AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You have something against hot guys?”
“You know I don’t.” Calli turned away from her sister and continued straightening racks. Celibacy sucked. The toys she sold at Romance U were a sorry substitution for a flesh-and-blood partner. She’d happily trade their ability to go all night for a hit of hot manliness. If only it were that easy.
A reassuring arm folded around her shoulder. “Hey…I’d be with you the whole time. I promise not to leave you alone, not even for a second.”
Late-night clubbing with Caitlyn and her outgoing, fun-loving crew. The music, dancing and laughing would be fun, but it was just…impossible.
“Tell me all about the hot guys tomorrow. Take some pictures on your phone and text them to me.”
Caitlyn sighed, her lips drawing downward. “I’ll let you off the hook for now, but I’m not giving up on you. Not ever.”
“Even if I wasn’t the Wikipedia poster girl for fucked-up, I’d still be too busy to go out. It’s that time of year.” She waved off the incoming pity hug. “I’m fine.” Bullshit, and both of them knew it. “Go, have fun.”
The store in order a short time later, Calli double-checked the locks, turned out the lights, collected the day’s receipts and climbed the back stairs. Dancing of the four-legged variety was happening on the other side of the closed door. She opened it slowly, not wanting to send Prince Charming flying across the room.
“There’s my big boy.” She bent to scoop up all eight pounds of him. “I missed you too.” Bumping and grinding with hot men had nothing on cuddling with a Chihuahua that vibrated faster than the high-speed setting on her bullet. Right. Sure it didn’t.
By the time she’d finished with her spreadsheets and supper, the November sky was utter blackness. Her love for this time of year died with the closed sign. Business was fantastic, everything else made her want to curl up in a ball and rock until the sun returned. She shut out the night—and the nightlife of Belmont Village—with each snap of blinds in her little apartment.
She snuggled into the couch with her dog and her laptop. Not much had changed in the blogosphere since her last tea break. She logged into her game center and played all her moves within ten minutes. None of her book club buddies were online to return the favor—eventheyhad lives after sundown. Saturday night television sucked. She could read, but her latest batch of romance novels was in a pile by her bed. Too far away.
She drummed her purple nails on the side of the computer. “This takes pathetic and desperate to a new low.” She keyed in the address one of her Scrabble pals had forwarded.Online games for the friendly and the flirtatious, the website’s banner bragged. Ha. Online games for the homely and pathetic was probably closer to the truth. And she was one of them.
She set up a user ID and entered a bunch of profile information. A few clicks later, a list of open games popped up. Lots of animated avatars with big eyes and bigger boobs stared out from the screen. Ugh, lame. A dramatic black rose caught her attention, the perfect counter to her red rose avatar. Travis—male, thirty-two, single, heterosexual, located in Southern Ontario, it read. Heterosexual her ass. Not with a flower as his profile pic. No sexy guys for her, not even in cyberspace.
Whatever Travis might be like in real life, he was an aggressive Scrabble player. Calli respected that. Hell, it was kind of exciting, sad as that was. Halfway through their game he playedquartzfor one hundred forty-five points. She’d been playing Scrabble since the third grade, probably had thousands of games under her belt, but she’d never scored that high with a single word. The move was smokin’, whether he was or not.
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard. To chat, or not to chat. Might as well…she was here to be friendly and flirtatious, right? She rolled her eyes at the screen, typed her message in the chat pane and hit the send key with gusto.
C Ya:You’re kicking my ass.
A reply popped up immediately, one that made Calli choke on her root beer.
Travis:Want me to kiss it better?
His comment shouldn’t have come as a surprise. The site was for playing games of the social kind, not just the wordy kind. Truth was, she’d been hoping for something more exciting than triple-word scores and bingos. Now the dark rose, Travis, was inviting her to play a different kind of game. Her secret extroverted side jumped in.
C Ya:Maybe. Depends on what type of kisser you are.
His reply came immediately.
Travis:One who pays attention to the woman I’m kissing.
The number of guys Calli had kissed in her thirty-one years could be counted on her hands. None of those men could make that sort of boast. All the kissing she’d experienced belonged in one of three not-so-exciting categories—slobbery, dry as the Sahara, and look-out-here-comes-my-giant-tongue. Her dates had kissed a set of lips, not Calli the woman.
She sighed and hit send.
C Ya:Then you have a very lucky girlfriend.
Travis:Not currently. What I have are lonely lips. Help me out, pucker up.
Cute. Well, his humor was, anyway. Travis probably had a great personality and mutt-ugly looks, a diamond inside a lump of coal. Otherwise, why would he be hanging out online on a Saturday night? Playing Scrabble, no less. Since they were in cyberspace, though, all that mattered was the diamond part.
She typed in her message.
C Ya:Nice girls don’t kiss on the first game board.
Travis:That wasn’t exactly a no. Maybe you’re not so nice?
