Love with a View E-Book

Page Peterson

• Herausgeber: Page Peterson
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 246

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

I moved states away to start a new chapter in my life—college. Graduation was coming up and I was lonely in a crowd of people. So, I took the modern way of trying to meet people, online dating. I never expected the outcome. Meeting the love of my life, Gabe, was a happy change to my dull life. But my past has come back in full force to try and destroy all of that. And I never anticipated who was in on the destruction. Family means everything to me, but them turning against me was a low blow. Can I find the strength I need in the love of my life? Or am I going to lose Gabe to the stresses of my family and my own insecurities?

Leseprobe

Copyright © 2017 Page Peterson

All rights reserved

Editor: Diamond in the Rough Editing

Cover Design: Designs by Dana

Interior Formatting: That Formatting Lady

No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author.

This is a work of fiction. Any names or characters, businesses or places, events or incidents, are fictitious or have been used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

ISBN 978-0-9998418-2-6

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Epilogue

More from Page Peterson

To all those who helped me, to those who thought I’d get this done, and to those who didn’t. To those who will never get to read this, because I took so long to act on my dream, this is for you. You look down on me and see me through this but are no longer here. This story is for you, because pieces of you are in everything I write, because you are always with me.

Deep in thought, I walked down the crowded quad toward home. I was thinking of my impending graduation from college. With the way the economy has been, I was worried about finding a job to pay off my massive student loan debt. Even after seeing numerous job openings for paralegals, I wanted to strive high and work in a prosecutor's office. I knew I had to walk before I could run. That phrase popping in my head made me think of my scatter-brained mother. She knew a lot about running before walking. She just recently married husband number five after two weeks of dating. He asked her to marry him, and she did so the next day in a civil union at the courthouse, without me. This pissed me off royally, because I was two states away at college.

I shook off the nasty thoughts that popped into my mind as I remembered my new stepdad was only five years older than me. It left a bad taste in my mouth, literally. I think I vomited in my mouth a little as I thought of them in bed. I moved my tongue around in my mouth, trying to get the taste out, remembering the bastard was just after what little money she had. Snorting, I thought of how much she really was worth. My mother was a habitual credit whore, as I called her. If a credit card came in the mail, she immediately activated it and ran up charges. Having to constantly lend her money to get her out of trouble because I was the responsible one was a pain in my ass.

My last class of the day was a Torts class, which was about civil law, would be the one I studied hardest for since it wasn’t what I wanted to specialize in. Not like I needed to study anyway. I already had an “A” in the class. But I was not going to let my GPA drop below 3.8. It'll look better on my resume, I kept telling myself. Although my resume was padded enough with extracurricular activities, I figured a 3.8 GPA would look that much better to a prosecutor's office.

“Audrey! Wait up!” I paused in my tracks, waiting to be run over by my best friend, Krista. Krista was a classic beauty. The complete opposite of me, she had the most gorgeous blue eyes you have ever seen. They were almost a powder blue, closer to white. She was all legs, tits, and ass. Me? Well, I always referred to myself as pleasantly plump, but others have classified me as a big, beautiful woman. My chest was too small for my size, and I had the flattest ass anyone has ever seen. My eyes were about the only things I loved about my body. They were a deep chocolate brown, bordering on the verge of black. “Full of shit,” one of my ex-stepdads would say before beating the hell out of me for my “smart mouth”.

Krista almost knocked me over when she hugged me. One good thing about Krista, if I were ever to bring a guy home, she wouldn't be at all interested. Krista was a lesbian, which kind of made me happy. I didn’t have to compete for male attention with her, because she'd win hands down every time.

As we walked the rest of the way across the quad, she started telling me about her latest fling, a girl named Krickitt. She met her at a local gay club, and I remembered the night she met her just a week ago, as a matter of fact. Krista had wanted me to go out with her, but I’d opted to stay home and study. “You’re boring,” had been her complaint.

Krista didn't shut up until we got back to the house we were renting. It was small but just the right size for the two of us. As Krista closed the door, she snapped her fingers in front of my face trying to get my attention. “Earth to Audrey, come in, Audrey.” I shook my head, trying to shake this uneasy feeling I had. “Where were you?” Krista asked, concerned.

“Torts final,” I said plainly.

“Oh, please, don't give me that crap. You have that in the bag.”

