Fashion and Passion: A 40 and Fabulous Novella by Michelle McCraw

Author:Michelle McCraw [McCraw, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lazy Dog Books

CARLY

I squeezed my eyes shut, my face burning.

Lucie snorted. Tessa threw back the last of her drink, but I saw her grin around the glass. Only Savannah looked as horrified as I felt.

Trouper that she was, she said, “Oh, hello, Andrew. We were just talking about, um, kebabs.”

“Kebabs?” He remained behind me, his hand on my back. I could practically hear his eyebrows rise.

“Meat. On a stick. Tasty enough to lick.” She winced.

I wanted to crawl under the table. None of Brad’s snooty social events had prepared me for the utter mortification of this moment. I clutched for something, anything, to help me make an escape.

“You know what we need?” I squeaked. “Strawberries. To go with the champagne. I’ll find some.”

I slipped off my stool and scurried to the bar, one stool down from a woman in a micro-mini skirt and a tube top. Zara, if I had to guess. I dropped my head into my hands and used my ice-cold fingertips to cool my flaming cheeks. What had I done? I’d humiliated myself in front of Andrew, who wasn’t a sweet, serious teen anymore but a finance bro who, with one word to his mother, could annihilate my fledgling business. Even worse, I was going to have to slink out of the bar with my tail between my legs without my new friends’ contact information. After forty, new friends were even harder to come by than young, prime-grade D.

I lifted my head from my hands and scanned the bar for a rear exit. Blessedly, there was a red sign above the hall that led to the restrooms. At that point, it could lead to the very gates of hell, and I’d follow it.

“Carly.” It was a soft rumble behind me.

I winced. I’d missed my chance at a cowardly exit. Slowly, I turned to face him.

Andrew’s lips turned down in concern. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to offend you. I thought we were having fun. Joking.”

“Oh.” The band around my chest loosened. “Joking.” I let out a humorless bark. Of course he thought I was joking. An old, used-up woman had to be joking about licking someone as young and hot as he was. I gave him a pained smile. “Of course.”

He had exactly one wrinkle, a crease between his eyebrows. It deepened. “Wait. I think we have a misunderstanding. Again.”

He curled his right fingers around my left hand, sheltering it like he’d have done with a fallen baby bird. “Here’s what I want. After you’re done hanging out with your friends, I’d like you to come to my hotel room.”

“Why would I do that?” It came out more challenging than I’d intended. Why did he want me when there were so many other options right there in the bar? The Zara tube top woman had no visible cellulite, for god’s sake.

“Because you want someone to talk to. Because you want me. Because I give great oral.” He spread his hands. “Your choice.”

“My choice?” My brain stuttered on the good oral part.

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