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A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
I would like to take a moment to thank you for reading Sold to the Sultan. I truly hope you enjoyed it. If you did, I would like to kindly ask you to write a review on the book’s page to share the love! I would truly mean a lot to me, as reviews are very important in helping authors gain the visibility that ultimately allows me to keep writing the kinds of books you love reading!
Actually, if you enjoyed this book, feel free to browse my complete Amazon Book Catalog HERE. I realize it isn’t very big yet, but I am working hard to change that every day!
A Ride to Remember
A Grimm Boys Motorcycle Club Romance
Volume Two
(Volume one can be found as a bonus book in Bought by Him: The Breslyn Auction Club)
PENNY WINESTONE
CHAPTER ONE
The crisp morning air bites at Alyssa as she sips her morning latte, quickly slipping through the doors into the warmer air of her fashion boutique. It’s not yet 10:30, the time she opens the store, so she groggily walks up to the counter, carefully checking over the displays to make sure they look okay and to get an idea of what needs to be rearranged.
Ugh. I’m so glad I don’t have to do this earlier, she thinks as she takes another sip of her latte. I’ve never been a morning person, and this would be soo much more difficult if I had to be up earlier. So glad I set my own hours. Alyssa sets her latte down on the counter as she takes off her coat and straightens out her clothing.
In the mornings before the store opens, Alyssa likes to walk through and make sure everything is where it’s supposed to be. First, she slips into the back to make sure that everything has been cleaned up from the night before. The re-stock shipments are still boxed up, neatly organized and ready to be sent out today after the store closes. Alyssa checks and notices that the new arrivals aren’t in the back, so she must have already hung them up on the rack specified for the new arrivals out on the floor. She makes a mental note to make sure they are where they are supposed to be. She knows they’ve already been photographed with the mannequins and the pictures are ready to be flaunted on social media. Alyssa remembers having already put the files on the computer before closing up last night.
Next on the list is to check the mannequins and the racks at the front of the shop. Alyssa walks out from the back and takes another sip of her latte before she makes her way to the floor. The first thing she checks is the rack labeled “New Arrivals” and just as she had thought, they were already hanging up on display.
I’m so good, Alyssa reminds herself. Next, she looks over each rack to make sure everything is in its proper place. As she continues looking over each rack, she makes sure all of the same designs are together and there aren’t any articles misplaced.
It bothers the hell out of me when people are too stinking lazy to put something back where they got it. Instead they just throw it wherever. This boutique isn’t even that big!
After moving some little black dresses from the floor length gowns, Alyssa gives her floor final approval.
The last step in Alyssa’s morning routine is to make sure that everything is priced correctly. No pricing labels on the racks have fallen off and everything that is on sale has been moved to the proper section. As Alyssa goes through her store one last time, she gathers up all the clothing that she has had a hard time selling lately and with two arms full of clothing, she hustles over to the on-sale rack. Then, she organizes the items into the racks of 10% off and 15% off. Finally, she grabs her stickers and puts a colored dot on each one respectively so that it can be rung up correctly at the register.
Alyssa makes her way back behind her counter and sets herself down on her raised chair and turns on the power to her computer. People may be lazy… but I do love owning my own store. The poor saps around the block and throughout this city haven’t done as well as I have- who am I kidding? They all closed down and I’m doing pretty well, but of course I am, I’ve got the best stuff in town. Plus everyone likes seeing clothing in real sizes, I’m a big girl, I sell big girl clothes. Sure, the skinny ladies get theirs too, but there’s finally a store that’s real, and it’s my store, she thinks as she watches the screen light up and her store logo appear as the background image on her desktop. There is definitely something satisfying about seeing your own logo and knowing you’re still doing well for yourself.
“Might as well post some pictures. Got all these new arrivals to show off.” she says as she motions to everything hanging on the “New Arrival” rack, then she clicks away on the computer. She has her store’s social media page up and as she’s working on getting her pictures uploaded, she notices a post by one of her long-time friends, Jewel. Jewel ran off to be with the rockstar of her dreams named Ash. I haven’t seen her in forever, since that weekend we went to the two Seven Raven concerts. We had such a good time, and to think I had to convince her to stay with Ash, Ha. The first picture is of her and Ash somewhere in New York, the caption says that it was right before one of their gigs a few nights ago. Further in the update is a post that mentions that Ash proposed to her and she loves the ring because it’s the biggest rock that she’s ever seen. Alyssa smiles as she reads it. It had better be a giant rock! And good for you Jewel. I’m glad you’ve got Ash, but as she’s thinking about it she remembers Vincent and sighs.
Alyssa runs her hand through her hair as she begins to click on other pictures from Jewel’s trip. First Alyssa sifts through the pictures of their time spent traveling, she sees all the big iconic places that Jewel always talked about going to and she smiles. I’m glad you’re happy, girl. Some of the pictures are truly beautiful, the beach at sunset, historical monuments, and pictures of iconic buildings.
