Page 1 of Her Trick His Treat

CHAPTER ONE-CAMRYN

Irolled my eyes and stared up at the ceiling, praying for patience to a God I hadn’t tried talking to in ages.

It was one of those old, popcorn-textured ceilings.

Stagnant.

Outdated.

A reminder of times best forgotten.

It stared back. Like it was mocking me. Each grotesque bump was a reminder of how out of touch I was with the world beyond my tiny apartment.

“Come on, cuz. Pretty please with a cherry on top,”Jan begged, and I held the phone away from my ear.

Good grief! She was so loud. I almost dropped the dang thing.

Jan still had that same annoying whine she used to use when she was a kid and wasn’t getting her way.

She was older than me, but not by much. Still, I was always the little cousin. It got annoying at times, with her always mothering me. I missed being around her. But this just had to stop.

“It’s just I don’t do bars, Jan. You know this,” I told her for the tenth time.

It was downright exasperating, having someone tell me what I liked or needed. I was so done with people who thought they knew me better than I knew myself.

Wasn’t that why I left my old life?

To start here anew. To meet people. Make friends. Maybe find someone special.

Someone who might appreciate me for me.

Someone who was willing to look past my fluffy exterior and see the gem within.

Ugh. I hated it when I got morose. But Alexander, the last man I dated, had done a number on my self-esteem.

I was shy at the best of times, but he seemed to like me well enough to ask me out. Like an idiot, I took his criticisms as the gentle suggestions he told me they were.

But it was no good.

No matter how many miles I trekked on the elliptical my ass wasn’t going anywhere.

In fact, I was pretty sure working out had only toned and plumped the damn thing. I happened to like the machine though, and now, I keep one in my office.

It was great for when I was stuck on an idea and needed to think.

But I wasn’t getting any skinnier. I liked food too much for that and after weeks of Alexander’s disappointed sighs, I told him goodbye.

There was nothing keeping me where I was, so I made an even bigger change. I moved back to my roots. Back to the Garden State.

“But it’s a party! Besides, Cam, you haven’t hung out with me or even met David yet, and you still haven’t come by the shop since you moved back.”

Jan’s voice was a high-pitched plea. I wanted to argue, to beg off, but she wasn’t wrong.

I groaned and looked around my tidy new apartment. Everything had its place. But I had yet to venture out.

“What are you going to do at home? Watch a movie? Work? Come on,”she cajoled.

Jan knew my tastes well enough, but she had no way of knowing my entertainment center was the very first thing I set up in my new place.

---