Page 18 of Fixed Up Ever After
“First off, your brain is not dumb. You’ve just been in survival mode for so long and your brain is trying to protect you. And secondly, I feel like that was an easy assumption to make. It looked like one big happy family. Technically they were, just in a different way than you thought.”
“He probably thinks I’m the stereotypical crazy Latina girl.” Which was a stupid stereotype to even have. Expressing any strong emotion as a brown girl automatically made you “crazy.” It was harmful and rooted in racism.
“I doubt that. But let’s get back to what’s important here. How was he in bed?” Mona grinned, moving closer. “If I liked dick, I’m sure I would be all up on that one. But I prefer the pretty kitties, so I’ll live vicariously through you.”
Lola snorted. She had known Mona all her life and her bestie had never been interested in boys. Ever. It was only ever Mattea.
“That’s the worst part. It was amazing.” Mona let out an excited little squeal as Lola continued on. “He was so confident and sure of himself. He didn’t shy away or make a single comment about my body that wasn’t wanted. He fucking worshipped me, and I’ve tried so hard not to think about how he blew my mind. How did I put up with Archie’s five-second-sex bores for so long?
“Seriously. I don’t think I’ve ever had a man make me come like that. I usually have to spend time getting myself off afterward, but nope. This man is magic in bed. Fucking magic.” She finished her spiel only to hear another stack of books fall to the ground behind her. She groaned and turned around to see where the noise came from and wondered what broke now that she had to fix.
Lola didn’t get to make a full turn when she spotted him, standing only five feet away. He wore dark jeans with a simple white T-shirt that had seen better days. Her stomach dropped as she moved slowly up to the man’s face. Javi was here, and he was smirking at her. She swore she heard Mona turn around to laugh into a book behind her.
Fucking hell.
CHAPTER11
Lola
Now would be the perfect time for the universe to spontaneously combust so Lola would not have to relive this mortifying moment. The damned smirk on Javi’s face would be forever etched into her brain. She also wished her best friend wasn’t disguising her laughing fit with horrible fake coughs, but this was her life right now and she had to deal with the consequences.
“You’re early!” She accused him like a cheater who blamed their infidelity on their spouse arriving home early and foiling their plans. It was the only thing her embarrassed brain thought of.
Javi took his life in his own hands and leaned against the bookshelf. It creaked under his weight but didn’t fold like she thought it would. Apparently, even the nosy bookshelves wanted to stay and watch her humiliation.
“I finished a job earlier than expected, so I figured I’d head over here. I’m glad I did.”
Ugh, that infuriating, sexy smile was going to be the death of Lola. Seriously, no one had the right to look that damn good and smug at the same time.
“Have you heard of knocking? Or do you frequently break into people’s houses and places of work?” she retorted.
“I knocked. Many times. I figured you didn’t hear me. I heard talking so I let myself in. I can wait if you want to finish your conversation though. I think you were at the part where no other man has ever made you com—”
“Oh don’t get cocky. You broke my dry spell so I’m just thankful you weren’t a dud.”
She couldn’t believe they only had sex once and he still occupied so many of her thoughts. What spell had this man put her under because she wanted none of it. Unsubscribe her from that brujo fuckery this instant.
“And besides, my last boyfriend wasn’t stellar in bed so anyone could have beat him in a competition. Not that this was a competition, but if it was, you would receive a participation trophy.”
Stop talking! Stop talking!Why was that such a hard concept for her brain? Instead, it felt the need to word-vomit unnecessary things.
“You aren’t helping the situation, Lo-Lo,” Mona whispered from behind her, loud enough for Javi to hear. “Perhaps, and I say this with all the love in my heart, shut up?”
Yup, that was what she was going to do. Shut up before she dug herself deeper into a hole. She didn’t need Javi to know any more about her pathetic love life and lack of orgasms.
For a second, Javi looked as if he wanted to tease her more, if his cocky smirk was any indication. If he actually apologized for her lack of completion in the bedroom, she would simply roll over and die. It had been a good run, but there was no coming back from a blow like that.
Thankfully, Javi seemed to have noticed her discomfort and instead said, “I’ll knock next time.”
“Good.” That was good. It would have saved her from this embarrassment. “So, we should get started?” she added after, hoping to steer the conversation back to the reason he was here in the first place.
Javi pushed himself off the bookshelf, which gave another groan of protest as he stepped forward, doing his best to tiptoe through the piles of books. That was another thing she needed to get around to doing: taking inventory. Mrs. Sanderson had an archaic way of cataloging books, which consisted of a pen and journal. Lola needed to bring this bookstore into the twenty-first century and put the books onto a database. Those were things she could worry about later.
“Let’s start with you taking me through the story and telling me your vision,” Javi suggested, stopping in front of her. She had to tilt her head up to get a better look at him. He was so tall. Lola wasn’t short. She was 5’8”. Having been the tallest girl most of her school life and well into adulthood, she couldn't help but find guys who towered over her attractive. She loved her short kings too, they just didn’t typically love plus-size women, in her experience.
“That means walk him around the story, Lo-Lo. Don’t stare at him and salivate,” Mona unhelpfully supplied from behind her. She made a mental note to kill her later. Or tell on her to Mattea. She was unsure which one would be worse.
Lola—who was most definitely not staring—sidestepped away from Javi. She needed to channel the confident girl she had been when she met him the first time. That girl was still in her somewhere and didn’t need alcohol to bring her out. She puffed out her chest some, thinking good posture might help, but in reality it looked like she was presenting her tits to him.
