FANTASY BOYFRIEND #2
By Vanessa Stone
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 Vanessa Stone
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Chapter 1
I still couldn't believe it, and to be quite honest with myself, I was bummed. After school, I had come back to the sorority house where Becky, Desiree, and Selena all clustered into the larger apartment, our "common area" for hanging out when we were all together. The other two bedrooms were just too small. I had told them exactly what happened and how Luke had reacted. I wasn't proud of feeling so let down because I was the first one who had always assured myself that I didn't need a man in my life, let alone one who could command my emotions. Nevertheless, Luke's behavior had really thrown me for a loop. I felt humiliated, pissed off, and most of all, hurt by his callous reaction.
"Guys are jerks," Becky commented, shaking her head.
The others nodded in agreement. I just couldn't understand it. "So, do you think all he was after was sex? And if so, why go to all that trouble? A fancy restaurant, a private room, why? He could've taken me to the movies or do a fast food restaurant, I didn't care," I said.
"There's no getting around the fact that guys can be pigs," Selena added to Becky's negative comments on men. "I can't tell you how many times I've been treated this way after giving a guy sex."
I looked at the girls, confused. "But you know me, I'm not even after sex. I'm not denying that it wasn't great, but I just don't get the attitude. He was so nice, so considerate," I said, then made a face. I sounded incredibly lame, even to myself.
"Don't beat yourself up over it," Desiree urged. "There's more than one fish in the sea, you know."
"That's not the point," I said. "It was a first date, for crying out loud! I wasn't putting any demands on the relationship. And to be quite honest, a guy with Luke's good looks certainly shouldn't have any trouble finding girls, but why me?"
"I reiterate, guys can be a pain the ass," Selena repeated.
She placed a comforting hand on my arm, but it didn't help. "Was I just another challenge, another conquest?" I shook my head. "Now I feel even more stupid. I certainly wasn't hard to get, was I? In fact, if it was a challenge he was looking for, I certainly didn't give him any resistance. God, what a fool I am." I fought back my utter disappointment in myself while at the same time struggling with my fury for Luke. "I feel like an idiot, especially when I know better. We've all been hurt, I know that, but I just wasn't expecting it from Luke… Then again, I didn't know what to expect. Still, I thought we had a great time, that we had made a connection. But the night just happened and the sex part was unplanned…at least, it was on my part. Maybe not from his perspective."
Selena stood. "Come on, you guys. Let's go someplace tonight and cheer ourselves up. Hopefully, we can meet some new guys."
The others agreed, but I wasn't so sure. I had already been bitten once, and I had no desire to go through this again. I had learned my lesson. No guy was going to have his way with me like that and expect me to do it again. I wasn't the type to meet a guy and sleep with him on the first date, and yet I had done just that with Luke. I had let down my barriers. I had been so stricken by the fact that someone as good-looking as him had picked me out of all the girls that he could've taken out. How foolish could one girl be? How could I have allowed myself to be so smitten? I knew. It was those damned tattoos.
Well, I knew better now, and although my sense of self-respect and self-esteem had been dented, I hadn't been hurt. Nevertheless, from now on I would be much more wary, as if I wasn't already cynical enough about guys at college. Great. This didn't bode well for finding that perfect guy I was looking for. I thought back to the wish list I had written in my diary and wondered if there was such a guy. Was I being foolish? Maybe I'd just be better off sticking to the heroes in my romance novels. I could live vicariously through my heroines and keep my image of a dream guy intact. No doubt about it, no breathing, flesh and blood guy in my world could possibly live up to one of the heroes in my books. Maybe that was just the point.
"Come on, let's go to the club," Becky urged.
I knew what club they were talking about – The Interim, a popular hangout for the campus crowd. I wasn't really interested or in the mood. I shook my head. "You guys go on, I'll just stay home tonight."
"Come on, Jessica, don't let him get you down," Desiree implored. "Don't let him have that kind of power over you. Yes, you feel embarrassed and put upon, not to mention hurt. We all understand how you feel." She glanced at the others, who nodded in agreement. "But if there's one thing we've all learned, it is not to let any guy have that kind of power over us. So come on, let's go grab a bite to eat and then we can go dancing or just hang out at the club for a while. It'll help take your mind off Luke."
"I'm afraid I wouldn't be very good company," I admitted. "It's not that I'm…yes, it is," I said abruptly. "I am feeling sorry for myself. I’m wallowing in my own pit of self-pity. And you know what, I'm getting angrier by the minute. I allowed myself to be taken advantage of. I let Luke's good looks and charisma sway me and I feel as stupid as a fly that allowed the spider to entice it into its trap. I got all caught up in him paying attention to me when there were so many other girls in the room, including you guys." I shook my head. “I should've known better." Desiree sat down on the bed next to me, her hand on my arm, her eyes wide with surprise.
"Jessica, what are you saying? You’re an attractive woman and you have a lot to offer any man." She glanced over her shoulder at the others, who once again nodded in agreement. "You're just as likely to capture a guy's attention as any other girl. Why do you have such a low sense of self-esteem?"
