All of the Above by Quinn Anderson

Author:Quinn Anderson [Anderson, Quinn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Published: 2017-11-17T18:30:00+00:00

By the time Brendon got home, he was so tired, the overhead light in his kitchen trembled when he looked at it. He suspected all the emotional turmoil had left him more drained than usual. He made the executive decision to talk to Sasha tomorrow. Desperate as he was for advice, he could hardly stand, let alone have a serious conversation.

But the next morning, when he arrived at the mall—ratty and still exhausted—she wasn’t there. Areesh was, but he was so hungover, he was a husk of his usual self. No help to Brendon at all.

Brendon tried to focus on work. Really, he did. But his brain was stuck on the same train of thought: Matt and the most wonderful, horrible first date ever. He wanted to focus on the positive—their first date had brought them one step closer to proving his soul mate theory correct—but dwelling on it just made him more miserable. And more indecisive.

Many times in his life, he’d wished for a crystal ball, but now he wanted one so badly it ached.

Brendon was so distracted that, by lunchtime, he’d burned himself a half dozen times on his favorite turquoise hair straightener. He was lucky he hadn’t singed anyone’s hair off. The last thing he needed was an irate customer to make working retail even more hellish.

Three-quarters of the way into his shift, he clamped his thumb between two burning-hot metal plates and decided he’d had enough. This was the twenty-first century. They had these remarkable devices called phones. He’d take a break as soon as he could, call Sasha, and tell her everything.

When Sasha wasn’t at work, she was either home or at her mom’s. If the latter was the case and Brendon called her, she would put him on speaker and insist he say hi. Mrs. Sharaf was a sweet woman, and he loved her stories about growing up in India, but if he had to sit through one today, he would scream.

There was one way he could hedge his bets. Areesh.

As soon as Brendon had finished with his latest customer, he wandered over to Areesh’s kiosk. Areesh had borrowed some sunglasses from the next cart over and was sitting with his head down on the counter. A few of the people milling past gave him concerned albeit judgmental glances, but he either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“Rough night?” Brendon asked in lieu of announcing his presence.

Areesh made an unsettling grunting sound. “No, last night was fun. It’s today that’s not agreeing with me.”

“Can I get you anything?”

“A cure for hangovers. Or a noose.”

Brendon laughed. “Do you really want to hang yourself while your head feels the way it does?”

Areesh groaned. “Good point. Just thinking about it hurts.” He managed to push himself upright. “You need something?”

“Yeah. Where’s your wife today?”

“She’s at home. She was supposed to work, but as punishment for getting drunk, she made me come in instead.” He muttered something in Hindi. Brendon was far from fluent, but he was positive Areesh had said “devil woman.

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