Read Online Work of Art by Monica Alexander - Free Book Online

pushing him in the back so he’d take the hint to leave the room. I had work to do.
    “Oh!” he said, turning around to face me, his dark eyes alight with glee. “A nd I’ll definitely tell you all about how my buddy was cursing his fiancé last night and how he kicked a fifteen thousand dollar table to death. It’s fucking classic!”
    “Can’t wait,” I said, reaching forward to hug him. “It’s been a pleasure getting to know you, Brandon Cooper. I look forward to many more quality interludes.”
    He tipped a fake hat at me when he pulled back and said, “You too, Harper. I’ll talk to you soon, and I’ll send my buddy back.”
    I smiled as he left, feeling like I’d honestly connected with someone, and that rarely happened. I didn’t let people in, but I liked Brandon’s straight-forward honesty. He was genuine. He was also probably screwed up as hell, but weren’t we all?
    I turned away from the doorway to start cleaning up when I felt some standing behind me, and then I heard a sharp intake of breath. When I turned around, I almost fainted. Standing in my doorway was Ryan Carson, the guy who’d broken my heart eleven years earlier. Instead of fainting, I turned and vomited into the trashcan that was thankfully right near my feet.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Seven
    Ryan
     
    “Harper?” I asked, not believing what I was seeing.
    It had been over a decade , but she still looked as beautiful as the last time I’d seen her, even as she was puking into a trashcan. Instinctively, I walked over to her, gathered her long, thick, half-pink hair into my hand and held it back as she spit into the trashcan.
    “Get off me,” she g rowled, shaking my hands free from her hair as she stood up and turned away from me, the glare in her eyes murderous.
    For the few brief seconds I’ d touched her hair, it was so soft, and I remembered how it used to spill over my arm when I held her after we made love. It had been all one color back then, but it still looked beautiful hanging to the middle of her back.
    So many memories were suddenly assaulting me all at once, memories I’d buried and stifled and forced myself to let go of. Like how she always smelled like strawberries or how her full lips pressed together when she was thinking about something or how her eyes would sparkle when she was happy. And then the thing that had torn us apart, that had changed everything and ripped her away from me.
    I’d lost everything that day. Everything. And I realized it way too late.
    “What are you doing here?” she asked in a clipped, bitter tone, as she ran her hand under her bottom lip.
    I couldn’t figure out why she was mad at me. I hadn’t done anything except let her stomp on my heart . I should be the one who was pissed, but it had been eleven years. I could move past it just to get the chance to talk to her again, see how she was doing. Over the years I’d emailed her a few times, since I had no idea where she’d gone or what she did after she’d fled Boston, but I never heard back. And I never, ever stopped thinking about her. Now she was standing in front of me, and I couldn’t believe it.
    “Uh, I was here to get a tattoo. My friend Brandon recommended you , but I didn’t know it was you .”
    She spun around to face me, her hair fanning out behind her and coming to rest over her left shoulder. “ You’re Brandon’s friend?” she spat. “The one who’s getting married? Whose wedding I’m going to?”
    “Uh, yeah. Wait, what? You’re coming to my wedding?”
    She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes to glare at me. “Well, I didn’t know it was your wedding, but yeah, I’m going with Brandon. He just asked me.”
    “Shit,” I cursed. “You’re the hot tattoo girl he was talking about.”
    “I suppose.”
    “Harper, I didn’t know he was talking about you. I didn’t even know you lived out here. How long have you been in San Francisco?”
    My mind was reeling. This was a