Crave

by Jennifer Dawson

  With a six-month waiting list to eat there, it’s a great gig, but I’m a mediocre waitress and the restaurant business isn’t my passion. The best I can say about my job is I use my relationship with Gwen for the best shifts, and didn’t have to work out much.

  I smooth down my dress and walk into our tiny living room. I’ll figure out my career another time, tonight is about pursuing my other elusive passion.

  Leo Santoro.

  My brother’s best friend and partner. Object of my lust-filled fantasies.

  And general pain in the ass.

  Heather follows me down the hallway that leads to our living room. “You’ve been practicing in those heels.”

  I laugh. There is an art to walking around in too high stilettos, and it’s not innate. “I have.”

  “Your legs look fantastic.”

  “Why thank you.” They did. I’m tall, five-nine to be exact, and I’ve been told by men and women alike that my legs are endless. I consider them one of my best assets.

  I move to the kitchen and start transferring necessary essentials from my big purse to my small evening bag.

  Heather slides onto the stool and watches me. “Do you think it’s smart to wear heals that put you eye level with him?”

  I toss my hair over my shoulder and search for my powder before emptying the contents onto the counter. “He can handle it.”

  Four-inch heels are part of my strategy.

  I want him looking me straight in the eye when he rejects me.

  About the Author

  Jennifer Dawson grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and graduated from DePaul University with a degree in psychology. She met her husband at the public library while they were studying. To this day she still maintains she was NOT checking him out. Now, over twenty years later they’re married living in a suburb right outside of Chicago with two awesome kids and a crazy dog.

  Despite going through a light FM, poem writing phase in high school, Jennifer never grew up wanting to be a writer (she had more practical aspirations of being an international super spy). Then one day, suffering from boredom and disgruntled with a book she’d been reading, she decided to put pen to paper. The rest, as they say, is history.

  These days Jennifer can be found sitting behind her computer writing her next novel, chasing after her kids, keeping an ever watchful eye on her ever growing to-do list, and NOT checking out her husband.