No Such Thing as a Free Ride Read Online Free PDF

must go on and all that crap. The truth is I had no idea in the world what to say to him that didn’t begin with, “Why don’t you love me, you heartless bastard?”
    Fortunately, Eric showed up at that moment.
    “Are you okay?” he asked. At least I think that’s what he said. He was laughing so hard he had spit coming out the sides of his mouth.
    “I’m fine. I’m sorry I ruined the shoot.”
    “No worries, kid. Gary caught your swan dive on tape. We’ll get tons of mileage out of the replay and feature it on our blooper special.” God must stay up nights thinking of fresh ways to humiliate me.
    Eric left and it was just Nick and me. He looked magnificent. His hair was slightly longer than the last time I’d seen him; curled at the ends and grazing the top of his shoulders. He had on faded jeans and a long sleeved white dress shirt, rolled at the elbows and open at the neck. His forearms were tan, his almond shaped eyes darker than I’d remembered, with slight shadows underneath, making him appear sexier than I ever thought humanly possible. He even smelled wonderful, which was totally unfair, seeing as I smelled like wet dog.
    Well, I would just have to make up for it with witty repartee. “I… uh… um… hi, Nick.”
    “Listen, Angel, I’ve got to take off. I’ve got a meeting a few blocks away and I’m running late. It was good bumping into you.” And then he was gone. Just like that.
    Well, what the hell was that all about?
It was the topic of conversation with myself the entire way home. “Okay,” I conceded, the last time I’d seen him, things
had
been left a tad on the awkward side.
    I’d been on a mission to tell Nick I loved him. Never mind that I knew more personal info about the UPS delivery guy than I did about him. It wasn’t about facts. It was about the way he made me feel. Safe and smart and respected and loved. I mean he just
had
to love me. After all, a guy saves a girl’s life a coupla three times, she starts getting ideas that maybe he could return her feelings. Turns out, I was wrong.
    I knew I’d made a mistake the minute I’d arrived at Nick’s apartment building and found a gorgeous blonde descending the elevator from his floor. She had a sultry, satisfied look on her face that comes from either having really great sex or eating really great chocolate. Ever the optimist, I chose to think it was the latter.
    The icing on the cake was when Nick answered the door—
naked.
Clearly, he was happy to see
someone
, but I was quite sure that someone wasn’t me.
    “Did you forget something?” he asked. “Oh,” he said, surprised. “Hello, Angel. You’re up early.”
    I’d tried to bow out quickly, but in the end, I’d confessed it all. Seemed pointless not to. The man knew me better than I knew myself. He set me straight on his feelings for me. I was a friend, nothing more.
    Nick had the good grace to leave me alone while I pulled myself together. He told me to stay as long as I needed, he had a meeting. And then he left me alone in his apartment, and I did what anyone would have done. I snooped.
Oh, come on, like you wouldn’t?
    I went into the bedroom in the guise of looking for tissue to absorb the buckets of tears I’d cried. On the nightstand was a pile of books. I thumbed through the
Tibetan Book of the Dead
and decided I should read it. I figured I wouldn’t understand one damn thing, but at least when people asked me what I’ve been reading lately I’d have something to tell them besides Internet Porn and the TV Guide.
    And then I opened a drawer and found a photo that John had taken of me. It had been part of a gallery exhibit, but it was never meant to be sold. I’d heard
someone
had paid a boatload of money for it and now I knew who. The question was, “why?”
    I never did get to ask Nick that question because he left town the next day. I’m sure I wasn’t foremost in his mind while he was gone, seeing as in three months, I never got so much as a