“Oh, yeah, Miss I-have-a-secure-degree-in-nursing-where-there-is-a-huge-demand?” I looked at her lopsidedly.

“Don't give me the whole job market crap again. I know something else is bothering you.” She scowled at me. “Spit it out, Audrey Christine.”

Her use of my middle name made me flinch. She knew I hated when she used it. It brought up bad memories of stepdad number two using it before he beat the shit out of me. I had to give my mother credit on one thing: she always let them beat the shit out of her, but once they touched me, we were gone. Though she couldn't have prevented the molestation I was subjected to by husband number three. When she found out, she pulled a gun on him. Thank God he was in jail for the molestation now. I was only too happy to testify against him. That's why I think I wanted to become a paralegal, to eventually try and help other molestation victims. A paralegal helped me put him behind bars where he couldn't hurt another child, for a while at least. The lawyer scared me, but the paralegal was a young woman who had young children, and the way she described how she wanted to hurt him—not just for me, but if he were to ever come in contact with her children—made me instantly like and trust her. At that time, I needed someone other than family to want to inflict violence on my behalf.

Krista snapped her fingers in front of my face again, taking me out of the horrible memories of that bastard's touch, which always caused a shiver to run down my spine. When I finally looked back at Krista, she had a look of concern on her face. “What is it?” she asked.

I couldn't tell her how lonely I actually felt lately. That would only upset her, so I put on a fake smile and said, “Torts, I need an “A” on the final to keep my GPA up, so I need to go study.” Knowing to back off, she put her hands up to signify surrender. I walked down the hallway, giving her double thumbs up along the way. That apparently appeased her, because she left me alone.

When I got to my room, I put my extremely heavy backpack down on my bed, my shoulders thanking me for doing so. That would be something I wouldn't miss. I absolutely was ready to turn my backpack in for a briefcase. The thought of the changeover put a smile on my face.

Ever the procrastinator, I decided to prolong the inevitable of studying and fired up my ancient laptop. It was a few years old and slower than snot, but it had gotten me through a ton of research projects. I sat down to check my email to see if the job listings had changed, and I scowled when I noticed it hadn't changed at all over the past three hours.

While I was checking my email, I spotted a spam email from a popular dating website. After I deleted all of the spam email and thought nothing of it, I decided I had monkeyed around enough on my laptop and grabbed the books I needed to study for my Torts final. My computer let out a clinking sound, which indicated that a junk email had arrived in my inbox. I decided to check and delete it right away, because I was one of those people who liked to have a clean email inbox.

A shiver ran down my spine when I noticed it originated from the dating website. I was beginning to think that they were reading my mind on how lonely I was. In deep contemplation, I rubbed my chin. After a few moments, I said ‘what the hell’ and opened the spam email to read the details about their website.

After reading the advertisement, my interest was piqued, so I typed the dating website’s address into the browser's address bar. The website popped open right away, kind of freaking me out because I'd never been on the site before. I clicked on the register icon then read the fine print and instantly liked that most of it was free except for the VIP services. I snorted at the idea of paying for a website to set me up on a date. Yeah, right.

As I entered my information, I was perplexed at how I would describe myself in the “Tell us about you” part of my profile. What do I say? Do I describe how I look? They had a body description check-off already. They must mean my personality and likes and such. Yeah, that's it. But again, what did I say? Finally, I just decided to be honest. Honesty is the best policy, right?

“Hi, I'm Audrey. I'm a paralegal student at one of the local universities and will be graduating at the end of this semester. First and foremost, I am looking to find someone to spend the rest of my life with. Having spent the majority of my life in the country, I’d classify myself as a tomboy. I love to go off-roading and mudding, which, sadly, I don't get to do much of here in the city. Music is a guilty pleasure of mine, and I listen to almost anything under the sun. As a movie lover, I am mainly into suspense, but I do enjoy action movies as well. I'm pretty laid-back. If you want to talk or ask me anything, don't be afraid to message me.”

Not knowing what else to say, I hit the save button and took in a deep breath, then I decided I needed to stop procrastinating. I picked up my books, then scooted my laptop back and got to the task at hand: studying hard so I would ace my Tort's final. About fifteen minutes after I hit the save button on the website, I heard a ping from my email. Curious, I moved my books out of the way and pulled my laptop closer to me. My email said I had a new message waiting for me on the dating website.

