Page 5 of Picture Perfect Love

Abby

Ithought it would be easy enough to go back to work and forget all about the invite from the infamous Joshua Meadows. Sure, there was something about it that was a little bit like a fairytale. I mean, I had seen all the photos in the internet gossip with the kinds of women he usually hung out with. They weren’t cocktail waitresses, that’s for sure. And even though that’s not all I am, his kind of women weren’t lawyers either. My hair color was nowhere near blonde, and I was at least a cup size or two too small in the chest.

I knew all of that, but I could feel him watching me from the other side of the room. The awareness that surged through my body with his eyes locked on me… It was like a beacon, begging and tempting me to do things I would never normally do, like take him up on his offer.

I retreated into the kitchen where I was safe from the reminder of him and breathed a temporary sigh of relief as I grabbed refilled trays to walk around the room. Unfortunately, everyone had seen us talking, and they all noticed how we were looking at each other.

“Oooh, girl. I know you’re drop-dead gorgeous and used to standing out in a room and all, but catching the eye of Joshua Meadows like that? Damn,” my co-worker Valerie gushed.

“Used to standing out in a room?” I laughed. “Hardly. I’m just as surprised as you are.”

“Don’t try to act all modest. So, what’s he want with you anyway? Did you get his number?”

We huddled together behind the swinging kitchen doors and spied on him stalking the other side of the ballroom, watching carefully for me to return to the floor.

“He wants me to play hookie tonight,” I whispered. “Ditch my shift and go have drinks with him.”

“Figures,” she huffed. “Some rich spoiled guy like that would expect you just to be able to drop everything like that. People like that don’t understand the concept of having bills you gotta pay, and they ain’t gonna pay themselves. You have to work.”

“Actually… he offered to double whatever I’d make tonight.”

Her eyes widened. “Then what the hell are you still doing here!? Hell, I’d go anywhere with that man for free if I could.”

I locked my eyes on him standing there, sipping his drink, looking so fine in his tux with his dark hair and devilish brown eyes.

“He’s trouble, and you know it,” I told her, shaking my head.

“Maybe so, but how often do you go out and get yourself into trouble? He sure as hell has to be a lot more fun than that other lame-o you’ve been seeing.”

“Christopher is a doctor,” I reminded her. “He’s busy like me, and doesn’t have time to be caught table dancing at bars with a bunch of floozies, wasted like there’s no tomorrow. That’s the kind of guy I belong with. Not someone like Joshua Meadows.”

“Who said anything about belonging with him!?” she cackled. “The point is to go and have a little fun for one night. How often do you do that? Like the kind of fun he could provide I mean.”

“You girls gonna stand around and chat all night?” our boss barked from the back of the kitchen. “I’m not paying you for that. Now get back to work or get out!”

We flashed each other a smile and scurried off to go back to work. The moment I stepped back out into the ballroom, Joshua’s eyes stuck to me with a heat wave that prickled across my whole body.

I was a part-time waitress, but I was also studying law. I had plenty of hobbies and friends. Between yoga and fitness, social time, law classes, and my waitressing gigs, I had to be very disciplined and stick to strict schedules and routines to have time for everything.

I could tell Joshua was nothing like that, and I knew I should also stay away because I really liked Christopher. Well, sort of. He was a little dull, but that was the only kind of guy who seemed to fit into my life. It wasn’t exactly serious. In fact, after our first few dates, I had still somehow forgotten to actually exchange numbers with him. So far our communication, other than meeting in person, hadn’t branched outside of messaging on the Heartstring app. Was that a sign in itself?

No, I told myself. Christopher was handsome, successful, and responsible. And I firmly believed in breaking things off with one person before messing around with another. But then again… Surely this one night with Joshua wouldn’t actually go anywhere. He was just looking to have a little fun with me, and he was a notorious playboy. No one would ever have to know, and I never did anything like that.

Throw in an especially hectic next twenty minutes of my shift, complete with one old rich guy attempting to grab my butt and another old snooty lady yelling at me because an appetizer wasn’t the perfect temperature… I was having a harder time talking myself out of Joshua’s offer.

Maybe that was why I conveniently started circling my tray around his side of the room, tempting him to come over and give me just one more little push… That was all I needed to throw all my reservations to the wind and go running off with him into the night.

And it worked. He took the bait. Within minutes, he had approached me again with that devastatingly charming smile of his.

“You slipped away before without telling me one very important thing,” he grinned.

“What? My answer to your proposal?”

“Okay, two very important things. But the first I was referring to was your name.”

I looked into his eyes and there was this strange still sort of moment where everything seemed to slow down around us. I had this feeling that, for better or worse, I’d have a night of memories with him… Ones that didn’t involve cocktail sauce stains on my shirt or lousy tips from people who had more money than God.

“Abby,” I told him with a smile.

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