There are a few pictures of normal stuff, like Jewel and Ash posing and kissing, but then the pictures start to show more of the band. Don’t go through these… Alyssa warns herself. She finds it irresistible to not keep clicking through the pics. The first few aren’t bad, and don’t draw much of her attention until she notices a picture of Jewel. This one is a wide shot of her in the dressing room with the band in the background. God, I miss you Jewel. I wish we had stayed in more contact… I get it. You found the man of your dreams and you couldn’t turn down an opportunity like going on tour with the band, but damn girl. It was supposed to be the two of us… But, Ash really loves you, huh? He seems to… Alyssa thinks, but as she goes on she becomes more and more jealous. Jewel had wanted to quit musicians, it should have been Alyssa who found true love first, not the quitter.
In the next moment, Alyssa’s thoughts are paused as she notices that amongst the band, Vincent is in the background. He’s sitting on a couch and he has four young, smoking-hot groupies all over him. He doesn’t have a shirt on and they’re feeling on his chest and he’s got his arms wrapped around them. Alyssa almost spits out her coffee. Instead she roughly begins to choke it down. Her Vincent is no longer her Vincent and that causes Alyssa bite her tongue and swallow her emotions. Ash and Jewel should have been Vincent and Alyssa, she thinks with a scowl on her face. Vince was the guy she hooked up with when Jewel was getting together with Ash during the concerts. Her and Vince were together the whole time, they had an amazing time together, but they parted ways without a word.
CHAPTER TWO
At 10:30 am, an alarm goes off on Alyssa’s phone to remind her to open up the store. She walks over and unlocks the door for the few customers who are already waiting for it to open. Once she gets back to her computer, she pulls up her usual rock station to play throughout the store. She hears the host say the next song is from Seven Ravens. He says it’s a song from their new album and that they are really starting to break it into the big time. Then, the store is filled with music. Gotta kick me while I’m down, she complains as she makes her way from behind the counter.
The first customer is a mom by herself who wants to know where the prom dresses are. Alyssa tak
es the time to help her out by showing her the dresses and explaining the fashion trends for prom this year. Then she helps the next person who comes in, a guy shopping for himself who just wants to look at some of the dress shirts. After she helps them she returns to the counter and rings them up.
It’s only morning and she’s already made five sales. Maybe it won’t be such a bad day after-all, the store is doing well already this morning. A few more customers mosey through the store but only one more person makes a purchase, she buys an extravagant dress, a bunch of accessories, a blouse and a cardigan.
At the next door chime Alyssa looks up from her phone to see her friend Layla come in. “Hey! What are you doing here girl?” Alyssa glances at the clock, “Coming to see me before your shift?” she asks.
“You know it. I work right across the street; I might as well come over before I start my lunch shift. You know, get myself acclimated to people before dealing with a crap-ton of them that I don’t like. I have to have my dose of Alyssa in case they don’t tip well.” Layla laughs as she comes in and sits down on a spare chair behind the counter. “How are sales going today? Doing well? It seems pretty empty right now.”
“Well, despite it being empty right now, the sales have actually been going really well today.” After clicking a few things on the computer. Alyssa continues, “Have you heard about Jewel?”
“Yeah! Ash proposed, didn’t he? Good for her. Did you see her in that dress though, the day before he proposed? Gosh. He must have waited because he didn’t want the pictures of their engagement to be ruined by that outfit.” Layla burst into laughter at her own statement.
Alyssa chuckled, “It wasn’t her best outfit choice, I’ll admit that. I miss her though. It sucks not having her around.”
“Well, you won’t have to miss her for much longer-“ Layla’s statement is cut short as she notices a customer approach the register. Alyssa gives her a look as if to mean it’ll only take a second.
The customer at the register seems confused, and before putting his items on the counter to be rung up, he asks a ton of questions about the principles of matching clothing together and whether or not he could wear the things he picked out. Alyssa does her best to respond to him, letting him know that he could indeed pull the look off and she gives a few suggestions about what else he could wear his pieces with. After a few more nods and some slight hesitation he puts the clothes on the counter. Alyssa gives him his total, asks him to swipe his card, and bids him farewell.
Alyssa turns her attention back to the conversation, “Anyway, what were you saying?”
“Oh, um. I was saying that you won’t have to miss Jewel much longer. She told me that the band is coming back into town. Apparently they have a show next week.”
“Are you serious?!” Alyssa asks and she tries quiet the last word as the door chimes signaling someone has entered the store. Jewel can’t even talk to me, tell me, let me know? I’m the whole reason she got with that band and now she’savoiding me like the damn plague. What gives?
“Hey. Hey, calm down. It’s okay.” Layla doesn’t get to say anything more before Alyssa puts a finger in the air for her to pause.
“Do you need help with anything?” Alyssa projects her voice to the customer while leaving it in a servicing tone. Layla is clearly impressed that Alyssa didn’t have to grit her teeth to ask.
“Oh. Uh, no. No. Thanks though.” The customer replies as the exit door opens and closes behind them.
“People are weird…” Layla remarks. “Anyways, try not to be so mad at her, she wanted to talk to you first. She knows how much you liked Vincent when you guys first met the band, so she didn’t want to seem like she was rubbing her happiness in your face. Especially considering her and Ash have hooked up.”
Alyssa doesn’t respond. Instead she crosses her arms and shakes her head.
