by T. K. Leigh
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One - Something About Today
Chapter Two - A Good Night Turned Bad
Chapter Three - Penance
Chapter Four - An Unexpected Surprise
Chapter Five - A Beautiful Sound
Chapter Six - Puzzle Pieces
Chapter Seven - Senseless
Chapter Eight - Falling In Like
Chapter Nine - Too Many Coincidences
Chapter Ten - Nepenthe
Chapter Eleven - High and Dry
Chapter Twelve - 28 Martinis
Chapter Thirteen - Not Yet
Chapter Fourteen - Number One Priority
Chapter Fifteen - Constant Butterflies
Chapter Sixteen - Ice Cream Grins
Chapter Seventeen - Hidden
Chapter Eighteen - No Good Deed
Chapter Nineteen - Gambling Therapy
Chapter Twenty - Helpless
Chapter Twenty-One - Self-Preservation
Chapter Twenty-Two - Let Love In
Chapter Twenty-Three - Something You Feel
Chapter Twenty-Four - Total Control
Chapter Twenty-Five - Paranoia
Chapter Twenty-Six - Olibia
Chapter Twenty-Seven - In Deep
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Something More
Chapter Twenty-Nine - The Olivia
Chapter Thirty - Memories
Chapter Thirty-One - Ready to Run
Chapter Thirty-Two - The Voice
Chapter Thirty-Three - Time to Go
Chapter Thirty-Four - The Right Thing
A Beautiful Mess Playlist
A Tragic Wreck Excerpt
Acknowledgements
About the Author
A Beautiful Mess
T.K. Leigh
A BEAUTIFUL MESS
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes. If you are reading this book and you have not purchased it or won it in an author/publisher contest, this book has been pirated. Please delete and support the author by purchasing the ebook from one of its many distributors.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or, if an actual place, are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Published by Tracy Kellam, 25852 McBean Parkway # 612, Santa Clarita, CA 91355
Edited by: Arianna Katherine
Cover Design: Cat Head Biscuit, Inc., Santa Clarita, CA
Female Cover Image Copyright Jose AS Reyes 2013
Used under license from Shutterstock.com
Background Cover Image Copyright Kibru Senbetta 2013
Author Photo Copyright Stanton Kellam 2013
Copyright © 2013 T. K. Leigh
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 0-9897406-0-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-9897406-0-9
To Stan… My always and forever…
CHAPTER ONE
SOMETHING ABOUT TODAY
ONE week. That’s all Olivia Adler could think about as she stood staring out the window of her office on the twentieth floor overlooking the Financial District of Boston. In exactly one week, her parents would have been dead for twenty-one years. Yes, twenty-one years seems like a long time. And it is. Twenty-one years is a long time to have no family.
As she was contemplating her shit life on that Friday in mid-August, she heard her cell phone buzzing on her desk.
Kiera: Where are you? It’s quarter after.
Olivia: Shit. Let me just put on some makeup and I’ll be right down. Sorry.
She groaned, wondering why she had agreed to go out with Kiera and a few of her co-workers that evening. Going out was the last thing she wanted to do. Most nights, she preferred to stay at home, snuggle on the couch with her cat, and drown herself in a bottle of wine.
Walking into the en-suite bathroom in her office at the posh wellness center she ran, Olivia checked her reflection. Her dark, curly hair was cooperating for once. Placing a bit of gel in her locks, she framed her pear-shaped face with loose ringlets, the rest of her hair cascading down the middle of the open back of her red silk halter-top.
She applied a hint of makeup, needing only a little eyeliner around her big brown eyes and some lip gloss. She rubbed lotion on her lengthy olive-toned legs and finished the look with a pair of black wedge sandals that made her even taller than her five-nine frame. She took one more glance at the mirror before grabbing her purse and running out of her office into a waiting elevator.
“Have a good night, Libby,” she heard as she ran past the security office in the lobby twenty floors below. Olivia stopped quickly to say goodnight to one of the building’s security guards.
“Good night, Jerry. I’ll be back later on before heading home for the evening.”
“Where ya heading now?” he asked with his eyebrows raised. Over the past several months that Olivia helped run the new wellness center, he had learned her routine. And that routine never consisted of going out after work.
“Out for a few drinks with the girls.”
A smile spread across Jerry’s face, happy to see that Olivia was going out for once. “Well, if it’s after ten, the main doors will be locked, so use your key card to get into the night entrance.”
“Thanks, Jerry. See you later on.” Olivia left through the big glass doors and walked outside to meet Kiera.
“Hey gorgeous,” she said as Olivia exited the tall, shimmering skyscraper.
“Hey gorgeous, yourself,” Olivia responded, smiling at her beautiful friend. Her light green tank top brought out the deep green of her eyes, which contrasted nicely with her vibrant red hair. Although she was shorter than Olivia by about six inches, only hitting five-three on a good day, her confidence made her seem so much taller.
Olivia had met Kiera during her freshman year at Boston College. She moved into the apartment across the hall in the building where Kiera had been living. Kiera was a few years older than Olivia and had been her rock for the past decade. She was the only family Olivia had left.
