Love, Lex (14 page)

You must read the next installment in
The Undergrad Years
featuring Taddy Brill in
Yours Truly, Taddy
or I’ll never speak to you
again, (wink). Here’s a sneak peak:

The year is 2002 and eighteen-year-old Manhattanite Taddy
Brill is taking names and kicking ass when her estranged father fails to pay
for her Ivy League education. If Taddy doesn't come up with the money before
school starts, her clique will enroll without her. Luckily, Taddy's modeling
agent books her on a photo shoot for a famous fashion magazine in the
Caribbean. She packs her bags and grabs her besties, Lex Easton, Blake Morgan,
and Vive Farnworth, and they jet off to paradise for lights, cameras,
and…candy?

Oozing in European testosterone, Parisian photographer Gustave
Le Cartier thinks that Taddy Brill is striking, but he cannot figure out why
she struggles to exude her sensuality on film. Her defenses are up, and she’s
rather…bitchy. Once Taddy confesses her fantasy of playing Princess Lolly in a
grown-up version of Candy Land, Gustave’s photo assistants, Fabian Henri and
Leon Lartigue, design a Licorice Castle, hoping she’ll get in touch with her
own beauty. As they set foot in the Lollipop Woods and Gustave asks her to pose
nude will Taddy play along?

Add
Yours Truly, Taddy
the next installment in
The
Undergrad Years,
to your Goodreads TBR shelf
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20567969-yours-truly-taddy
and join Taddy Brill on her New Adult adventure.

This novel goes to Lauren Hawkeye—a dear friend, mentor, and
a constant inspiration. I adore you to Reese’s Pieces. Thank you for bringing
The
Undergrad Years
to fruition. XOXO, Avery

Special Acknowledgments

Huge hugs to my family George, Pauline, and Adam for loving
me. Thank you to my friends; Shane, Julie, Sara, Kelly, Shari, Edward, Manuel,
Brenda, Holly, Michele, John, Nicole, Nackie, Bailee, Hector, and Lynn for not
taking it personally when I’m locked up in my cave writing.

Author-sub-love to Mistress Mel from S&M’s Book
Obsessions for cheering me along, and Mistress Eagle, for reading an advanced
copy. I’d be lost without my beta-readers Nicole and Miss Diamond, I love you.
Much praise to Alex who edited this novel, you are the best in the industry,
and I worship the ground you walk on. Cookie praise to Lee at Ironhorse for
formatting this book, you’ve got the patience of a saint. Lastly, to Arijana at
Cover It! Designs, you’re soon becoming an icon in the publishing industry, and
I’m blessed to have you in my corner.

Undressed
(The Manhattanites #1)

Unscrupulous
(The Manhattanites #2)

Add Avery’s Upcoming Releases to Your Goodreads TBR List

http://www.goodreads.com/AveryAster

in
The Undergrad Years
series

Yours Truly, Taddy
#2 April 14, 2014

XO, Blake
#3 July 14, 2014

Always & Forever, Vive
#4 September 15, 2014

in
The Manhattanites
series

Unsaid
#3 Summer 2014

Unique
#4 Winter 2014

Uncensored
#5 Spring 2015

Friend-Zoned

by Belle Aurora

Nik

Tina is looking up into my eyes. She asks,
“What color are your eyes?”

Uh oh, she’s making goo-goo eyes at me. Crap, cut her
loose and let her be on her way.

***

Tina

Nik shifts in his chair almost nervously as he replies, “Uh,
I don’t really know. Like a gold-ish brown or somethin’.”

I push the eye color thing. I tell him, “I’ve never seen
eyes that color. It’s like warm honey.”

He looks away and swallows hard before he says, “Uh, yeah, I
guess.”

Oh my, he 
is
 nervous.

As he looks toward the bookcase in the corner and I spy ink
travelling up the back of his neck past the back of his ear. It’s black, thick,
and looks tribal.

Yummy.

He won’t look me in the eye now and I wonder what I said to
get a reaction like the one he’s giving me.

I’m confused.

Frowning, I take a look around his office while I try to
figure him out. It’s nice. The walls are a pale sandy color. His desk is wooden
and looks heavy. This desk was not bought at Ikea. This was the type of desk
you bought at an antique store and had re-finished. It’s clearly mahogany (La
dee dah!). And I notice the whole room is neat; not a stray paper in sight. I
can’t even see my desk in Safira’s store room! It’s covered in papers, stock,
and trash.

Mental note; find your desk.

There are two framed photos on the mahogany bookshelf in the
corner of the office.

One is of a little girl who is so beautiful, my heart aches.
Her smile is pure sunshine and she is missing one of her front teeth. She has
Nik’s eyes. The frame is bright pink with purple glittery butterflies around
it.

