Tainted Love: A Lovestruck Novella, Book 1 Read Online Free Page A

to wait for it to cook.
    “Besides the fact it tasted like rotten eggs?” I offer.
    “Seriously, I’m curious, too,” Becca says while adjusting her glasses.
    “This is a for real love potion?” Clarissa asks, practically bouncing in her seat. I swear the girl is either on crack or ingests gallons of caffeine a day.
    “It’s not real,” I reply, and all three of the women visibly deflate, even Mallory, which is surprising since she’s always up to her neck in dick. Or more accurately, down her neck… “Some psychic sham of a woman reeled in Reagan to pay two hundred bucks for the stuff. She told us you have to drink it, screw your soulmate, and then pass on the foul shit to another desperate soul.”
    “So it only attracts one man?” Mallory asks.
    “I guess, supposedly. Madam Tess said that after you fuck your soulmate you won’t be able to unsee the other, or whatever,” I tell them with a shrug of indifference. At once, all three sets of eyes start wandering around the restaurant.
    “Ohhh, maybe it’s him,” Becca whispers, nodding to a giant of a man, slender with curly dark hair standing in line to order. The four of us are staring at him when his head swivels around. His eyebrows slant inward as he faces forward again, probably wondering what’s wrong with us.
    “Super smooth, ladies,” I tease.
    “Mmm-mm, check out Mr. Pinstripes,” Mallory says with a slight head nod to a table off to our right. Of course all of our heads turn, but at least we don’t get caught ogling this fine fellow while he inhales his burger.
    “It doesn’t work,” I tell them confidently, convinced Bryan was the only soulmate I’ll have in this lifetime. One and done. “Besides, even if it did, I, ah, I threw it up a few seconds later on the side of the highway.”
    “Ew,” Clarissa remarks with her nose wrinkled.
    “And while my driver side door was open, a car came by and took it slam off the frame.”
    “You mean, the car door came off your car?” Mallory asks, barely able to contain her snickering.
    “Uh-huh,” I tell them, and it’s answered with silence for about ten seconds before they all start laughing. So loudly, in fact, everyone in the entire restaurant turns to stare at the cackle of hyenas around me. How appropriate that a group of hyenas are, in fact, called a cackle since that’s what they’re doing. “Hush, it’s not funny,” I chide them. “No telling how much it’ll cost to get it fixed, and the douche at the shop said it might take days.”
    “Sorry, Josie. It’s just…picturing it…so funny,” Becca says, followed by more giggles.
    “You ladies suck,” I tell them when I thankfully hear my order number called. I jump up from my seat to go retrieve my food.
    “Number seven?” I ask when I get to the pick-up counter.
    “Have a good afternoon,” a cute, really cute guy with chin-length blond hair and a dazzling smile says when he hands me my tray.
    “Thanks,” I reply, smiling back at him, wondering… ugh, stop that you dimwit, I chide myself before turning around to take my seat with the hyenas again.
    The rest of lunch is relatively quiet as we all dig into our food, needing to hurry up and get back to the office because it’ll likely burn down without us workhorses there.
    “Hey, boss,” I say in greeting when I walk back into the office and see John standing in the middle of it. Today he’s wearing his tan, fly-fishing overalls and matching vest that holds all of his supplies, complete with tall, black waterproof waders. “Going fishing?” I ask the obvious question with a smile on my face since that means my afternoon is free.
    “Hey, Jos. Yeah, if I can just find my damn tackle box. Have you seen it around here?”
    Walking over to the seven-foot-tall bookshelves that sit in the corner, I go up on my tiptoes to reach the plastic container and pull it down.
    “Here you go,” I say in offering.
    “Well, fuck,” he says as he lifts it from my hands. “How