“Hey” Layla says again as she puts her hand on Alyssa’s arm, “Think about how bad it would look for her to come back here throwing around her happiness. She was doing it for you. She wants to talk to you too.”
“Fine.” Alyssa says in response.
“Hey, sorry chick-a-dee, but I’ve got to go clock in. I’ll see you later. Mwah.” Layla says as she jumps from her chair to walk to the door.
“See you later, I hope you get a ton of tips!”
I’m really glad I have Layla.
With the store now empty Alyssa stares at her computer screen and mulls over the conversation she just had with Layla. She doesn’t get to stay too lost in thought as customers come and go from the store. She makes quite a few more sales over the course of the next few hours, and when it’s finally her lunch break, she locks up the store and heads to the back room. From there she looks at her phone and dials Jewel. There is no response, instead the voicemail beeps to let Alyssa know she can record her message.
“Hey girl. Haven’t talked to you in a while. I saw that you got engaged, that’s pretty awesome. I’m happy for you, and I do miss you. And hey, don’t worry about me, all right? It’s okay. I know you were worried about how I’d take it, but we’re friends and that hasn’t changed. So, I’ll talk to you later I guess. Love you. Bye.”
At the end of Alyssa’s lunch break, right before she’s ready to open the store again her phone alerts her to a new text message. It’s Jewel.
Jewel: “Hey girl! I’m so happy to hear from you! It’s been a long time. I’ll be back in town tonight, are you doing anything? We should meet for drinks.”
When Alyssa looks at the message she smiles, and nods. Yeah. Yeah we should. That’d be real nice. We’ll finally have a chance to catch up. Goodness, that girl. Alyssa thinks to herself as she walks to the front of the store to unlock the door. Again there are a few customers waiting outside for the lunch hour to be over so they can shop.
“Thanks for waiting.” Alyssa says as she opens the door and greets the customers.
Alyssa makes her way back to the counter and sits down. The music is still playing and another Seven Raven song comes on. This time she doesn’t let herself think about Vincent and instead thinks about how she’ll get to see her friend soon. I know that I should be more excited for her, but I can’t help but miss Vince. I know she isn’t rubbing that in my face, but damn it, Vince should have brought me along too. Though I guess we had agreed to just see each other at the next show… I’m so damn stupid.
The rest of Alyssa’s work goes smoothly. She makes quite a few more sales, and every one of her new arrivals has been bought at least once They are probably the most popular things selling out today. At the end of the day, Alyssa begins to feel excited about meeting up with Jewel.
CHAPTER THREE
The bar sits between two barbeque joints, the same place that Alyssa and Jewel often frequented before she left. It has a weird western-style architecture and the inside is designed just like an old-time saloon. Entering the bar, a sense of relief washes over Alyssa. Every time she has passed by this bar while driving around the city, a lump formed in her throat. It always reminded her how much she missed her friend. Now, walking into it, she finally gets to see Jewel again.
Jewel is already sitting in the middle of the bar with a beer in her hand. She’s gotten a haircut and is looking quite good. She’s in a dark green blouse and black pants. Alyssa walks up behind her and taps her on the shoulder, “Hey my girl! Long time no see.” She says as Jewel turns around and instantly gives her a hug.
“I can’t believe how long it’s been. I’m sorry I let so much time pass! When I heard the band was finally returning here I was thrilled to see you again. How’s the store going?” Jewel enquires.
“It’s going pretty well, actually. A few more boutiques closed down, but I’m still going strong. Today was a good day in sales too. I got a shipment of some new clothes and they were a hit. I’ll have to order some more soon because the new arrivals section is going to be empty pretty quickly if they keep selling like they did today. I just posted them online this morning, too, so mor
e people will definitely come in looking for ‘em. Plus, the clothes that I put on sale today cleared out. There is only a handful of them left. So, I was finally able to get rid of stuff no one had bought in a long while.”
“That’s great. I’m glad things are going well for you, especially with the boutique. I was getting a little worried because I heard that a few of them closed down around here. I guess that’s just more people to come to your store instead of the others, right? You’re killing the competition.” Jewel chuckled.
“Yeah. Maybe, although lots of those shops died because they couldn’t attract enough customers. I wasn’t directly involved, gotta claim my innocence. But, enough about the boutique. How’s life on the road? Is it what you always dreamed that it would be?” Alyssa asks as she orders a martini from the bartender. She already notices that she’s being checked out by a few of the guys sitting around. I can’t believe it’s already like there wasn’t any tension in the first place. Guess this is the best kind of friendship to have.
Jewel picks up on it, too. “Oo, look at those guys. They want to take you home. I bet we could set you up with one if you wanted.” Jewel teases as she pokes Alyssa the way Alyssa always did it to her before she left. “Well, it’s just one place after another. We’re always on the road, we never really get a chance to stop and breathe. There are tons of parties, and that’s always fun. It’s really tiring, but I mean… it really is the life I’ve always wanted.” Jewel orders a second beer, “It wouldn’t be easy without Ash, we’ve been together every moment and I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but it’s really love now. It started out as just sex, I admit, but now things are different.”
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