I couldn't help but feel a little giddy at the prospect of my first message, so I immediately logged onto the dating website and clicked on the link to open it. The sender had a picture, and I saw that he was fairly handsome. “Hi, I'm Steve. How are you?”

“Hi Steve. I'm fine, how are you?” I waited a few minutes for a reply before I gave up and opened one of my books again and stared at the page I’d been on last. The computer beeped, scaring the shit out of me. It was Steve's return message.

“I'm good. What exactly are you looking for on this site?” I scowled at his response. Did he not read my profile at all? Sighing, I replied, hoping that not all men on this site were as dense as Steve.

I typed out, “I'm looking for a serious relationship. What are you looking for?” I already knew what he was looking for, because I, unlike him, actually checked his profile. All it said was he was looking for was a romantic encounter. Being a piece of ass or another notch in someone else’s belt wasn’t what I wanted; I knew I deserved more.

“I'm not looking for a serious relationship; was hoping that you might want to hook up?” Steve, now known as Jerk One, registered an 8.5 on the idiot meter. Were all the guys on this site looking for a conquest? If this was the case, then screw this. I’d stay celibate for the rest of my life. Becoming a paralegal nun was sounding better and better.

“Ummm, no thank you.” I decided to suppress the urge to call him a jerk and be nice. I pushed the laptop back again, hoping not to get a response. I was studying for maybe all of five minutes when the notification went off again. “Christ!”

“Hi.” This time it was a guy named Jeffrey. He was handsome in his own right, just not my type. We exchanged pleasantries, and I eventually decided after an hour of back and forth that I really needed to get back to studying. He said that was fine, and I immediately turned off my laptop so I wouldn't be interrupted again.

After four hours of studying, my head was swimming, full of court cases. I slammed my book shut and decided it was time to eat something, so I went into the kitchen, where Krista was sitting with all her nursing books spread around haphazardly over the table. She tended to get distracted easily, so I decided to go for a simple sandwich to try to avoid getting her totally off track. When I got back to my room, I finished my sandwich and collapsed on my bed, exhausted. I needed sleep. The Torts final was in a week, and I had a sinking feeling that my GPA was going to drop. I was confident I wouldn't completely bomb it but was worried that my brain wouldn't hold all the dates and cases.

Starting to feel very frustrated, I thought of Krista’s surefire way to end frustration: masturbation. She, after all, was all about women's liberation, so she had bought me a toy for my last birthday. Feeling self-conscious and silly using it, I didn’t use it very often, but I was frustrated and needed a distraction from my thoughts.

Because of embarrassment, I shut the blinds on my bedroom windows, locked my bedroom door, and started to remove my jeans and hoodie. Having removed my clothes, I sat down on the bed and pulled the toy out of its hiding place and stared at it like it was an alien. Why people thought these things were sexy I'd never know. But after three years of inactivity, I figured it was the best way to ease the frustration I was feeling.

Lying back on the bed, I got into a comfortable position. I spread my legs and slowly guided the toy into me. Once I got it fully inside of me, I turned on the clitoris stimulator. The elephant's trunk of the stimulator tickled at first, but when I began pumping the toy in with shallow strokes, I immediately began to get turned on. I started to pluck at my nipple with my free hand while moving the toy faster and deeper the closer I came to orgasm. My whole body shaking started as my hand that was playing with my nipple left its place to grab the side of the bed. My back arched as I felt the tremors hit a peak. A soft moan escaped my lips.

When I was finally able to get my heart rate under control, I removed the toy. That's when I heard a knock on my bedroom door. Crap. “Just a minute! I'm getting ready for bed,” I yelled as I hastily put on my pajamas and a cami top to cover my bare breasts.

As I opened the door, there Krista stood with her arms folded over her chest and a smart-ass smile on her face. “Why did you lock your door?” I rolled my eyes as I walked back over to my bed and sat down, knowing I would get the whole “masturbation can be a good thing” speech from her again. She just stood in the doorway for a minute before seriousness fell across her face. “Listen, Audrey, I'm worried about you. You haven't been with anyone in how many years now?”

“Three, but what does that matter?” I asked, eyeing her.

