moving. With a story as relevant today as it was then, this is a novel that readers will take to their hearts and their souls. "A romp through the 'Mad Men' era, told from a woman's point of view."  --Pamela Fiori, author and former editor-in-chief, Town & Country "I enjoyed I Love You Today immensely. It was like a romp through the 'Mad Men' era, told from a woman's point of view. For me, it was a trip down Memory Lane (aka Madison Avenue in the late 1960s). I not only liked it, I lived it." -- Pamela Fiori, author and former editor-in-chief, Town & Country "A well-researched glimpse into a woman's turbulent struggle in a male-dominated career during the late 1960s. It pulled me right in, from the wrenching love story that could never have a happy ending, to the ultimate strength shown by the main character. An overall compelling journey." --Andrea Hurst, author of Always with You "Marcia Gloster paints an intimate portrait of life in 1960s Manhattan... Readers looking for a peek into the magazine publishing and advertising world of that era will be intrigued!" --Marilyn Brant, New York Times bestselling author Born in Los Angeles, Marcia Gloster has lived the majority of her life in New York City, during which time she built a career as an award-winning art director and book designer. She is a member of the National Association of Women Artists in New York City and Studio Montclair in New Jersey and has exhibited her paintings in New York City, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. She is the author of one other book, 31 DAYS: A MEMOIR OF SEDUCTION. I Love You Today A novel By Marcia Gloster The Story Plant Copyright © 2016 Marcia Gloster All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-61188-243-8 CHAPTER 1 September 1966 New York City The phone was ringing as Maddie unlocked the door. She ran to pick it up, hoping it was one of the employment agencies or even Danny. Either would have been acceptable, but at that moment the employment agencies took precedence. The week before she had quit a job she loathed — one she had only taken because she thought it would advance her career. It hadn't. As for Danny Gladstone, she had met him at a party a few months before. He was tall with dark blond hair and blue eyes — in other words, attractive. Yet what had drawn her to him was his apparent shyness, unusual for such a good-looking guy. She imagined, in these sexually liberated days, that he could have any girl he wanted. But somehow, to her surprise, he lacked the expected attitude of self-congratulatory arrogance. He was a marketing manager for AW&M, a large and prestigious advertising agency and had expressed amazement that she was already an art editor at what he described as "the tender age of twenty-four." Maddie liked him; he was fun for movie and dinner dates on Saturday nights, which over several weeks had evolved into the inevitable sleep over. Midweek dates, however, always ended with a kiss at her front door. He explained that he liked to get to the office early and didn't want to bother her on workday mornings. She opted not to tell him it wouldn't have been a bother. What she did appreciate about him, although he was almost thirty, was that he was in no rush to "nest," even though many of his friends were already married and pushing him in that direction. She wasn't ready to take it further and neither, apparently, was he. She had made it clear that her career came first. * * * The call was from Mr. Collins, an employment agent she'd met with several times. Although it had only been a few days since she had quit her job, she was very much in need of a new one, hopefully as soon as possible. It wasn't so much that the working conditions had been deplorable — it had more to do with the attitude of the company in general and her boss in particular. The publishing company occupied several floors in an old, rundown building on West Forty-Sixth Street, in a part of the city known as Hell's Kitchen. It took Maddie two subways plus cautious weaving through streets populated with aggressive drug dealers and preening, cat-calling prostitutes just to get to the locked entrance. She had been hired to design a magazine called HandiWoman,