SIP HAPPENS: A STORY OF (IN)FIDELITEA
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I'm Kay Goodstadt
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SIP HAPPENS: A STORY OF (IN)FIDELITEA is a stirring portrayal of fractured love, inherited silence, and the ache of things unsaid. This 78,000-word upmarket novel unfolds across London, Tel Aviv, and New Orleans, opening in 2005 as Hurricane Katrina looms—an emotional pressure system that mirrors the slow boil of Ciaran Cowan’s life, steeped in ambivalence and ache. A globally recognized English actor, Ciaran is forced to navigate marital fallout, tabloid scandal, fertility trauma, and the quiet reckoning of second acts.
The story centers around a richly diverse ensemble whose biracial identities, sexual orientations, spiritual practices, and intimate histories are rooted in the novel’s interrogation of Jewishness as both lineage and choice. Through tea as both ritual and rupture, SIP HAPPENS: A STORY OF (IN)FIDELITEA explores what we inherit, what we conceal, and what we’re willing to redefine in pursuit of love. At its heart, the novel asks: What constitutes cheating—and can a marriage under siege survive?
When a viral scandal accuses Ciaran of adultery with Daniya Kahn—a poet with whom he shared a chaste afternoon of tea and cakes in the French Quarter—his marriage to Emiya begins to fracture. The fallout is amplified by TEA-TV, a global media conglomerate that began as a boutique streaming service and now sells gossip as currency and truth as trend. As the narrative spirals from 2005 to 2023, SIP HAPPENS: A STORY OF (IN)FIDELITEA traces an intergenerational reckoning—where the emotional residue of past choices lingers, and love must be redefined across time, trauma, and perception.
The novel’s central motif—tea—serves as both comfort and catalyst. It’s an aromatic infusion shared in ritual and remembrance, and a colloquial term for gossip that erodes trust. This duality threads through every scene, every infused silence, every rupture.
What constitutes cheating? Can a marriage under siege survive?
TEA-TV
Breaking News:
Sultry Poet Shags "Lucky" Stiff!
Ciaran Cowan is an English actor returning from a London hiatus to resume filming the second season of his eponymous American detective series, Heist, in New Orleans—where he portrays Alastair “Lucky” Heist, a charming ex-jewel thief turned reluctant sleuth.
He first meets Daniya Kahn in an airport terminal, rescuing her as she teeters on her heels and spills the contents of her carry-on across the floor. Among the scattered belongings, he glimpses RIPE—her soon-to-be controversial book of sensual poetry. Her luggage is lost. She’s spiraling. He’s knackered and thirsty. On a whim, he asks if she knows someplace cool and jazzy where they can duck in for high tea. She does.
A tiny little café tucked away in the French Quarter called Deja Brew.
There, in a velvet banquette tucked inside its jazz-soaked corner, they share tea, stories, and the kind of intimacy that defies easy definition. They speak of spouses, Emiya and Sam, and children—Mairi, Oren, Abbie, Arik—of grief, of food, of music, of the rituals that shape them. They share guarded details about their spouses—just enough to sketch the outlines of marriage, but not enough to fill in the shadows.
The air is lush—steam rising from porcelain cups, swing drifting through the walls, and something else, harder to name. They haven’t touched, but the connection is palpable.
As matcha Earl Grey is poured and Billie Holiday croons from a scratchy recording, their conversation drifts from poetry to pudding, from celebrity to Kierkegaard.
Beneath the banter, something brews: a moment that feels both harmless and dangerous, both fleeting and unforgettable.
Later, it will be dissected and distorted—devoured by TEA-TV.
But here, in the hush of Deja Brew, it’s just two people sharing tea and cakes—steam and silence—and a brush of hands that lingers longer than it should.
Both feel a sixth sense they’ve met before, though neither can quite place where.... Perhaps in another city. Another life. Or somewhere just beyond memory’s reach.
After all, they are strangers.
Or so it seems.
Ciaran Cowan
Actor. Father.
Reluctant celebrity.
Ciaran is fifty, Scottish Presbyterian, and perpetually jet-lagged—pinging between London and New Orleans, where his hit detective series Heist films year-round. He plays Alastair “Lucky” Heist, a brooding American sleuth with a trench coat and a cult following. Offscreen, Ciaran is dry-witted, teetotaling, and quietly devoted to his wife Emiya, an observant Ethiopian Jew, and their two children, Oren and Mairi. He doesn’t drink, doesn’t chase scandal, and doesn’t quite believe in the storm brewing around him—until it breaks. What begins as a flashback becomes a reckoning.
Daniya Kahn
Poet. Mother.
Unlikely target.