Aww, cute.

The other frame is exquisite. It is thick silver with pieces
of beige mother of pearl swirling through it. The photo is an old one, a family
portrait it looks like. A tall, dark haired, middle aged man stands with his
arms around a short but beautiful dark haired, dark eyed woman. The woman is
very much pregnant. The man looks like Nik but he is pale skinned where Nik is
much darker. Most importantly are the man’s eyes. They are Nik’s eyes. I’m going
to take a stab and say these are Nik’s parents.

Two small girls flank the couple, hugging them both around
the legs. Hugging the two girls are two young men. Looking closer at this
picture I can see Max’s cheeky dimpled smile and it confirms my earlier
suspicions that Nik and Max are brothers. Both girls have their mother’s eyes;
both boys have their father’s eyes. All the children got their mother’s
beautiful skin tone. They are all laughing and smiling.

Wow, I love this photo.

Everyone in this picture is so happy. Like, 
blissfully
 happy.
I think back to Nik and wonder what happened to his happiness.

I take another look around but there is nothing else to note
except a filing cabinet in the opposite corner of the room close to the door.

No more photos, nothing at all personal, nothing to suggest
he has a girlfriend or wife.

Then it clicks.

His reaction to my stupid questions. And I almost burst out
laughing but manage to stop it and make a choked sound instead.

He thinks I’m coming onto him!

I mean, I can’t blame him for thinking that because he 
is
 beauty
defined. And now that I’ve spent some time with him I realize I had nothing to
be nervous about. He seems like a nice, well-mannered guy but still a little
too broody for my liking.

An idea enters my brain and before I can think about it and
verbal diarrhea spews forth.

***

Nik

Tina spends a good few minutes looking around my office. Her
eyes land on the family portrait which was taken a few months before Dad died.

I realize she’s looking for photos of a wife or girlfriend.

Here we go. She’s gonna make her move. I should’ve left
the damn note thing alone.

Tina makes a choked noise and I look up to find her trying
to hold back a smile.

Cut her loose and no one gets hurt. She’s too cute.

She is too cute. Too cute to fuck and leave, she ain’t that
type. I can tell. I spend a lot of time with girls like that and they normally
have the same interests as me.

Sex without strings.

My body tenses.

How do I turn her down without sounding like an asshole?

Girls like Tina hurt easy. That’s why I don’t deal with
girls like this.

She’s smiling a small smile and waiting for me to say
something. I don’t know what to say to her, she’s nervous as it is and doesn’t
need me going all asshole on her.

I start tapping my pen on the desk. I’m thinking so hard I’m
sure she can see my brain moving around through my skull!

I haven’t noticed she started to speak.

“So we can be friends, right?”

Wait, what?

I stare at her, a frown forming at my mouth.

Did I..? Did I just get Friend-zoned?

I look over again to see Tina nodding vigorously and smiling
brightly.

Wow, this has never happened to me before. Girls usually
come to the club knowing I got money; they ask me out or ask me to their place
for a “drink”, which one hundred percent of the time ends up meaning sex.

Tina takes my silence as her cue to speak again. “I mean we
work right across the street from each other. We can do lunch sometimes and,
Ooh,” she widens her eyes almost comically, “we can get together for coffee at
Winnie’s!”

She looks so excited at the prospect of us being friends,
she’s practically bouncing up and down in her seat.

You don’t need another friend. Definitely not a friend
that’s a girl; too complicated. Cut her loose, man. You don’t need this shit.

“Uh...”

Just do it! Cut her loose. This is a mistake
.

I look into her sweet face and the words are out of my mouth
before I realize.

“Yeah, sure. We can be friends”

What. The. Fuck?

Where the hell did that come from?

Before I can think about what just happened, Tina looks at
me and smiles big. Her lips are a pale pink, not lipstick or gloss, but
naturally. Her teeth are white and perfect. I tell myself to stop staring at
her damn lips. So I focus on her eyes. Her eyes are slightly crinkled at the
corners. Goddamn, even her eyes are smiling.

Great. Just great, you moron.

Tina stands abruptly, pushing the chair out so hard it
almost flies backwards onto the floor. She snatches up one of my business cards
out of the holder on the desk, smiles brightly at me and says, “Great! So I
guess I’ll be seeing you around, friend!” enthusiastically waving my business
card back and forth in the air like it’s a Polaroid picture. She finishes with,
“I’ll be in touch.”

And then she’s out the door. I sit back in my chair and my
brow furrows once more as I scratch my chin.

Seriously. What the fuck just happened?

~End of Excerpt~

FRIEND-ZONED can be found online at your favorite bookseller

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