“As much as I hate saying anything about the male anatomy, because you know it freaks me out, I think you need to go out there and suck a few dicks.” She shivered at the thought of wrapping her mouth around a penis. How she planned on being a nurse when she was grossed out by a simple body part floored me. But I sort of got what she was saying.

“God, Krista! I'm not going to hook up with some random guy to get my rocks off. You gave me old reliable, and it’s working just fine for right now. I'm fine, really, I am. I just want to get done with finals, then maybe I can have a social life outside of you and school,” I said, wanting the entire subject dropped.

“I'm just worried about you, Audrey. I don't want you to become an old cat lady.” I could tell a disgusting thought crossed her face. “You don't want a pussy licking your pussy, now, do you?”

Slapping her shoulder, I laughed. “Ick, Krista! The shit that crosses your mind sometimes.” I got up off the bed and hugged her. “I know you care about me and thank you for that. I just really need to get past graduation before the thought of a dick can cross my mind.” Krista let out a sigh and stood up and hugged me to her again. When she finally left, I shut the door and let out a sigh of relief. I knew she was right, though. I had been lonely for too long.

Crossing the room to my desk and sitting down, I pulled my laptop closer to me and logged onto the dating website and decided that I was going to send out some messages and see who, if anyone, would reply. Noticing that I had two new messages, I opened them. One of them, after reading his profile, seemed like a jerk. I deleted his message without replying. The next guy didn't have a profile picture like the others did. This intrigued me. His message seemed normal enough and so did his profile description, so I decided to take a chance and reply.

There was an immediate reply, which surprised me, because his first message was sent over an hour ago. “How are you? I'm Gabe.”

“Hi Gabe, I'm Audrey. And I'm good, how are you?” I found myself staring at the laptop's screen waiting for his reply. Like something was drawing me to him already.

“I'm good. I was wondering if you'd like to see a few pictures of me. I don't like to post them on the site, but I can send them to your email.” I was a little taken aback. This made me wonder if I wouldn't be attracted to him. But my interest was piqued, so I gave him my email address. Within minutes, I found myself taking a deep breath and opened the email.

I gasped upon opening the pictures he sent me. He was gorgeous. The first picture I opened was a headshot. He had black shoulder-length hair that skimmed his collar. His eyes were the greenest eyes I had ever seen. They would make any emerald jealous. He had Mediterranean features that would make any Greek god envious. The second picture was a full body shot of him standing against a unique tree with his shirt off. His physique was sculpted but not overdone. He had an athletic build. I was in so much shock I had to check the other three pictures he sent to make sure it was the same person in all of the photos. I was surprised to find that they were the same guy in every picture.

A ping interrupted me drooling. It was Gabe. “Did you get the pictures okay?” he asked. Still dumbstruck, I looked at the pictures again and was speechless. This guy had to be messing with me.

“Yeah, I got them,” was all I could reply. I didn't know what else to say.

“I hope you weren't offended by the shirtless one. I chose it because of the wonderful tree and the gorgeous beach sunset in the background.” He was worried that I would be offended by a shirtless picture of this Adonis? I was sitting here speechless yet again. My face grew hot and I wondered what he wanted with fat old me?

“I wasn't offended. Can I ask you a serious question, though?” I was already afraid of the answer.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“I was just wondering why me? Why not choose one of the prettier girls on this site? The majority of them are prettier than I am. I mean, you are a very handsome man. Beyond handsome. I guess what I'm saying is, if you're just in it to get a cheap thrill by making fun of me, then you can just turn around and get the hell out of my life. I'm looking for something serious. And if you think it's funny to lead a fat girl on, then you are seriously sick. Oh, and not every fat girl is starving for sex. We aren't all as desperate as you think, thank you very much.” I felt my ears grow hot and tears prickle my eyes; I was pissed off at the idea of being the brunt of yet another fat joke, which brought up old childhood insecurities. I didn't need that shit.

He didn't reply right away. I half hoped he got the point. Especially if he was just trying to make a joke out of me. Just as I was hovering my mouse over the logout button, my computer pinged. It was a reply from Gabe. Taking in a deep breath, I opened the reply. “First off, don't ever let anyone tell you that you aren't gorgeous. I find you incredibly beautiful. I'm not in it for a cheap thrill; I am thirty-four and am too old to play kid games. I, too, am looking for a serious relationship. Believe me when I say you seem like an incredible catch. Any guy who doesn't see that is blind and stupid.”

