A taste of my writing...

                                                              CHAPTER ONE

     Her life sucked.

     Well, maybe not her entire life. Just her love life. At this rate, she was never going to experience the big 'O'.

     "Another one bite the dust?"

     Angelina Rossi closed the drawer she had just dumped the framed picture of her now ex into and looked up from her desk. Cindy, her friend and co-worker at Sunset Travel, stood at the opening of the travel brochure plastered cubicle, shaking her head.

     "Don't say it."

     Cindy gave a tsk-tsk as she settled into the chair across from her. "I don't think I have to. You already know that you're running out of men in Pittsburgh to date."

     "I haven't dated that many men."

     "Maybe not, but you go through relationships at warp speed. So what happened with Rick? Not that he's any real loss."

     Rick was the nephew of Sunset Travel's owner and worked in group tours. He had been persistent enough in his pursuit of her that Angie had given in, breaking her own rule number two. Never date a co-worker.

     "We called it quits."

     "We?"

     Angie sighed. "Okay, he called it quits."

     "Let me guess," Cindy began as she reached out to straighten the travel insurance pamphlets on the corner of Angie's desk. "You wouldn't sleep with him."

     "I tried."

     Her friend arched a questioning brow. "Dry well syndrome? There are fixes for that, you know."

     "He never made it to the well." Angie fidgeted with the papers on her desk, her cheeks feeling like they had just popped out of a toaster. "Looks like the 'Office Ice Princess' strikes again."

     That was her new office nickname, no doubt started by her most recent ex. Unfortunately, the taunting moniker fit her to a tee.

     Angie groaned. "I don't know what's wrong with me. It's like I'm a man anti-magnet when it comes to sex."

     "Look at you," her friend pointed out. "What man wouldn't go for those dark, exotic eyes? Let's see, long hair, guys go nutso over that. And let's not forget your boobs. The kind girls like me had to pay big bucks to have, only you got them for free. Okay, now I want to smack you."

     Cindy was almost a hundred percent store bought from her 38DD's to her fake nails, colored contacts, and porcelain veneers. Even her butt had been surgically altered if the office rumors were true. She was a walking Barbie. She had no reason to be jealous of any woman, especially her.

     "Let's face it," Angie said, "I'm twenty-six-years-old and a total failure in the sex goddess department. I meet a guy. We go out, hit it off. Then comes the big relationship killer for me. Sex."

     Suddenly Cindy looked as thought a light had just gone on inside her head. "You're a virgin?"

     Angie laughed. "No, but I might as well be. It's been so long since I've gone all the way a guy would have to fight his way through cobwebs to get the deed done."

     Her friend studied her for a long moment, then said, "Did you ever think that maybe you're holding out on having sex again because you just haven't found the right guy yet?"

     That's exactly what Trey kept telling her every time she cried on his shoulder. Maybe not the bed part. Just that she had a tendency to date the wrong kind of men. He still hadn't come up with a good explanation with what exactly the right kind was.

     Trey Landers was not only her neighbor in the apartment complex she had moved into a few years before, but also her best friend Kathy's older brother. He was like a best male bud and brother all rolled into one. She could talk to him about anything, and usually did.

     Angie eyed her co-worker suspiciously. "Have you been comparing notes with Trey?"

     Cindy laughed. "No, but the guy's obviously smart and hot."

     "Hot?"

     "Oh, come on. You practically grew up in the guy's house. Have probably seen him in his underwear. How can you be so oblivious to the man? He sends us into drool mode every time he stops by to take you to lunch or to make travel arrangements for his company."

     The 'us' her friend was referring to included every female employee at Sunset Travel, married ones included. Everyone but her and Kathy, of course.

     Angie shook her head. "I've never seen Trey in his..."

Cindy arched a perfectly plucked brow.

     "Okay, maybe once," Angie admitted. "But we were kids. He and a couple of his high school buddies got a little drunk one night and went for a swim in their Fruit of the Looms. I swear it was too dark to see much of anything." Not that she had really looked. At least for very long.

     "I've always thought you two..."

     "Trey and me?" Was she crazy?

     "Yes."

     "He's like a brother to me."

     "There's no blood relation there, and according to you he's single again."

     Trey was too busy expanding his medical imaging company to get serious with any woman for very long. But that didn't stop them from lining up at his door.

     "Trey is not an option. Besides, I refuse to break rule number one."

     Cindy plucked a peppermint candy from the dish beside Angie's business card holder and untwisted its wrapper. "And that would be?"

     "Sleeping with my best friend. Trey to be exact."

     "Rules are made to be broken," Cindy said, popping the candy into her mouth.

     "Not that one."

     "Maybe you just need to get away. You've been putting in a lot of hours lately. And having to deal with Rick at work everyday probably isn't helping matters."

     "At least he works in a different department." She didn't have to see him that often.

     "If you ask me, I think Kathy should fire his ass. He smooth talks all the girls in group travel to do his work for him."

     Kathy had recently been promoted to office manager at Sunset Travel and was away attending corporate meetings in Chicago. "I think she'd need a little more justification than Rick's being a jerk to fire him."

     "I suppose so," Cindy replied with a frown.

     Angie rolled away from her desk and stood, grateful for an excuse to get out of this conversation. "I hate to rush off, but I have a date with a pair of stirrups."

     "Ooh! Sounds fun."

     "Loads." If one liked being perched in the wishbone position and probed while discussing current events. Angie grabbed for her purse and slung the leather strap over her shoulder.

     Cindy followed her from the cubicle. "Well, it's one sure way to get a man to check out the merchandise."

     Angie rolled her eyes and walked away shaking her head. Fortunately, she hadn't sunk to that level of desperation yet.

     Yet.

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