Hello, good people! Happy 2018! I have decided to share some of my short story collection right here on my website. Most of these stories are in Loving You Hurts So Good, which is available on Amazon.

I will post a chapter at a time. Hopefully, you guys enjoy reading the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them. Today, I’m posting Chapter One of “Best Friends.” It’s a contemporary romance/romantic comedy. I just think it’s really a cute story, and literally, I laughed out loud writing some of the parts. I totally fell in love with Ryan and Kat and their story.

Best Friends

Chapter One

“You drag me to dinner with you just to watch you mope around? Come on, Kat, you’re acting ridiculous.” Ryan watched her play with her food.

“Ryan, you don’t understand how serious this is. I have to go to this stupid retreat with my firm. There’s no way I can get out of it.”

“Can’t you just say you caught the flu at the last minute or something?” Ryan took another bite of his steak.

“No. You see, that’s what everybody is expecting. They think I’m going to back out. I just can’t give Jeff that kind of satisfaction.” Kat slammed her fork down onto her plate.

“Then go there looking hot and show him what a mistake he made. Show him you don’t even notice him.” He cut another piece of his steak and brought the fork to her mouth. “You’ve got to try this. It’s freakin’ delicious.”

Kat opened her mouth and accepted the tender meat. “Mmm, yes! That’s sooo good.”

“Told you! Here, if you don’t like your food, you want half of mine?”

“Nah, I’m too worried about next weekend to enjoy it. I’m sorry, Ryan. I’m a terrible company.”

“Yes, you are. You need to stop letting this loser make you feel like this. You guys have been broken up for over six months now.”

“I know! I know! This is definitely not me. But damn it, I have to see him at the office every day. And now that he’s got a new girlfriend, it’s just that much harder. He’s bringing her to the retreat, so I’ll have to watch him flaunt her around. Why me?”

“If you had started dating again, you could have brought your new boyfriend to the retreat and shoved it in his face.” Ryan’s eyes were dancing as he teased her.

“You know I’ve had a hard time moving on after Jeff. But yes, that would have been the perfect revenge. He dumped me after an entire year of dating. I’ve never dated anybody that long for God’s sake. And this is exactly the reason why I don’t.”

Ryan smirked. “You broke your own rule on this scum, Kat. Hope you learned your lesson.”

She rolled her eyes. “You think this is funny, don’t you?” She snatched his plate. “Give me this. I change my mind.”

As she began eating his food, all Ryan could do was laugh at his friend. He was happy to see her eating something. “So, what are you going to do?”

“I like your idea of bringing a boyfriend. But there’s no way I can find one by next weekend. I’m screwed.” She continued to devour the food. Suddenly, she stopped eating. “Wait a minute. I got an idea.”

“Oh, no. I don’t like the sound of that. One of your ideas usually means trouble.”

“Um, okay. Let me think. Remember when you told me you owed me big?”

“No, when did I say that? I think I remember you saying that to me.”

“Ryan, of course you’ve said that. You say it all the time to me.”

“You have a very selective memory, Kat. But okay, what do you want?”

“Just hear me out with an open mind, first, okay?” Ryan nodded hesitantly, worried what she was about to say. “I want you to come with me to the resort. You know, as my new boyfriend.”

Ryan laughed. He couldn’t help it. His friend was going nuts through the years. “I know you’ve lost your mind now.”

“Why not?” she whined.

“I’m not going to this boring retreat and pretend to be your boyfriend, Kat. It’s not going to happen.”

“Why not? I would do it for you.”

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“Yes, I would! If I knew you were desperate, I would do it. Why wouldn’t I do that for my best friend? Like best friends are supposed to be there for each other. Through thick and thin. And you said to go with a hot boyfriend. You’re the perfect hottie! Everywhere we go, the girls drool all over you.”

“It’s not going to work, so you might as well stop. Besides, everybody at your job knows me, including Jeff. And let’s not forget, I have a girlfriend.”

“It’s just for three days. Sarah doesn’t have to know. Just make something up. Or just tell her the truth if you’d like. As far as my work goes, I’ll just tell everybody we realized that we had feelings for one another all this time.”

“I would not tell Sarah anything, Kat. You really think she would support the idea? She’s already jealous of you.”

“Yeah, why does she hate me so much? How long have you been dating her? Two months now? Isn’t that your time limit with girls?”

Ryan couldn’t help but laugh. It completely sucked that Kat knew him so well. But he wasn’t tired of Sarah yet, and he certainly didn’t want to break up with her just to be a “pretend” boyfriend for Kat.

“What’s in it for me?” he finally asked.

“My company isn’t enough?”

“Nope, I can get that anytime. If I went along with this stupid idea of yours, I’d have to deal with your uptight colleagues for three whole days. If that’s not torture, I don’t know what is.”

“Fine, I’ll give you that. What do you want?”

Ryan rubbed his chin, narrowing his eyes. “Let me think about this. I’m going to make sure this is well worth it for me.”

“I’ll tell you what, Ryan. You don’t even have to tell me right now. You do this huge favor for me, and I’ll do whatever you ask of me.”

A sly smile began to form on Ryan’s face as his eyes danced in mischief. “I like the sound of that. Hope you know what you’re getting into.”

Okay, that’s Chapter One. I will post the second chapter next week. If you absolutely can’t wait and need to read this one and other stories, you can get Loving You Hurts So Good on Amazon. It’s also free on Kindle Unlimited. Just click here.