I almost fell out of my chair when I read this, feeling incredibly stupid. “I'm so sorry. I feel absolutely stupid for going off on you like that. I just don't play stupid games like that.”

“Don't apologize. I think you were just trying to protect your feelings. I totally understand that. You've probably been hurt before. I get that. I really do. But just know I'm not like that and I would never try to intentionally hurt you. That's not me.”

I didn't reply right away; I really didn't know what to say. So, I sat there for a minute, mulling over what to say next. Then I responded the only way I knew how. “Here's my number. If you call or text me tomorrow, I'll respond. It's getting late and I have an early class in the morning. I hope to hear from you. Have a good night.” I didn't wait for a reply; I just turned off my laptop and made my way over to my bed to lie down.

After plugging in my phone to charge, I lay down to drift off to sleep when my phone chirped, indicating I had a new text message. “It's Gabe. Sleep tight, beautiful. I will talk to you tomorrow.” I fell asleep with a smile on my face for the first time in a long time.

When I woke up the next morning, my face hurt. I must have smiled in my sleep, because it felt like my smile muscles were strained from overuse. Getting dressed, I noticed that the indicator light on my phone was flashing, meaning I had a new text message. Looking at my phone caused that stupid goofy grin to come across my face again. “I hope you slept well and that I'm the first to say good morning to you.” It was from Gabe.

When I walked out of my room, I guess I was still wearing that dumb-ass smile plastered on my face. “Well, if the cat didn't eat the canary,” Krista said as I walked into the living room.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, still unable to stop the pull to the sides of my lips.

“It means you have a Cheshire Cat smile on your face and I want to know what put it there.” Krista had a way of putting things bluntly and knowing exactly how to find what they were. “I heard you pounding away on your computer last night, and I know finishing a paper doesn't put a smile like that on a girl's face.”

Rolling my eyes, I went on about my business. I felt her gaze boring a hole into me. “I'm having a good morning, is all. Oh, by the way, what's with all the cat sayings? Pussy, cat eating the canary, Cheshire Cat? Wait, I don't even want to know what's going on in your head at the moment.”

“Did I ever tell you that you're a bad liar? You’ve been holding out on me, so spit it out. Who is he? When did you meet him? And when did he sneak into your room? Did he crawl in through your bedroom window? Because I didn’t hear the front door open last night.” I just gathered the rest of my stuff and headed out the door.

“Bye, Krista.” Laughing, I shut the door and headed toward the campus. We lived just within walking distance from my class, so there wasn't a need to hassle with driving and trying to find a nonexistent parking spot. Just five minutes away from class, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID, and it was the same number that Gabe had been sending texts from. I felt a smile spread across my lips. “Hello?”

“Audrey?” asked an extremely sexy, deep, dark voice. “It's Gabe.”

“Hi Gabe, how are you?” My voice sounded breathless as I asked. I was so distracted by his voice I nearly walked into a streetlamp.

“I'm good. What about you, how are you?” he asked.

“I'm good, too. I just want to apologize again about being an ass last night,” I said as I reached the building I needed to be in. I sat down on a bench just outside the door. It was nice outside, and I was not looking forward to going in and listening to Dr. Oldham go on and on about Law Ethics.

“Don't apologize. I don't know your history, but I get why you may feel that way. Believe me, I do.” There was a pause. “I did mean it when I said I think you're gorgeous.”

I felt a blush rise to my cheeks. All I could force out was a quick and squeaky, “Thank you.”

There was another pause. Getting worried that we might have been cut off, I checked my phone, but it didn’t indicate a dropped call. When he finally spoke, he asked, “I was wondering if you were free for lunch this afternoon? That is if you're not busy with classes.”

“My class is over at 12:30. I could meet you at one, if that's not too late. Where were you thinking?” I had to fight the squeal of joy from bubbling up while answering him.

“No, that's not too late. How do you like Italian food?” His voice was full of hope. I couldn't help but smile, hoping that I possibly put that sound there.

“I love Italian.”

“Then how about we meet at Stefano's around one? If that's good for you.” Gabe's voice was dripping with the sound of joy. Like I was making him the happiest man on planet Earth by having lunch with him. The sound made me happy.

“Sounds good to me. I'll see you then.” I paused. “Thank you for the sweet messages last night and this morning.”