Fated to be Yours Read Free Page A

climbing into her car with a wave.
    I walk to my own car and start it up, eager to get home and start my preparations for the week ahead.

I WALK INTO MY APARTMENT , feeling completely refreshed after my massage. I really need to thank Kara for the gift because it was exactly what I needed. I’ve never had one before, but I know that I will be putting money aside in my budget to get another one. Jenny had some magical hands and managed to ease all the tension from my body. Not an easy feat but she did it.
    Looking around at the space I call my home, I decide that a good cleaning is in order before I leave for the week. Not that it’ll take long. I’m not a messy person and I don’t usually have people come over so nothing is ever out of place. But I love the reward of my house smelling of citrus afterward so I clean as often as I can.
    A few hours pass by me with ease as I dance and sing along with the songs from my playlist. The Swiffer duster is acting as my microphone while I belt out each note from every song. I’m a bit of a nerd when I’m lost in my music, but it’s a lifeline that I can’t live without. Getting lost in the lyrics, imagining my life being told by my favorite songs and pretending that they’re singing about me or to me is my reality escape.
    Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer is blasting through the speakers when all of a sudden the music dies and my phone rings. I walk over to the dock to grab my phone and look at the display, loudly groaning when I see that it’s my stepmother calling. The phone rings once more before I reluctantly answer the call I already know I don’t want to take.
    “Hi, Sharon.”
    “Tessa, how are you? It’s been a while since we’ve talked last. I figured I’d check to see how you were doing.”
    I close my eyes and let out a hushed sigh. She and my dad have been married for a little over eight years, a few months prior to my high school graduation. My dad never really kept in contact with me after the divorce. There was the occasional phone call but after about a year it stopped altogether. It wasn’t until after he married Sharon that I really spent any sort of time with him. And even then, our time together was quiet and strained. I tried to get along with his new wife, but Sharon had other ideas. Our contact has been as minimal as possible since Sharon has made it very clear from the beginning she thought I was a nuisance. She was his new life and there really wasn’t much room left for me so I kept my distance and only came around when I was asked.
    “I’ve been really busy lately with work so I haven’t had the time to talk to anyone. How’s my dad doing?” I say quietly into the phone.
    “He’s the only reason why I’m calling in the first place. He’s working on another large case again as usual. He asked me to call you and see how you were doing. You know how his schedule is. He’s always in court about something or traveling somewhere because of it.”
    I sigh and can’t help but wonder why he doesn’t just call me himself? Why does he always have her do it? “I know. Well, you can let him know that I’m alive and well. I’ll be out of town with my boss next week on a business trip so you can let him know that too.” I purposely omit telling Sharon about London. Knowing her as well as I do, I’m not in the right frame of mind to listen to her gloat about her many trips around the world that she takes with my dad. She always loves to rub it in how they go anywhere and everywhere as they please and that I don’t have the means to do so. It doesn’t help that she looks down on my job, calling it menial work. Something no self-respecting individual would make for their career, according to her.
    “They’re taking you on a business trip? You’re just an assistant. What could you possibly do?” she scoffs.
    I hang my head and run my fingernails across the edge of the kitchen counter. “I help take notes and prepare everything for the