The two friends linked arms and walked the few short blocks to the bar. It was a beautiful evening in mid-August and the humidity that had been present earlier that afternoon had faded. The sun illuminated the tall buildings of the city Olivia had grown to love over the past decade, casting the sky a beautiful pink color. A slight breeze blew through the air and all was right in the world. Olivia actually looked forward to spending her Friday night with friends.
“I can’t get too fucked up tonight,” Olivia said to Kiera as they handed the doorman their IDs. “I want to try to get in a long run early tomorrow before the heat hits.”
“Yeah, sure. Whatever you say,” Kiera retorted. She didn’t try to downplay Olivia’s training schedule, but she was worried that her friend pushed herself too hard, not leaving anytime for her to enjoy life.
“I mean it. I’ve been slacking on my running lately. I have a marathon in two months and I’m trying to qualify for Boston.” The girls walked into the brightly lit bar, the sound of people laughing and having a good time filtering though. Olivia quickly scanned the huge room in order to locate her co-workers.
“You workout like all day long at work. You should take the weekend off.”
“That’s what Sundays are for. Anyway, I don’t workout all day. I teach a few group cla
sses during the week, but that’s really it,” she informed her darling friend as she spotted a few of the girls she worked with sitting by the windows overlooking the street. Olivia started in their direction.
MacFadden’s was a trendy bar in the Financial District of Boston that attracted many twenty- and thirty-somethings who worked in the vicinity. At six o’clock on a Friday night, the bar was packed with people grabbing a few drinks with their co-workers before heading home for the weekend.
It used to be a hole-in-the-wall Irish pub. A few years ago, the owner, Mac, came into some money and did a huge renovation project on the bar. There was gorgeous hardwood flooring throughout both levels, creating a homey feel. On the first level, the atmosphere was bright and airy. Instead of regular bar tables, there were posh couches with coffee tables. The glass windows out front ran floor-to-ceiling and on a beautiful night like that, they were wide open, letting the Boston air float through the bar. The second floor housed a rather large stage and a huge dance area. Every weekend, the bar was packed with people there to see whatever band Mac had booked, who had excellent taste in local talent.
“Hey! You made it,” Olivia’s co-worker, Bridget, shouted at her, obviously already a few drinks in. She was around Olivia’s age of twenty-seven, petite, with fair skin and dark hair and eyes. Like Olivia, she was not a Boston native, being born and raised in Chicago. She had come out to Boston for college and just never left. That seemed to happen quite a bit in this town.
“Yeah,” Olivia replied dryly.
“Thanks for dragging her out!” Bridget shouted at Kiera, giving her a hug.
“Hey, I saw Simon here. I think he was looking for you,” Melanie, her other co-worker, said as Kiera and Olivia sat down on the small velvet couch opposite Melanie and Bridget.
“Why would he be looking for me?” Olivia asked, her irritation showing. She really had no desire to see Simon that evening.
“Ummm, I might have mentioned you were meeting us here. He came over to say hi and all so I let him know you were probably going to be here.” Melanie looked at Olivia, who was rubbing her temples. “What? Did I do something wrong?” she asked innocently.
“No, Mel. It’s okay,” Olivia breathed. “I didn’t want to have to deal with this tonight,” she explained.
Olivia had met Simon while she was working at the wellness center. He worked construction for one of the companies that had been hired to design and construct a new studio room. He asked Olivia out for a drink the first day he was there. And every day for the next month. On the day that the studio room construction was finished, he asked one last time. Olivia reluctantly agreed.
“Why not?” Bridget asked, sounding surprised. “I thought you guys were dating.”
“Miss Olivia doesn’t date, remember? She has sex with guys while remaining hopelessly unattached,” Kiera explained, laughing as she eyed Olivia.
“Kiera!” Olivia shouted, playfully smacking her friend. “You make it sound like I’m a whore!”
“Oh, you’re not a whore. Far from it. You just refuse to be in a relationship. With anyone.”
Olivia glared at Kiera who knew her reasons for never getting involved with the opposite sex. “I don’t refuse anything. I just find relationships to be full of disappointment. Life is disappointing enough without the stress of a relationship.”
“So, what’s the deal with Simon now?” Melanie asked, trying to lighten the mood at the table.
“The sex has gotten to be way too boring. The first few times it was good, probably because I was drunk. But now, well, let’s just say, it does nothing for me. I haven’t come once. And the other night, he wanted to stay over.” Her face cringed at the thought of waking up next to Simon. Or anyone, for that matter.
“What’s the problem with that?” Melanie asked. Olivia had a great deal of affection for her friend. Melanie was younger than the rest of the girls, having just turned twenty-one a few months previously. She was tall, tan, and blonde - a college guys wet dream. Her personality was perfect for her job; she worked at the front desk of the wellness center. She was a total sweetheart and one of Olivia’s favorite employees, but sometimes she was naive.
“Oh, you don’t know Libby’s rules,” Kiera laughed.
