Stay With Me Read Online Free Page A

“How about your day? How’d it go?”
    I chewed a mouthful of macaroni and gulped some Coke. “It was normal, except for Mag’s usual lecture.”
    Alys laughed. “Any blind dates on the horizon?”
    “She threatened me! Can you imagine?” I spoke with my mouth full, then swallowed. “If I don’t find someone within two weeks, she said she’ll see to it. She wants me to go out with a stranger.”
    The mere idea of going out with a man I didn’t know made my skin crawl.
    “That woman won’t give up until you find a boyfriend. It’s time to make her happy.”
    “What?” I asked, my shoulders sinking.
    “Come on, Zoe. It’s time to move on.”
    I puffed, annoyed I’d just lost the support of my best friend. “You too now?”
    “I think the time has come for you to start looking. That’s all.” She shrugged, stood, and grabbed her purse. “Time to head to the hospital. I’ll come by the café in the afternoon.”
    I nodded, wiping my mouth with a napkin. “Oh, I forgot to tell you the news!”
    Alys stopped with her hand on the door handle and turned toward me.
    “Ashley is coming home to introduce us to her future husband,” I said, expecting a colorful reaction.
    Her expression turned sour. She’d never denied her lack of fondness for Ashley. “Tremors are about to hit San Francisco now that the witch is returning!”
    She made a monkey face and stuck her tongue out.

3
    I looked at the clock and cursed Fred, one of my regular customers, under my breath. He’d shown up at closing time to buy a cheesecake with a customized message. Of course he hadn’t preordered it, and as usual I hadn’t managed to say no. On the other hand, it was thanks to people like him that I’d been able to keep up with my mortgage without ever defaulting on a payment.
    The delay left me just enough time to take a quick shower. I had to tie my hair into a ponytail. In the end it was just a dinner to say welcome back to Ashley, though I would have been more enthusiastic about attending a lecture on quantum chemistry. But I couldn’t excuse myself from it. Ash’s family was mine as well. The fact that I couldn’t stand her didn’t matter. I would behave, if only for Josy and Mag.
    When we were younger, I’d tried to establish a rapport with Ashley, but despite my best efforts, we were the devil and holy water. Night and day. Total opposites with no meeting point. Which was especially evident when she’d moved to the Big Apple four years ago to do the one thing for which she had real talent: strut down the runway.
    Alright, yes, she was a model. Not very famous, but whatever she was doing allowed her to make a more than impressive living. I’d hoped with all my heart she’d always remain there on the other side of the US. Instead, she was coming back home with a rich fiancé in tow.
    I shook my head and tried to shake off the memories of that harpy, who was smaller than me only in age—because in terms of inches, she had at least four over me. To say nothing of her beauty. She was tall, blonde, and had a dazzling smile and legs that were miles long, whereas I capped off at five-foot-five and had chestnut hair and eyes. I was cute. Nothing more.
    She was the sort of woman every man would have wanted by his side, whereas I was the pleasant girl next door who people would go to for a cup of sugar.
    Ashley was about to get married at twenty-four, whereas I was alone at twenty-six with a daughter to take care of.
    After Andrew, I was celibate for nearly two years, for obvious reasons. It was difficult to find men willing to go out to dinner with a woman who had a watermelon in place of a flat tummy. And after Olly’s birth, things didn’t get much better. My body, instead of resembling a small bottle of Coca-Cola, now looked more like a Bartlett pear. That certainly didn’t facilitate my meeting Prince Charming.
    Then finally, things seemed to go back to normal. I’d managed to survive on the small trust fund my