Where the hell had that thought come from?
8.Samir
Iclosed the book and almost threw it on the floor. Not that I would ever commit such sacrilege. But I was getting really frustrated.
It had been a week. A full freaking week since the hot dad by the name of Cole had walked into Books and Claws. And, apparently, he’d walked out of there with my brain along with his selection of picture books. Because I hadn’t stopped thinking of him all week.
No, no. Not just thinking of him. Watching for him. Waiting for him. Staring at the bell above the door, waiting for it to jingle and usher him in like my knight in shining armor.
So yeah. I’d lost it this past week. There was no denying that. Even the girls had noticed, and they were usually pretty into each other to notice my mood swings.
“What am I going to do?” I asked Grumpy, who glanced at me but quickly turned away and resumed his sleep, even grumpier now that I’d disturbed the warm quiet of the house with my voice.
I set the advance Hudson Bell copy down and picked up my phone.
I knew I had to do something when even a Hudson Bell enemies-to-lovers wasn’t helping me escape. Not that I knew where to start or how. Though I was pretty sure if the girls were here, they’d tell me I needed to get some and would force-download Cinderfella on my phone.
Since I didn’t want to include them in this self-pitying-slash-whatever-the-hell-this-obsession-was, I resorted to downloading it myself.
It had been a long while since I’d tried using it, but of course my incomplete profile greeted me back as soon as I tapped into the app, making me cringe with the kind of stuff I’d written before.
I held the X button until the silly quote about love was completely erased and read through the rest of my ramblings and settings. My head started pounding at all the questions I needed to answer, and just looking at the empty photo album gave me heart palpitations.
“I’m gonna need a drink for this,” I told Grumpy, but my comment went ignored.
As I approached the kitchen, a black furball zoomed past me and shot up the kitchen island, meowing up a storm at me.
“Really, Spooks? You’re begging for more food? You just ate, you little greedy guts!” I came up close to scratch under the black cat’s neck only to realize it was Salem. “Gosh, you two. Could you look any more similar? Don’t think I’ll be tricked. You’ve eaten too.”
Salem leaned into my touch and rubbed himself all over my hand, turning on the motor, and I had no choice but to pet him to his heart’s content. Even though it wasn’t going to make me give him any more food than he already had.
“Why can’t men be more like cats?” I asked Salem. “You guys seem to find me every other day.”
Even Salem looked at me weird at that comment, but thankfully the stare of judgment didn’t last long as Spooks jumped up the counter too, probably to demand his own share of affection and food, but Salem decided it was the right time to play-fight with his brother, so they ran off, chasing each other and yowling like the bastards they could be.
I put the kettle on, and once my tea was done, I returned to my sofa where Grumpy was still sleeping and resumed my Cinderfella stint.
When I reached the “looking for” section, I almost gagged at my own past crudeness and ticked off the Right Now option. My finger hovered over the relationship option, but did I really want to advertise I was on the market when I didn’t even know if I’d have the guts to go on a date?
“Fuck it,” I mumbled and ticked the See Where It Goes option, and lastly, uploaded a profile picture from a year ago. When I didn’t look so gray and tired.
It was a simple smiley photo. Not suggestive, nor too flashy. It should attract the right kind of guys.
Or at the very least provide some sort of distraction from this mental hold Cole had on me for no fucking reason.
Once I set my profile to active, I put the phone down, took a deep breath, sipped my apple cinnamon tea, and gave Grumpy’s ass a scratch. He looked at me with a face of total indignation, but he arched his butt back and purred at me.
“I know you love me, even if your face doesn’t show it,” I told him.
Bloop.
My phone screen lit up, and I put my tea down so I could check the notification that had popped up. Someone had messaged me on Cinderfella.
“Already?” I asked no one in particular, and I unlocked the phone to check the message.
Hornee4U: Hello handsome.
I almost smiled at the first message, but then another one immediately followed up.