I shook my head, disagreeing. "I don't have a low sense of self-esteem, Desiree, but what I do have is a sense of reality. Oh, I know that I can be foolish sometimes, thinking that someday I'll find a guy that as good as the fictional characters I tend to fall in love with. I know the difference between fiction and reality, believe me." I thought about it for a moment, trying to find a way to explain to my girlfriends why I was thinking the way I did. "Maybe I'm just more cynical than you guys. Maybe I'm just more suspicious. To me, guys always seem to have an ulterior motive." I glanced meaningfully at all of them. "And Luke proved me right, didn't he? Of course, he could've gotten off with a cheaper evening by forgetting the sushi and opting for a movie."
"Jessica, it's not about-"
I interrupted Selena. "In fact, I have to admit that I probably would've allowed him his liberties even without that ride on his motorcycle or the sushi restaurant. I was undeniably attracted to Luke, and I felt thrilled and self-satisfied that he asked me to go out with him." I shook my head. "But that's exactly what I'm talking about. He wined and dined me, so to speak. He even seduced me right there in the sushi restaurant. And you know what? I fell for it – lock, stock, and barrel. I should've known. I should've listened to my instincts, but instead, I allowed myself to be entrapped in his web of charisma, looks, and the way
he wooed me."
"Wooed you?" Selena asked, frowning, emphasizing the word. "Seriously?"
I made a face. "Okay, maybe not wooed, but he seduced me. He didn't woo me, he didn't court me, and he didn't-"
"Honey, that's not what I meant," Selena said. "But seriously, what were you expecting? Where did you expect this to go?"
I stared at her a moment, surprised. "Look, I know you guys have more experience with dating and in the sex department, but did I think that he was going to have sex with me on our first date? No! I mean, who does that?" I was surprised when the girls exchanged yet another glance. Becky smirked and Selena flashing her teeth in a broad smile. "Okay, I get it. But I'm not like you guys. I'm not even that interested in sex-"
"How can you not be interested in sex?" Becky asked.
"Well, for one, I haven't had sex that often," I began. "And second, my limited experiences with it were less than stellar. To be honest, I could live without it-"
"If you have the right partner, like you obviously did with Luke, you'll find that sex can be fun, and it doesn't have to have any strings attached. As long as you're protected…" she lifted an eyebrow in question.
"Yes, I'm protected," I sighed.
"Then what's the big deal?" she replied. "You enjoyed the sex, didn't you?"
"Well, yes, but-"
"No ifs, ands, or buts," she said. "You enjoyed the sex, you're protected, and other than the way Luke has behaved since then, you had a nice time. Leave it at that and don't dwell on it, okay? We've all been hurt in some way by guys. But Selena and Desiree are right. None of us should ever give a guy the power to make us feel ashamed, embarrassed, or foolish.” She paused and looked at each of them in turn. “Now are we going out or what?"
After several more minutes of back-and-forth, cajoling, refusing, and then outright begging, I finally acquiesced and told the girls that I would accompany them. However, I warned them that I didn't want to stay late, I didn't want to meet any guys, and I was certainly not interested in getting drunk. They smiled at me, agreed, and then we all grabbed our purses and headed out the door. We hailed a cab not far from the sorority house and made our way deeper into Boston proper. We would go grab a bite to eat at one of the restaurants downtown and then head over to the club.
Chapter 2
I should've known better. Seriously, I should've known better and listened to my gut. Every time I allowed myself to be talked into something that I didn't truly want to do, I ended up paying for it, and tonight was turning out to be no different. The girls and I had taken a cab to a restaurant near the club we would be visiting later. The restaurant was fairly popular with campus students, as well as professors. It was nice, but not too expensive. The food was good, it offered plentiful seating, and to be quite honest, the atmosphere was quite enticing. It wasn't a romantic restaurant in the terms of darkened interiors and candles on the tables, but it wasn't exactly a Denny's either. It was somewhere in between.
The girls and I had been seated at a corner booth in the front corner of the restaurant. A solid wall on one side and windows on the other, each lined with booths. Tables were scattered throughout the interior, and at the far end stood a bar, over which hung three television screens, all showing a different sport. I sat with my back to the wall, but facing a smaller section of the restaurant that wasn’t very busy. Selena sat to my left, while Desiree and Becky were seated to my right, each of us with plenty of elbow room. Their positions blocked me from other diners, which was just fine with me. I wasn't at all fond of having people watch me eat.
I hadn’t been paying too much attention about what was going on around me, turned inward and stoking my self-absorbed and self-induced pity party. The server arrived at the table bearing a tray of water glasses, which she set down in front of each of us. Another server approached immediately behind her and handed each of us a menu. After introducing herself and telling us the specials for the evening, she said she'd give us a few minutes and then be back to take orders.
"I was going order a drink," Becky commented, opening her menu. "She must be new."
Selena glanced up from her menu and gazed around the restaurant. "Maybe they're just busier than usual or else she forgot.”
"Whatever," Becky said with a shrug. “Maybe I'll just wait until we get to the club, anyway."
We all spent a few moments perusing the menu. It was a good menu, and I'd been here before. I just wasn't that hungry tonight. Something light was definitely in order. I gazed at the selection of appetizers and then the soups and salads.