Daniya Kahn is fifty, biracial, Conservadox, and done being sensible. After years of writing about menopause for women’s health magazines, she’s traded restraint for risk—touring New Orleans with Ripe, her first volume of sensual poetry. Her husband, Sam, a semi-observant Wall Street bond trader, is not amused. Neither are her grown children, Abbie and Arik, who aren’t sure what to make of this new version of their mother. Daniya arrives in NOLA in sky-high heels and a little black dress, slightly klutzy but somehow luminous—mistaken for a cliché. Beneath the curves and carry-on is a woman far more cerebral than she first appears, one haunted by déjà vu, drawn to a stranger, and maybe, just maybe, remembering something she never knew she forgot.
The storm is coming. And she is its eye.
Emiya Cowan
Culinary instructor. Gardener. Quiet revolutionary.
Emma teaches at London’s Epicure Academy, where she’s known for her precision, kosher palate, and her refusal to romanticize the work. She’s a whizz with figures, a compulsive puzzler, and a fastidious homemaker who composts religiously and typically sleeps like a rock. Devoted mum and married to Ciaran for nineteen years, she’s younger, smarter, and increasingly weary of his jet-lagged lifestyle. When the storm brews—literal and emotional—Emiya doesn’t flinch. With the help of a mutual friend, she launches a fleet of Ethiopian food lorries and a specialty tea line, reclaiming ritual on her own terms.
But at what cost?
Food might be love, but it can't love you back.
Sam Kahn
Bond trader. Rolling in dough. Stress baker.
Tabloid co-target.
Sam Kahn is fifty, bald, and impeccably dressed—Wall Street sharp with thick black-framed Gucci glasses and a weakness for kneading and secrets. He came up on the streets of South Philly, rougher than Daniya, the diamond he married. He’s seen his share of street fights, defended those who couldn’t fight back, and carries a scar near his nape to prove it. Married to Daniya for twenty-five years, father to Abbie and Arik, Sam built a life of semi-observant Jewish ritual and financial precision. But when Daniya’s poetry tour collides with a certain English actor, Sam finds himself branded a “SHAM” in the tabloids—caught between scandal, disbelief, and the slow unraveling of a marriage he thought was stable.
He calls the actor “some hot, rich, goyishe kop,” but the truth is harder to name.
And his designer glasses don’t always help him see what’s right in front of his eyes.
Yaakov "Jake" Levin
Attorney. Mentor. Believer by choice.
Jake Levin is fifty, the son of Ethiopian and Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants, and a survivor of South Philly’s streets. Raised on Daniya’s stoop, fed and clothed by her parents, he carries the scars of a childhood interrupted—deaf in one ear from a racist attack, saved only by Sam. He vowed never to be a victim again. Now a Harvard Law scholarship grad and high-powered L.A. entertainment attorney, Jake begins each day with intention: to be good and do good. He mentors Arik Kahn, whose angel-backed video game Gehennom is raking in millions, but that’s not Jake’s aim. Not quite a JewBu or a BuJew—just a Jake Jew—he’s at home in his skin.
His latest job? Salvaging the reputations of Daniya and Sam Kahn, and—unbeknownst to them—Ciaran and Emiya Cowan. The trail leads to the CIYA-KAHN tabloid source, then to a dead end, until Jake enlists Izzy, an old-school Jewish gangster from the hood.
What they uncover nearly breaks him.
But not quite. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” —Psalm 34:19
MEET THE CHARACTERS
Abbie Kahn
Designer. Survivor.
Violet-blue flame.
Abbie Kahn is twenty, a college sophomore—almost—at The Eco Arts in Center City Philly, where she majors in textiles, fashion design, and brooding. Sustainable clothing is her last stitch effort at a semi-normal life after starving herself sick for dance, gymnastics, and competitive swimming. At her parents’ insistence, she spent a stint at Redwood Rehab—three hots and a cot—determined not to stay a size double-zero vegan with Cher hair. The violet strands that curled like smoke through memory, lingering on the shroud of electric violet hair, are gone. The hollow softness of her cheeks, hungry-eyed and burning bright with keen intelligence and untold secrets.
Life has changed for good and she hears the whispers of Hineni—I am here.
And somewhere, someone else senses that presence.
From an ocean away.
Far beyond what others might see.
Arik Kahn
Coder. Prodigy. One big hormone—with feet.
Arik Kahn is twenty, preppy, gangly, and shy. An observant Jew and tech entrepreneur, he’s graduating early from Penn State with his MBS in coding, securities, and risk analysis. He practically hides under a rasta kippah and Phillies cap, but beneath the awkward layers is Jake Levin’s prodigy—a coder of MMPOGs and creator of Gehennom, a video game where angels and dybbuks battle in a world that pulses with sacred logic.
When logic tells him his sister Abbie needs her confidence boosted, Arik sets out on his own personal quest.
But he doesn’t yet know that more than worlds will collide.
And the storm brewing around him is biblical.
Oren Cowan
Mathematician. Pianist.
Gentle soul Oren Cowan is twenty, an observant Jew and deeply cerebral chap with blade-sharp cheekbones and sea-blue eyes that might haunt your dreams for days. He reads maths at Wallingford, a weekly boarding school southwest of London, and plays piano—classical, as a rule. Introspective with way too few verbal cues, Oren has never kissed a girl, let alone had a steady. He’s waiting for The One who sets his heart aflame.
