Club Wonderland Read Online Free PDF Page A

looked at her a few seconds longer and nodded. “Have a good evening with your friend.”
    He let the door go and the elevator closed, cutting him off from sight.
    Somehow, Alice managed to make her way to the subway station without crying. She got onto the correct platform without knowing exactly how she managed and onto the car with no problems. It wasn’t until she stood in front of Petra’s condo door and knocked that the walls of her self-control started to crack.
    Petra swung the door open and smiled at her. “Hey.” The smile morphed into a frown. “What’s wrong?”
    Alice couldn’t stop the tears from coming. She let out a sob and stepped into her friend’s arms. “Just a bad day.”
    One that she’d have to relive tomorrow and every day that Gael Hernandez continued to work at Gibson, Murphy and Dow.
    Maybe it was time to listen to her mother after all and consider a change in profession.

Chapter Three
    Alice had just hung up the phone and her hands were still shaking. She mentally counted to ten before she jumped up squealing and did a poor interpretation of a Snoopy dance in her living room.
    Earlier when she’d helped Petra get ready for her evening, Alice had no doubt her friend was going to turn more than a few heads when she showed up as PC at the nomination reading. But what were the odds that the hunk who’d been eyeing Petra from their local coffee shop would be in attendance? Astronomical? Gargantuan? Fuck it , who cares! Petra was about to have amazing sex with a handsome man and it was about time that particular sexual drought was over.
    She wasn’t jealous of her friend’s getting an unexpected offer of a one-night stand with the handsome stranger.
    Well, maybe a little.
    Not of the fact that Petra was hooking up with Darcy—it had been clear to her that the man had a city-sized crush on her friend—but that she was going to have a night with a man who liked her.
    Picking up the bag of 100-calorie popcorn she’d been munching on, Alice looked at the clock and made a mental note of when Petra would be checking in. She had lots of time to kill while Petra was getting laid, and reruns of America’s Next Top Model would need to be enough to fill it.
    At some point during the third episode, the phone rang. Alice didn’t even bother looking at the call display before she hit the talk button.
    “I want details, girl! Spill it.”
    “Alice, it’s your mother.”
    The buzz of instant excitement was dampened in a heartbeat. “Mom. Hi. Why are you calling so late?”
    “Darling, if you’re expecting to hear from someone, you should consider checking your caller ID.”
    “I know. Sorry.”
    “Is the call important? I can talk to you in the morning.”
    “Well, yes. My friend Petra—”
    “Oh lord, not that woman. Sweetheart, how many times have I told you, a lady is judged by the company she keeps. If you persist in spending time with that girl, others will begin to compare you. They’ll see her lack of good grooming and manners and assume you are alike.”
    Alice had made the mistake of having Petra and her mother in the same room only once. It had been her twenty-ninth birthday, and there was no way she wasn’t going to have her best friend with her. But after the snide comments directed toward her, Petra left the party early and Alice felt like crap for ages afterward.
    “Mom, what do you want?”
    “What I want is for my daughter to stop being rude to me every time I call to speak with her.”
    It didn’t matter how old Alice got, when her mother used that tone of voice with her, she once more became six years old, standing backstage at a beauty pageant. Sitting up straight, she tossed the now-empty popcorn bag to the side and turned off her television. “Sorry, Mom.”
    “As you should be.”
    For next thirty minutes Alice sat still and let her mother go on about her day. She wasn’t feeling well again—this time it was her stomach, though a lady doesn’t give too many