The Affair: a New Adult Romance novelette Read Online Free PDF Page A

up.”
    Instantly, I insisted, “You’re not fucked up, Sabr…”
    Yet, she cut me off and reiterated, “Yes, I am. I’m fucked up. And I shouldn’t put you in the middle of my bullshit.”
    She sighed heavily as she combed her fingers through barrel curls that fell beautifully.
    She was beautiful.
    On the outside, she was a beautiful girl. She was a girl that we all would envy.
    But I could see behind those stunning silver eyes that she didn’t believe that.
    “C’mon,” she told me as she squeezed my hand. “Let’s get you a gig, girl.”
    I slipped my feet back into the borrowed stilettos. The bottom of my feet burned from attempting to walk in them all day. The burn reminded me of my lost love that still hadn’t returned my text or instant messages.
    My heart cringed.
    It cried silently as we walked through the doors of what was supposed to be a change for the better.
    The loud beat of the bass in the techno music replaced the nervous pounding in my chest. The loud volume of the music led you to believe that a party was going on. After Sabrina winked at a bouncer that she obviously knew well, he let us through the huge double leather fabric doors without carding us. We entered a dimly lit club. There were two women on either stage. They slid down the poles in lingerie that I dreamed of wearing for Justin. The women were beautiful, in shape, and busty. There wasn’t a huge party going on at all. There were only three men in the audience. I hid from them, behind my long red locs. Sabrina, standing next to me, held her head high, arched her back, and danced in place to the music just as seductively as the dancers.
    “Sabrina!” A high–pitched squeal came from afar, but I recognized it. It was Rainy in all her glory. Distressed shorts barely covered her ass. A pink tube top with the words “Pink Rhino” hardly held her full breasts that threatened to burst loose from underneath it. Her nipples – they were hard. Her stomach was flat. Her waist was as small as my self-esteem.
    “Hi, Karrie! You look great! C’mon! My manager is waiting for you.”
    Rainy barely noticed the tension all over my face. She took my hand and led me through the club. I could barely see. It was dark, and the strobe lights were blinding flashes of blue and pink.
    Sabrina followed closely behind me, with her hand in my lower back, ensuring that I continued into the right direction, as if she felt my urge to run away.
    After knocking on an office door, I heard a latch unlock and then the door opened. An older woman with big black curly hair and a big bust to match appeared on the other side. Her dark Italian features were captivating. Her full lips had been perfectly injected. She was clearly in her forties, and age had settled on her quite well. I could imagine her once swinging upside down on the poles on the other side of the door.
    Though much older than I, her sexual presence was overbearing.
    Her confidence was suffocating.
    “This is Karrie,” Rainy told her as she closed the door behind us. “She is the girl that I was telling you about that is looking for a job.”
    “I see,” was her short response. Surprisingly, her voice was rough, as if she’d smoked since she was three years old. “Thank you, Rainy. You may go.”
    Rainy made an about face and opened the door. Before leaving out, she quickly winked at me.
    After the door was once again secured, the manager stared me up and down as she took a seat behind a big wooden desk so old that it had obviously been in that spot since the beginning of time.
    “Sit,” she instructed.
    Sabrina and I moved to sit on the only other seating in the office, a sofa as old as the desk. But the manager corrected me. “Not you, honey. You stay standing.”
    And there I stood.
    I felt like I was on an auction block.
    “Turn.”
    I turned in a slow circle as instructed. I caught Sabrina doing a terrible job at holding in a snicker.
    Once I was face to face with the auctioneer again,