Smart vs. Pretty by Valerie Frankel

Author:Valerie Frankel [Frankel, Valerie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Adult, Contemporary, C429, Extratorrents, Kat
ISBN: 9780755344765
Publisher: Avon
Published: 2000-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

14

Meanwhile, back on Montague Street, Amanda faced off with the girl barista. “What the hell are you doing?” asked the coffee teen, a smirk on her lipsticked mouth.

Amanda said, “This has nothing to do with you.”

“I’m calling the cops.”

Amanda loved the way the girl said it. It sounded more like a dare than a threat. Amanda gazed into her fresh face with its freckles and pimples. The still-emerging cheekbones. She was so spirited, like a spunky little lamb. Amanda would have liked to sit her down and tell her all about men and dating and college. Instead Amanda said, “Go ahead. Kiss my ass while you’re at it.”

The phrase had never passed between Amanda’s lips before, despite her Brooklyn upbringing. Her fluttering fingers flew to cover her mouth, as if to corral any additional rudeness. She had no idea what had come over her. Amanda wondered if the stress of the last few days was to blame. But a part of her—somewhere low, around the ninth chakra—had relished the crass epithet. It had tasted like cream over her tongue.

Amanda had never been satisfied by one taste of anything. “What’s more,” she added, “screw you.”

“Screw you right back,” said the teenager. The girl mugged royally and then huffed down the street to, Amanda assumed, call the police. That wouldn’t do her much good, since they’d only just left.

Although Amanda was a student of the ever-changing flow of cosmic energy, fluctuations of her own psyche rattled her. Should she now expect to insult strangers regularly? Not good. Amanda saw herself as someone who radiated sunshine and light, not emitted harmful negativity. Had she picked this up from Frank? Were the yang forces in her soul screaming to get out? Amanda searched for the answer in her heart. She closed her eyes (she looked a bit odd standing there at the curb in her pea coat, meditating), and concentrated on her most vital organ, listening carefully for it to beat out a message to her in code. After a few minutes of thud-thud, thud-thud, she felt sleepy and decided her intuitive powers would be more precise after a nap.

Instead of going to Romancing the Bean, Amanda went upstairs to her apartment and flopped onto her fluffy bed. She’d gotten only a few hours of sleep the night before, and the day’s events had already worn her out. She closed her eyes and began to drift.

Ring. Phone. Ring. One more and the machine in the kitchen would get it. She half listened to the clicks and the sound of rewinding tape. Then the machine started to play the new messages. It had to be Frank checking in. Amanda kicked her bedroom door closed. She didn’t want to hear who’d called. Sleep was more important. More pressing. Nothing else mattered. Not breathing. In or out. Or waves. Crashing. On…the…beach.

A broom handle banged on the floor beneath her. Matt must have seen her sneak upstairs. He shouldn’t be expected to run the store alone, Amanda thought guiltily.

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