Read Online Picture Perfect by Alessandra Thomas - Free Book Online Page A

you? I texted you to see what you wanted me to bring home for dinner, and by the time I got here, you were home and passed out.”
    I sat up, rubbing my fingers against my eyes, trying to wipe the scratchy bleariness away. A shake of my head and some hard blinking had my head a little bit clearer. “I, um…I kind of met someone.”
    Joey gasped and grabbed my desk chair, spinning it around on its wheels to face me, and plopped down on it. “Oh my God. Tell me everything. How did you even meet him? Weren’t you coming straight home from that art class?”
    I laughed. “Okay, okay. One question at a time. He was actually in the art class.”
    She squealed, and I blinked hard again. “So he was in the class where people were drawing your gorgeous ass naked? Cat!”
    “Yeah,” I chuckled, “and he still talked to me afterward.”
    “Nuh-uh. That’s not all that happened. Spill.”
    “Well, he talked to me, and bought me dinner, and brought me home.”
    “And?”
    “And he kissed me.”
    Joey pumped her legs up and down and clapped her hands like one of those manic wind-up monkeys that smashed cymbals together. “I knew it! I knew he kissed you! How was it? What else?”
    “Holy shit, Jo, one question at a time. It was fucking incredible. But then…nothing else.”
    “How is it possible that there was nothing else? Was it a polite kiss, or a kiss- kiss?”
    “Um…a kiss- kiss. Like a kissy kiss-kiss.”
    “So why am I not awkwardly dodging this boy in the kitchen right now? You didn’t want to sleep with him?”
    “Oh no. I wanted to sleep with every inch of his six-foot-three, muscled-everything, dimpled self. But he said no.”
    “A guy? Said no? To you?”
    “I’m not a model anymore.”
    “Oh, please. You are still a fucking model. One with hotter hips and bigger boobs and the same flawless face. Are you kidding?”
    Tears pricked at my eyes. Again. Holy shit, when was this ever going to stop? “He just said he wanted to, but he couldn’t. I don’t know.”
    Joey leaned back, wrinkling her nose. “Do you think he has some sort of weird abstinence policy?”
    I shrugged. “Lots of guys do. But I didn’t get the super-religious vibe from him or anything.”
    “Well, you’re going to see him again, right?”
    “I don’t know,” I groaned, falling back on the bed again. “He wanted my number, but I didn’t give it to him.” Her eyes flew open wide and I preempted her scolding. “I don’t know why. I guess I was embarrassed, or something.”
    “Oh, my God. Well,” her eyes swept down over my rumpled clothes and hair. “It’s obvious what we have to do here. You are skipping class and we’re going out.”
    Two hours and a diet soda the size of my head later, I finally felt a little more like myself. We’d scoured the clearance racks and I’d found some cute tops that I could wear when—if—I ever saw Nate again. I ducked into the dressing room one last time, fidgeting with a weird faux-wrap top that stopped at the widest part of my midsection. I was about to announce the failure to Joey when she squealed from outside.
    “What?” I said in my half-exasperated, half-loving voice.
    “Hold on!” Then a second pause. “Hello, Cat’s phone. Oh, hi, Nate .”
    He’d gotten my number. In less than twelve hours. And only knowing one—maybe two—people in Philadelphia. “She’s in the changing room now. So tell me, Nate, how did you get this number? Mmm. Mmhm. I see. Well, that is impressive.”
    I couldn’t get out of the dressing room fast enough. I yanked my shirt back over my camisole, tripped into my jeans, and shuffled out, shoes half on.
    “Give that to me!” I hissed.
    Joey smiled at me and cooed into the phone. “Here she is, Nate. Or is it Nathaniel?” She nodded. “Well, Nathaniel. Good luck with her. She’s a live wire, but she’s worth it.”
    “Goddamn, Joey,” I whined, tugging my shirt into a better position so that my belly didn’t wobble so much.
    She