The Absolutely True Story of Us Read Online Free PDF

want to sit up a little straighter and listen to what he has to say.
    The voluptuous redhead beside him is also tall, I realize after a moment - just not nearly as tall as he is, but she'd almost stand eye-to-eye with Dean, and her heels aren't that high. I have to admit that I'm surprised. About the curves, not the height. My heart twinges a little to see a man like him with a woman like her. I know it happens, in theory, but seeing it is an entirely different thing. When I used to go out with Dean, I felt like everyone was staring. Wondering. What the hell does he see in her? Was she skinny when they got together?
    There's no room for wondering with Mr. Risinger's girlfriend. I can picture him falling in love with her. I'm a little bit in love with her. It helps that he's obviously still smitten, smiling and glancing at her and showing no indication he's aware of anyone else in the room.
    He shakes a few hands when people manage to get his attention, but he's clearly making his way towards the bar, and therefore towards us.  
    "Who's that?" my mom hisses, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head.
    "Adrian Risinger," I murmur, keeping him in my peripheral view. Is he actually going to come talk to me? "He's a real-life billionaire who writes romance novels about billionaires."
    " What ?" My dad looks like his head's about to explode. And not in a good way, like my mom's.
    "Lana," says a voice, and I turn around to see Adrian's girlfriend approaching me rapidly. "It's so great to finally meet you! I loved your book."
    "Thank you." I sort of gape at her for a second as she shakes my hand.
    "I'm Meg," she informs me.  
    "Right," I say. "Of course. The muse."
    Adrian smiles, flanking her. "And then some."
    Meg's eyebrows jump slightly, in a way that tells me that he probably just grabbed her ass. The body language fits. It's a bold move in a room with so many glances wandering in their direction. I'd be pretty pissed if Dean ever did that to me in public, even at our closest.
    "It's not as glamorous as it sounds," says Meg, and Adrian's eyes suddenly widen as her arm slides behind his back. "Trust me."
    She returned the favor. Because, of course she did.
    "Tell me about it," says Dean, and a sudden understanding dawns on Meg's face. She untangles herself from her lover and steps towards my fictional one.
    "So you're the famous Damien," she says, shaking his hand with a smile. She's referring to him by his book-name, of course. I'm still not quite used to that. "Well done."
    "Way to raise the bar," says Adrian. "We're all fucked now."
    "Let's face it, you were fucked in comparison to most serial killers," says Meg. "And some of the lesser demons."
    He winks at her.
    "You're welcome," says Dean, grinning. The urge to roll my eyes is powerful, but we're supposed to be in love . Then again, Meg and Adrian are very obviously in love , and also very obviously balanced on a knife's edge of biting sarcasm that seems like it might suddenly tumble into something that's very inappropriate for a public setting.  
    I'm insanely jealous.
    This is, if I'm being perfectly honest with myself, the kind of relationship I could picture having with M. Not that I do. Not that I ever would . But they look so happy.
    You don't know him.
    But it doesn't feel that way. It never really has. I suspect I know him better than I ever knew Dean, at any rate.
    I shake my head in a valiant effort to dismiss the insanity that seems to have taken hold. I have to pull myself together. Once this whole mess is over, I'm breaking things off with M. Right now I need it for my sanity, because it's the only part of my life that makes any kind of sense. But after I've managed to delicately end the situation between me and Dean, and convince my family that I'm not dying of a broken heart, I'm moving the fuck on.
    At least I learned something from him. Now, I know what I want, and I can go after it. He's hardly the only dominant man in the world, and I doubt he's even the