"Ohhh, the shrimp scampi looks good," Selena commented. She looked up at the others. "What are you thinking of getting?"
"I was thinking of getting the blackened salmon," Becky said.
"Pork tenderloin for me," Desiree commented.
"Not sure yet," I said. "Maybe just a bowl of minestrone soup." The girls glanced up, and Selena gave me a look and sighed.
"The point of going out tonight is to have a little bit of fun, forget our woes, and enjoy ourselves. You need to get something besides a bowl of soup!"
I glanced at her, smiled, and then looked back at the menu. "Okay, I’ll add a side of garlic bread to it." The others sitting around the table snickered and I offered a laugh. No sense in being a Debbie Downer. I was just about to start looking at the other options on the menu when Selena uttered a gasp.
"Uh-oh," she said.
All three of us glanced at her at the same time. "What?" I asked. "You change your mind already?"
She glanced at me, her eyes wide, and then cast a quick glance to the others. "Nobody turn around, and that most especially applies to you, Jessica," she warned.
We all froze and I stared at Selena. "Why? What's the matter?"
"Don't look now, but I think I see Luke sitting at the other side of the restaurant, over at the bar."
My heart gave a jolt of...alarm? Hesitance? Excitement? I wasn't quite sure and I wasn't about to try and analyze it right now. All I knew was that I sat frozen, as did each of us, which was quite remarkable, considering. Anytime someone was told not to look, their first reaction was to, of course, look. However, there was one thing I could say about my girlfriends: we were all incredibly self-disciplined. "Where?" I asked, forcing myself to keep my eyes focused on Selena. She gestured slightly with her chin toward the opposite corner of the restaurant.
"On the far side, near the corner of the bar. I can just see the back of his head, but for a second, I caught his profile."
"Is he alone?" Becky asked.
"I can't tell," Selena admitted. “I can only see a part of the table where he's sitting and either the back of his head or his profile."
Just then, a ripple of laughter came from the other side of the restaurant, and I wondered.
"That was him," Selena hissed. "He's laughing."
I felt a surge of resentment. How dare he be having a good time when I was sitting over here miserable and wallowing in self-pity? I forced myself to shrug as if I didn't care where he was, who he was with, or what he was doing. Casually, however, I did take a quick glance in that direction and briefly saw a bit of his profile, probably less than Selena had, but enough to make me feel a renewed sense of disappointment.
"I can go over and snoop," Becky said, sitting on the edge of the booth. "After all, the bathrooms are over there."
"No!" I said. "He'll recognize you!"
"No, he won't," Becky disagreed. "I don't even think we bumped into each other the other night at the party." She placed her menu down on the table. "I'm going to go to the bathroom. If the waitress comes back, order me the blackened salmon, okay?"
Before anyone could reply, she rose from the table and began walking casually toward the restrooms. I held my breath in anticipation, clutching the menu tightly between my hands. Did I want him to see me here? Absolutely not. At the same time, I was struck with an insatiable sense of curiosity. What was he doing here? Was he out with his friends? And again, why did he seem to be ha
ving a good time when I was sitting here so miserable? It seems so unfair, so callous, so-
"Are you okay?" Selena asked.
She nudged my arm gently, and I quickly nodded. I kept my head down, not that Luke would see me. In fact, in order for him to see me, he would have to literally turn around in his chair, but that was unlikely. Still, I tried to keep my face and averted from that side of the restaurant. "Do you see anything?"
Selena glanced over in that direction, still holding the menu in front of her. "No, all I see now is the back of his head."
The server had not come back to take our order, so I waited impatiently for Becky to return. I continue to pretend like I was studying the menu when Selena finally spoke up.
"Becky's coming back."
Moments later, Becky slid back to her seat. I glanced at her in curiosity and noticed she wore a frown. "Well?" She didn't pick up her menu, but took a sip of water and then looked at all of us in turn.
"I think we better go someplace else."
Now it was my turn to frown. "Why?"
Becky sighed. "It looks bad," she admitted.
"Why?" I asked again.
"He's with a girl," Becky shrugged. "Come on, you guys, let's get out of here. The service is lousy, anyway."
My heart thudded dully in my chest. I followed the girls as we scrambled out of the booth. As we made our way toward the front door of the restaurant, I was able to get a better view of the table where Luke sat, his back still to me and the front door. Just over his shoulder, sitting at the opposite end of the small square table sat one of the most gorgeous women I’d ever seen. She had incredibly black hair, long and silky. It moved like a wave every time she moved her head, which at the moment was tilted to the side, a sexy smile turning up the corners of lips that would have done Angelina Jolie proud. Luke obviously said something to her because she smiled broadly, incredibly white teeth flashing as she leaned forward in her chair, offering him more than glimpse of her ample breasts, pushed upward by her tight bodice. Even from where I stood, and even though the back of his head faced me, I could almost feel his gaze riveted on her cleavage. Like the woman, he leaned slightly forward, this time his fingers tracing the contours of her forearm.
Fantasy Boyfriend #2 (A Tattooed Bad Boy Romance) Page 1