He cannot foresee that when he finally finds her, she will rock his world—and his fate.
Mairi Cowan
Equestrian. Underdog.
Muck-born strategist.
Mairi Cowan is nearly eighteen, a bubbly, ponytailed barn lass who loves anything that eats, sleeps, breathes, and poos—which is why she’s nearly always found sweeping out her boarded horse stall in rank wellies. People rarely take her seriously, but Mairi is clever enough to use that to her advantage. She clocks into the perfect solution when called upon by fate, especially in the muddiest of situations.
She may smell like hay and hoof oil, but don’t let that fool you.
Mairi knows exactly what she’s doing. And why.
Fletcher "Stew" Stewart
Auteur. Satirist. Gay Queen of Kosher Cookery.
"Stew" Stewart is fifty, semi-retired, and still sharper than your best carving knife. Once rounder in frame and quicker in tongue, he met Ciaran and Emiya on the Uni steps back in the day and never quite left their orbit. An English actor and auteur with a Romanesque nose and a résumé that spans telly, cinema, and BBC broadcasts, Stew has penned The Poof Cook, a series of satirical novels, and unsparing memoirs that leave no sacred cow ungrilled. Possessed of a Wildean wit and a sixth sense for spin, he’s hosted chat shows, quiz shows, and nature documentaries with the kind of cheeky gravitas that makes producers swoon.
Now, he’s settled into his most beloved role yet: The Gay Queen of Kosher Cookery.
And if you think that’s just a shtick, you haven’t tasted his brisket.
Elias Schechter
Teacher. Traditionalist.
Man in quiet crisis.
Elias Schechter teaches at a cheder, deeply rooted in Orthodox Judaism and the rituals that help him make sense of a world that rarely does. Estranged from the former Jody Pressman, he clings to tradition as both compass and crutch, even as their marriage buckles under the weight of infertility, financial strain, and unspoken resentments.
Often lost in thought, Elias wrestles with his own inadequacies and the strictures of his faith. He is open to change but finds it difficult to loosen the straps he’s spent a lifetime tightening.
His anxiety manifests in stalling, indecision, and avoidance.
His sense of right and wrong is shaped by Jewish law, but desperation has its own halacha.
Haunted by the feeling that he is not enough—as husband, provider, or father—Elias clings to ritual objects like tzitzit and kippah, searching for meaning in the margins.
And when the storm breaks, it won’t be loud.
It will be quiet.
And it will change everything he once thought he believed.
Jody Schechter
Advocate. Traditionalist. Woman at a crossroads.
Jody Pressman Schechter is fiercely intelligent, college-educated, and shaped by the heavy hand of family tradition. Once a passionate advocate with dreams of a legal career, her path was rerouted by her father’s expectations and her community’s demands.
Her failed marriage to Elias is marked by infertility struggles, financial strain, and the quiet erosion of being unseen.
Pragmatic and sharp-tongued, Jody is deeply loyal to her friends—especially Daniya, her lifelong bestie—but beneath her resilience lies a longing for autonomy and authenticity.
She carries the weight of compromise, the ache of what might’ve been, and the tension between honoring her past and claiming a life that is truly her own.
And when the moment comes, Jody will choose.
Not loudly.
But irrevocably.
Izzy from South Philly
Fixer. Storyteller. Mensch.
Izzy is a cigar-chomping octogenarian with pinstripes on his back and South Philly in his bones. Sharp as a switchblade and twice as tough, he’s part private eye, part chess hustler, part neighborhood sage—and always the guy who knows a guy.
A relic of the old neighborhood with deep ties to its underground networks, Izzy greases wheels, trades secrets, and dispenses Yiddish wisdom like it’s currency.
Whether he’s helping desperate friends out of a jam or spinning tales over a knish and a glezele tey, Izzy is proof that in South Philly, loyalty and survival are brewed strong—and never go out of style.
About
Kay Goodstadt
Kay Goodstadt, author of SIP HAPPENS: A STORY OF (IN)FIDELITEA, is a novelist whose debut explores intimacy, ritual, and intergenerational legacy. She holds a B.S. in Health Education from Temple University, with a focus on sex education, nutrition, and substance use prevention. Her professional background includes social image management for online dating profiles and public relations work for a local synagogue—experiences that inform the ensemble dynamics and ethical representation in her fiction. SIP HAPPENS: A STORY OF (IN)FIDELITEA centers a diverse Jewish cast and interrogates identity through biracial heritage, fluid relationships, and spiritual complexity. A habitual tea drinker, Kay belongs to The Authors Guild, Jewish Book Council, Society of Professional Journalists, and several tea-focused organizations. She is currently developing a sequel and building a long-term career in emotionally resonant, ensemble-driven fiction—supported by a promotional strategy rooted in community, conversation, and the rituals that connect us.
