Page 5 of Christmas Kisses
They were all about love, being yourself and not giving a single fuck if anyone liked you or not.
Anytime the mean girls in the school tried to say things to her, she would just raise her eyebrow at them and after realizing they didn’t hurt her, they would walk away.
When she met her best friend Eryka in her senior year it was the best moment of her life. Eryka was quiet like she was, but once the two of them met, their quietness was left only when they were around other people.
The two of them together was a whole different story. They were loud, and fun and Eryka was the best person Brenya knew.
Eryka was the one who went with Brenya to the senior prom, because they didn’t get asked so they didn’t have dates, and the one that she talked to every night.
They were opposites in a lot of ways, and yet it was because of their differences that helped keep their friendship interesting.
Case number one for that was their jobs, Eryka had a job at a hair salon, after getting her cosmetology license, because she loved styling, cutting and anything to do with hair and Brenya had worked at the same book store since she was sixteen since she spent most of her time reading and avoiding most human interaction.
She loved it, reading was her escape and her favorite place.
So having a job where she could read whenever? Sign her up.
The only downside to her job was that ever since she had turned twenty, Mrs. Marshall wanted to set her up on a date with her much older son.
He was a creep, to say the least and a disgusting pig to say the most.
She did not like him. At all. Alan Marshall was a womanizer and a scoundrel.
Whenever he came into the shop he always tried to look down her shirt or grab her butt.
She had to hit his hand away more than once when he turned grabby, and would glare at him.
He would hold his hands up in surrender, say, “It was just there, I had to take a feel for myself,” and then leer at her, as if trying to see through her clothes.
Especially her breasts. They were no doubt her best asset, as they were a little big for her lithe frame, but she didn’t need him to stare at her.
She hated it and him. She knew he was skimming off the sales she made each week and would take money from the till whenever he came to the store.
He would then leave her with a wink over his shoulder and a, “See you later sweet tits.”
She would shiver with revulsion and go back to work wanting to get her mind off him.
She hated that guy. And was getting to the end of her rope with her patience for him and his disgusting advances, and his mom’s pushing them to be together.
She had told Mrs. Marshall in the nicest way that she didn’t want to date Alan -ever- and yet the woman persisted.
Hoped that she would see past the creepy veneer Alan had to the sweet son he used to be.
Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.
She had this weird ability to tell when someone was lying or telling the truth. And Alan? Yeah, he wasn’t just a thief and a creep, nope, he was also a liar.
She didn’t want anything to do with him. She took a deep breath, trying to put him out of her mind, and she walked into the mall, heading for the bookstore, but today was weird.
It felt as if her skin was too tight, like it had shrank from the time she walked from her car until now. It was insane.
And she tingled all over, like there was a living current under her skin. She didn’t understand it, and had to shake her head more than once to try to clear her mind and to stop the thoughts running through it.
They were dirty, and hot. Something that never happened to her.
It wasn’t like her. Sure, she had read her fair share of romance books, but had never come close to thinking like that about anyone before.
Eryka had made her go on a few blind dates, but she had known immediately that they weren’t for her and she had made her excuses to leave.
