Making Me Believe Read Online Free PDF

everything!”
    “His name is Alex. I’m not seeing him again,” Rose said, looking down so that Alicia wouldn’t see how hurt she actually was over that.
    “Why not? What did you say to him?” Alicia asked with a sigh. She knew that Rose tended to be so outspoken that people shied away from her. The ones who got to know her loved her for who she was, but strangers didn’t tend to stick around long.
    “Why do you assume I said something? Why do I have to be the villain?” Rose felt defensive, even though she knew it was her fault. Somehow.
    “You know you always say stupid stuff. Why else would a guy who was willing to put up with your old fashioned weirdness take off?”
    Rose shrugged. “I didn’t this time. I swear. We kissed in the park, and he said that I was ‘getting under his skin’, and he dropped me off at home. That was it.”
    “No way. You had to have said something.” Alicia couldn’t believe that he would take off just like that. Not if Rose hadn’t gone all Rosish and said something completely crazy.
    “I really didn’t. I mean, I said a bunch of things, but he seemed to like it all.” For once, she’d found someone who’d liked her for who she was. At least she thought she had.
    “You really liked him, didn’t you?” Alicia asked softly.
    “Can you fall in love in a weekend?” Rose asked refusing to let the tears shining in her eyes fall.
    “I can. I didn’t think you could, but I do it all the time,” Alicia told her.
    “I said fall in love, not fall in lust.”
    “Oh, well, I don’t know then,” Alicia said with a wink. “It’s so hard to separate the two! Where did you meet him anyway? You didn’t mention a date on Friday.”
    “I met him Friday night doing laundry.” Rose waited for Alicia’s disgusted reaction and wasn’t disappointed.
    “Are you still doing laundry on Friday nights?” Alicia sighed heavily. “What is wrong with you?”
    “A lot, I guess,” Rose said heading back to her desk. She wasn’t in the mood to listen to Alicia complain about her laundry night.
    Alicia shook her head, trailing along behind her. “Let me fix you up with someone. I’ll give him the no sex spiel, but you could just go out and have a good time and get Allen off the brain.” That was always Alicia’s fix. Find a new one.
    “It’s Alex. And no thanks. I let you do that once before and it was a disaster, remember?”
    She had one time, and one time only given in to Alicia’s demands that she let her set her up. The guy had thought he was God’s gift to women, and had been certain that he’d be able to convince Rose to give up her ideas of chastity. When it hadn’t worked, he’d gotten ugly and she’d had to call a cab to get home. Alicia’s ideas of good guys and her own were far apart.
    “Well, would you consider having sex with this Alex guy to keep from losing him?” Alicia asked. Alicia had no problems with having casual sex. She said that as long as she made sure to use protection there was nothing wrong with it.
    “I don’t want a man that I have to change my values for. If he can’t accept who I am, and respect my values, then he’s not worth having,” Rose told her as she sat down and picked up her headset. But she was tempted.  Alex was special, and she didn’t want to let him go.
    Alicia shook her head at her as she got back to work. Rose felt that Alicia was so busy looking for Mr. Right, that she lost too much of herself in the process. She’d even told Alicia that a time or two. Not that Alicia listened to what she called Rose’s antiquated moral values.

 
    Chapter 4
     
     
    Rose got home later than usual that evening because she was working extra overtime during the busy tax season to get more money into savings. By the time she’d eaten dinner, it was after eight and she was exhausted, having gotten up at five so she could work out before work. She was just settling down for the evening when she heard a knock at her door.
    She