Dying For You Read Free

“You’re lucky I’m even helping you move all your shit.”
    “So, so lucky,” she replied, annoyed at the amused look on Nikki’s face. They had known each other since the fourth grade and were more like sisters than friends—like a close family member, she often wanted to strangle Nikki, or at least banish her. The flip side was, if anyone ever threatened Nikki, Cathy would take a baseball bat to their frontal lobe. “Thank you for coming over.”
    “Yeah.” He turned his back to them and trotted down the porch steps, sidestepping her other friends and wrestling the television out of the back of the rental van.
    “I said it before and I’ll say it again: day-amn!”
    “He’s obnoxious,” Cathy muttered under her breath.
    “Like you could do so much better. If you could, sunshine, you would have by now.”
    “Here comes the ‘you’re not getting any younger’ speech.”
    “Well, you’re not. You’re on the wrong side of your twenties, girlfriend, and you’ve got a golden opportunity right next door.”
    “He’s not what I would call golden,” she commented.
    “Golden tan,” Nikki said dreamily. “God, he must work out ten hours a day. In the sun. Getting sweaty. All sweaty in the blazing sun. Ummm…”
    “Go for it. You two were made for each other.”
    “Meaning I’m an obnoxious bitch,” she said cheerfully,taking no offense. “Thanks tons. Hey, he wouldn’t be coming over here if he didn’t think you were cute.”
    “I’m not cute,” she said coldly. “Kittens are cute. I’m a grown woman.”
    “Says the five-foot-nothing shrimp-o,” Nikki said, smugly secure with her five feet, ten inches. “You’ve got to get over the cute thing. It’s not a dirty word, y’know. You’re short, you’re gorgeous, women pay hundreds of dollars to make their hair as curly—”
    “Frizzy.”
    “—as yours is naturally, and you’ve got Sinatra blue eyes. You’re like a gypsy princess with Sinatra eyes.”
    “Why, Nikki. That was almost poetic.” Nikki always saw her friends as gorgeous beauties, which sounded like a good quality, but really was a little on the annoying side. Particularly if you were the type who knew you weren’t beautiful. “I didn’t know you cared.”
    Nikki ignored the jibe. “Now you’re getting pissy because he’s attracted to you?”
    “He doesn’t know me.”
    “Hardly anybody does, sugarplum. You’re kind of famous for keeping us all at arm’s length.”
    “It certainly doesn’t work on you.”
    “No chance, baby,” she said, grinning. “I know I’m your hero.”
    “I suspect Ken’s interest in me is strictly of the novelty type.”
    “It’s what what of the what?”
    “I’m here,” she explained, “like Everest. So he’s interested.”
    “So? That’s as good a reason as any to get sweaty with a sexy neighbor.”
    “Nikki…”
    “Come on, let’s get you moved in.”
    Nikki was right, Cathy thought, following her friend to the van. She is my hero. I could never be so relaxed, so fun. So obnoxious and blunt. But I’m not going for Ken, no matter how much she nags me. It just wasn’t meant to be.
    However, I have no plans to buy him a shirt in the near future.

Chapter 4
    She couldn’t find her keys, which was infuriating and, worse, made her want to cry with frustration. She hated,
hated
not being able to find things. It’s why she was still unpacking at 3:00 A.M . It’s why she decided it was a good time to drive to the local 24-hour supermarket and stock the fridge, so when she got up in the morning—later today, rather—she could have her toast and yogurt and tea.
    “Goddammit!” she cried, running her fingers through her frizz—yes, that’s right,
frizz,
never mind how often Nikki admired her hair and said it was curly and, ugh, cute. “Where are you?”
    She had a place for them, of course—the drawer in the writing desk in her foyer. That was where they belonged. That was where they
should
be. But she’d lent