“You have rules?” Bridget asked, trying to hide her shock. She had been working at the center with Olivia for the past month as a personal trainer and they had gotten to know each other fairly well, but the subject of Olivia’s sexual habits never came up before.
“Well, I don’t do the relationship thing,” Olivia explained. “But before I just get in the sack with anyone, I lay down the law. No sleeping over. I get my own space. I hang out with my friends. I have no desire to meet their friends. If they happen to meet mine, so be it. We only sleep with each other and we’re honest when we want to move on. I’m really just looking for someone to get me off a few times a week and that’s it. I don’t do relationships, like I said.”
“God, I wish I could be like that,” Melanie said with a dreamy look on her face.
“No you don’t, Mel,” Olivia replied quickly. She knew it wasn’t the healthiest form of relationship. She just hated getting too close to anyone. Once you did, they disappointed you one way or another. Or they would leave you and you’re stuck picking up the pieces of your shattered heart. So, don’t get close, and you don’t ever have to deal with the heartache, so Olivia thought.
“Fuck, I need a drink now. You’re too depressing,” Kiera laughed, looking for a server, scowling when there were none in sight.
“I’ll go grab a few drinks. What do you want?” Olivia asked, getting up from the table.
“The usual.”
“Okay. I’ll be right back. Anyone else need another drink?”
Melanie and Bridget shook their heads and she headed to the bar to get some drinks. There were quite a few people surrounding the bar, so she got in line to wait her turn to order when suddenly she felt two hands on her waist.
“Hey beautiful,” someone whispered into Olivia’s ear from behind. She turned around and saw Simon standing in back of her.
“Oh hi,” she replied coolly, exhibiting no enthusiasm for him. She turned back around, not wanting to miss her opportunity to place her much needed drink order.
“I like this top,” he said as he dragged a finger down the middle of her open back. “It’s hot.” She visibly cringed at the contact, but Simon failed to notice. “So’s the skirt,” he said, taking in her short black mini skirt. “You’ve got killer legs.”
“Thank you, Simon,” she replied over her shoulder. He was a good enough looking guy, his blond hair kept messy in a sexy kind of way that Olivia liked when they first started “seeing” each other. Although he was only a few inches taller than Olivia, she didn’t seem to mind. In a city like Boston, it was difficult to find guys over six feet tall.
Olivia sighed when Simon didn’t take the hint that she was not in the mood to talk. It was obvious he was drunk and Olivia assumed he had gone to the Sox game earlier, as he was in full Red Sox fandom gear and his breath reeked of cheap beer and hot dogs. Simon was a life-long Boston resident, complete with a thick Boston accent. Olivia didn’t think the accent would bother her when they first got together, but it had become difficult to find him attractive in the sack when he kept saying “harder, harder” in that Boston accent. Maybe that’s why she never came.
Olivia remained silent for several minutes, her irritation growing, while Simon caressed her back. She hated public displays of affection, but she let him touch her. It’s the least I could do because he knows I won’t let him stick his tongue down my throat in public, Olivia thought. Relationships were all about give and take, she had learned - even her fucked up version of relationships. He slipped his hands in through the side of her shirt and slowly made his way up to her breasts.
“Simon, no!” she shouted, turning her head around and elbowing him in the stomach.
“Oh, come on, baby,” he breathed onto Olivi
a’s neck as he pulled her toward him, her back to his front. She could feel the erection in his jeans. “I haven’t seen you since Monday. It’s killing me. Let’s get out of here.”
“I just got here.” Olivia pushed Simon away, ridding herself of his grasp. “I want to have a few drinks with the girls. I’ll find you in a little bit. I’m going to order my drinks now if you’re done groping me in public, you sicko,” she sneered.
“Okay, Livvy. Whatever.”
Olivia hated when he called her Livvy. It was Olivia or Libby. Certainly never Livvy. Well, at least not to him.
Simon walked away laughing, thinking she was joking. She wasn’t joking. Simon was disturbing. There was definitely something off about him, but she could not put her finger on it. Time to end it, Olivia decided. But first, some drinks. Simon could wait.
After finally placing her drink order, she made her way back to her table with four tequila shots in one hand and two beer bottles in the other; her years of working as a bartender helping her with the delicate balancing act.
“Oh hey. Our server came by while you were at the bar, so we ordered with her, too,” Kiera said.
“Good! There’s no such thing as too much liquor. I think tonight’s looking like a good night for some tequila. Who’s in and who’s out?” Olivia asked, sitting down and pointing to the tequila shots she had placed on the table. “There’s something about today that makes me want to be hungover tomorrow.”
“Let’s do it,” Melanie replied, laughing.
“Yup, although I know I’m going to regret this in the morning,” Bridget said, grabbing her tequila shot.
“Wait, where’s the lime and salt?” Kiera asked.
“That shit’s for pussies.” Olivia held up her shot glass. The girls followed suit. “Here’s to you. Here’s to me. Friends for life we’ll always be. If we should ever disagree, fuck you. Here’s to me.” The friends clinked glasses and gulped the shot back. The silver liquid burned as it went down Olivia’s throat. She felt the warmth in her stomach and immediately started to relax.