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Authors: Zamzar
jobs, though, so they didn’t complain too loudly.
“Hi,” Jasmine said, sliding onto her own bar-stool.
“So, Krista,” Kate said. “What about these embarrassing stories from the day you text about
earlier?”
“Ooh, I
love
embarrassing stories!” Jasmine clapped happily, catching the eye of the older
bartender and pointing to the tap of Harp.
Krista couldn’t help a grin. “I have a few. First off, my
boss!”
Kate and Jasmine settled into their barstools expectantly as Krista unfolded the strange events of
her first day. When she started talking about Mr. Montgomery and his various quirks, humiliation
turned into hilarity.
Finally Krista got to the most embarrassing story.
“Wait,” Jasmine said as she bowed her head with a thoughtful expression. “You picked up a piece
of paper, which you had
heard
print, in order to look normal? I don’t get it. Was he hideous or something?”
“Or creepy?”
Kate asked as she leaned over her martini to get a good look at Krista’s face.
Krista cleared her throat and shrugged. Kate and Jasmine immediately honed in.
“He was hot, wasn’t he?” Jasmine accused with an evil smile.
Krista shrugged again, hating that her friends could read her so well.
“He must have been super fucking hot to make you lose your shit!” Kate chortled, matching
Jasmine’s delight.
Krista kept the shrugs coming.
“Seriously? He was that hot?” Jasmine asked with a quirked eyebrow.
Krista felt herself flush. “Okay, yes. He was hot, okay? He just surprised me, is all. He was in my
space—I wasn’t all ga-ga over him, or anything! I know to steer clear of hot guys!”
“
Womanizing
guys,” Kate corrected.
“Same thing.” Jasmine waved the thought away. “Describe him!”
“Seriously, you guys. There’s nothing to describe. He was pleasant looking, he smelled good, and
he surprised me in an enclosed space. It’s not like I’m great with people. He could’ve been anyone
and I would’ve been a dweeb!”
“De-scr-ibe-him,” Jasmine enunciated.
Krista rolled her eyes. “Fine. He was over six feet—not much over, I don’t think. He had really
green eyes—super green. Hard to look away from eyes. Stop looking at me like that!” Kate held up
her hands as if to say there was no look. Krista continued with a red face. “He had blondish hair in kind of a spikey ‘do. He had these, like, noble-born features ….”
Jasmine shook her head to cut her off. “What does that even mean? Who do you know that’s
noble?”
“Just…I don’t know…like, straight nose, chiseled jaw—like a guy a photographer would have a
wet dream over.”
“Okay, so he was noble, fine
. Body?”
Jasmine asked with hungry eyes.
“Jaz, whoa, get laid already,” Kate said as she leaned away.
Jasmine huffed, “I need to. It’s been a while. But I loves me a good hot man.”
“Nice body,” Krista continued, thinking back. “Biceps, super broad shoulders—he was like,
hulking in the entryway. Trim waist.”
“Dress?”
“Suit,” Krista matched the girls’ smiles. She couldn’t help it. “Tailored, silk tie that matched his eyes…he looked good in it. He wore it like a second skin. He like…lounged in it, or something.”
Krista shook her head, trying to calm the hatching butterflies in her stomach.
Like any girl, Krista also loved to look at hot guys, but this one had been different somehow.
There was certain quality to him that made her act like a teenager with a crush. It hadn’t happened
since she
was
a teenager with a crush.
“So…he was super-hot and you freaked out,” Kate summed up.
“Well, it wasn’t just that his face was perfect, you know? He was rugged and masculine, but so
damn smooth he’d melt in your mouth.” Krista fanned herself, finally giving in with a bright smile,
“He gives me fire-crotch just thinking about him.”
“Hah!” Jasmine pointed at her with victory. “I knew it!”
“So hit that, Romeo,” Kate laughed.
“She’s a chick. She’d be Juliet, dummy,” Jasmine said flippantly.
“Whatever. Same dumb play.”
“Yeah, right,” Krista mentally shrank back from the suggestion. “New job. He’s the kind of guy
that everyone probably talks about.”
“Yeah, true. And if he doesn’t have a girlfriend, which he probably doesn’t, all he wants to do is
sleep around and then talk about it. I hate man-sluts,” Jasmine pronounced, going back to her beer.
“Yeah,” Kate agreed into Krista’s nod, “But they sure are nice to look at!”
All the girls fell on the bar laughing. A truer statement had never been uttered. The three of them
were worse than any man when it came to gawking. They’d all three turn and look, smiling
appreciatively, and then walk away without bothering to say hello, having no time for the man.
Heartache or a bad lay was rarely worth the nice face or body.
Still…a girl could look!
“But when are you going to get back out there?” Jasmine asked, as her knowing chuckles
subsided.
These girls, to some extent—Kate more so than Jasmine—knew her history. They knew about the
bad nights and the dark days. They knew her recovery from the scared, weak woman her ex-boyfriend
Jim made. They were her support network most of the time, but sometimes, like now, they branched
out and pushed.
Krista shrugged uncomfortably. Jasmine was right to push. Krista was young. She’d made some
mistakes—one in particular—but she couldn’t let that dictate the rest of her life. She did need to
move on. She needed to learn to trust again. She needed to find someone safe who wouldn’t jerk her
around.
She just didn’t feel like starting today. She said as much.
“But you do need to, though,” Jasmine persisted in a quiet voice.
Krista sighed, tears springing to her eyes unbidden. “Jim got ahold of a Facebook account. He’s
been messaging with threats.”
“
What?”
Kate yelled. “When did this happen? Why am I just hearing about this?”
Krista waved her away, desperate not to let Jim ruin her day. “It was bound to happen, right?
Even when he was cheating on me, or…the other stuff…he was always possessive. He thought we
were going to get married,” Krista snorted in derision. “It’s just a computer. He doesn’t know where I am.”
“What’d you do? Did you contact his parole officer?” Kate pushed with round eyes.
Krista shrugged. “He wasn’t breaking any laws. I closed all my social media accounts.”
“I never use that crap, anyway. You’re not missing anything,” Jasmine deflected.
“Well, me neither—hence us not knowing this first-hand, but… Shit.” Kate stared at her drink.
The girls stared at their drinks for a quiet moment, each reliving some memory from Jim they’d
rather forget. After a second, Jasmine said, “What did that salesman say when you waved his paper in front of his face?”
She could turn around on a dime, thank God. She steered the conversation back to safer waters.
After a deep breath, Krista said, “I didn’t hear what he said—I sprinted out of there too fast!”
“He wasn’t mad?”
“No. When I met him later, he was smiling about it. Definitely not mad.”
“Oh my god…” Jasmine had a somber look, like she’d just found out someone had just died. “He
totally knows he makes you nervous!”
“Yup,” Krista said, peeling the label off her beer. “It was a print-out of some graphs for a sales
presentation.”
“He works on the same floor?”
“No, thank God. He printed it from the art department. It had his name on it and everything. He
had to go reprint.”
Jasmine started laughing.
“There’ll be no living with him now. You’re screwed,” Kate said as she shook her head.
“Yup.”
~~~~
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About the Author
Willow Summers is the breakaway pen name from USA Today Bestselling author K.F. Breene, dedicated to comic, contemporary, erotic and suspense romance. When she’s not writing, be wary, because she will probably try to pull you into some shenanigan or other, usually involving wine and heavy doses of chocolate. She lives just south of wine country with her husband, two children, and out of work treadmill.
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