“I love you, Evan.”
Shock couldn’t describe what I was feeling. “Say that again, darlin’?”
She giggled and kissed me again. “I said I love you.”
I dragged her into my arms and kissed her, showing her how I felt. She knew already, but hearing those words slip from her beautiful lips was the best thing to ever happen to me. She wasn’t getting away from me now.
THE END
Friends to Lovers
Friends to Lovers
Chapter 1
Natalia Black looked at her reflection in the mirror and shrugged. This had to be the fourth or fifth outfit that she had tried on that morning and she still felt like everything she wore was bad on her. She was now wearing a black floral skater dress that reached just above her knees. It showed off her perfectly flawless beautiful legs and the top was cut low just enough to show off her beautiful cleavage – her only two good assets, or so she thought. If she did settle on wearing this dress, she had her black satin peep toe heels in mind. As much as she always felt comfortable in her body, today was different. For the first time in six years, she was wishing she was smaller. The whole panic about her outfit was the simple fact that she was going to be seeing her college crush for the first time in years. And she hated the idea that she had to become something different. If only she had ended up pursuing a career in…anything else rather than what she was doing, she would have avoided her present crisis. Her company Allen and Roberts was holding a party to welcome the new partner Alexander Charleston. Unfortunately for her, the new partner was also her college crush. And the last time she had seen him was almost six years earlier at his party, the party that changed everything. Alexander had always been a geeky guy, cute but still a geek. He had been working hard on a mobile app for close to a year and when it was ready, Google had paid a fortune for it. And that was when everything changed. He became an instant millionaire and made serious investments changing him from the average Joe to one of the people to watch.
Natalia could not help but smile when she thought of Alex. He was not just a well-toned beautiful man, he was also one of the wealthiest man she knew. Forbes had even featured him on one of their ‘Top 40 Under 40’ articles. As far as Natalia was concerned, Alex Charleston had money pouring from every orifice in his body. Apart from that, he was a tall man with all the right stuff: full head of shiny black hair, perfectly toned muscular body and glossy hazel eyes that seemed to pry the truth out of anyone who looked into them.
Given a chance, Natalia would have chosen to skip the acquisition party. But being one of the junior partners, her boss Rick Allen could not have been clearer about attendance.
“You have a way with people, Black. Attendance for you is not an option,” he had said. “It is mandatory.”
“And here I thought that a career in finance would be less demanding,” she thought as she pulled off the dress she had on leaving her in her black underwear.
“Make up your mind, Natalia,” she thought as she stared into her reflection. “Alex had always been nice to you and he liked you once,” she thought again but then she shrugged. Back then she was a perfect size eight and now she was almost double the body Alex remembered.
She was still looking into her reflection when she heard her doorbell ring. She grabbed her phone and looked at the screen. A frown played on her face. It was already seven thirty. She was supposed to be headed out at that very minute. She threw on a bathrobe just as her doorbell rang again.
“Hold your horses,” she said under her breath as she made her way to the front door. She almost gasped when she opened the door. There, standing outside her apartment was Elle Palmer, her ride to the party since her car was in the shop.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Elle said as she looked at Natalia. “You are still undressed?”
Natalia looked at Elle and shrugged.
“I have nothing to wear,” she said. Elle shook her head.
“Are you still overthinking this whole Alex thing?” she asked as she made her way to Natalia’s bedroom.
“Where are you going?” Natalia asked as she followed close behind.
“I am going to get you something to wear,” Elle said. Natalia shrugged again and sat on the edge of the bed. Elle looked at the already enormous pile of clothes on the bed and then at her best friend. “How can you not have anything to wear with all these?” she asked.
“These are normal everyday work clothes.”
“Glamorous everyday work clothes,” Elle corrected her.
“Still, this is a freaking party. I just can’t show up there in…” she picked up a handful of clothes and tossed them in the air. “This pile of crap.”