Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 117574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 588(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 588(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
The pregnant brunette gasps, like she’s just placed my face. “The boy bander!”
“Aka my stalker,” Charlotte says with a sniff.
I have no idea what’s happening. Boy bander? All I know is this woman is unhinged to have tracked me down at my place of residence. “I’m not the stalker here, Charlotte, and you know it.”
“How could I stalk you when I got here first?” Charlotte says, crossing her arms over her chest. “And don’t use my name. I told you that this morning.”
“Oh, yeah. Because I only overheard that highly confidential, super-secret piece of intel when you introduced yourself to my ‘smoking hot’ father.”
Charlotte throws up her arms. “God, your ego is fragile. Get over it, dude.” She exhales. “Look, if it would help you to let it go and therefore quit stalking me to know why I asked your father to be my fake boyfriend, and not you—”
“I don’t care.”
“—then let me explain it to you: 1) I didn’t think you’d say yes to me, given that you’d already made it clear you despised me; and 2) the guy I was trying to make jealous was always going on about eating the rich, and your daddy looks like a wealthy high-roller, while you look like an aged-out boy bander whose manager stole all the band’s money, so now you’re forced to give group hip-hop lessons at nursing homes to survive.”
As pissed as I am, I chuckle. What a mind. Also, I guess that explains the boy bander reference. The crazy thing is, she’s not that off the mark. Closer than she knows, anyway. Damn. When Charlotte burst into Captain’s and launched into those ridiculous dance moves at full-throttle, I figured she had to be an entertaining, funny person, and this diatribe has only confirmed that hunch. She’s as funny as she is hot. The only problem? She’s also a batshit crazy stalker. The kind who tracks down her prey at his place of residence after a simple misunderstanding. Spilling that coffee was an accident, and I can’t believe she’d ever think otherwise.
“It also might help you to know,” Charlotte continues, her hand on her hip and her toe tapping away, “that even if your rich daddy wasn’t at Captain’s with you yesterday, you and I never would have gotten together, despite your pretty smile. You’re too young for me, for one thing, and also too squeaky clean and conventionally handsome for my taste. So, run along and stalk someone else and leave me the fuck alone.”
There’s a lot to unpack here. But I say the thing that elbows its way to the top of the list. “I’m too young? How old do you think I am? I’m thirty, and you don’t look any older than that.”
“She’s thirty-two,” the brunette interjects, much to the visible annoyance of her redhaired companion. “But thanks to those cute little freckles and that button nose, she still gets carded whenever she’s not wearing makeup.”
“Stop fraternizing with the enemy, Tessa!” Charlotte booms. “He’s an unhinged, crazy stalker, remember?”
“A stalker with a scared little three-legged dog in tow?” the brunette says with a scoff. “I don’t think so, honey. There’s got to be a logical explanation why he’s turned up here.” She returns to me. “I’m Tessa. What’s your name?”
“Hi, Tessa. Auggie.”
“Nice to meet you, Auggie. Are you a student?”
I nod. “In the veterinary program.”
“That’s so cool. Good for you.” Tessa nudges Charlotte. “See? This is Auggie’s neighborhood. He’s innocently out and about walking his cute little three-legged dog, not stalking you.”
I wave Lucky’s only front paw. “This is Lucky.”
“Hello there, Lucky,” Tessa says amiably. “He’s so cute. How’d he lose his leg?”
“A car accident, back when he was a stray on the streets. My grandma rescued him from death row at a shelter, and now he’s mine.”
Tessa’s shoulders subtly droop. Clearly, something on my face or in my voice when I mentioned my grandma—combined with the fact that I’ve now got custody of her beloved pooch—must have conveyed my heartache, clearly enough.
“Aw, sweet baby,” Tessa says, but I’m not sure if she’s talking about Lucky or me. “We’ve been thinking about getting a rescue pup as a buddy for our dog. We’ve got a husky, and he’s super needy.”
“As most huskies are.”
Tessa chuckles. “Rudy’s like Velcro. That’s one of his nicknames.”
“Does Rudy talk and sing?”
“All. The. Time.”
“God, I love huskies. Never a dull moment.”
“What the fuck, Tessa!” Charlotte shrieks. “Stop fraternizing with the enemy!” When Tessa protests, Charlotte shoots back, “I don’t care if he’s got an army of cute little three-legged dogs following him around like rats following the Pied Piper! He’s the dickhead who called a tow truck on me and then crashed into me, on purpose, thereby spilling coffee all over my white outfit, thereby sabotaging the important job interview I’d unfortunately been stupid enough to tell him about.”