The Reality of You Read Free

Naomi?”
Kara said from behind me as I wiped down the dry counter around the sink with a
paper towel.  
    I couldn’t help a
smirk as my eyes met hers in the mirror. “What? I sprayed water all over.
Merely being a good citizen.”
    “You’ve been in here
for almost a half hour.”
    “Hasn’t been twenty
minutes. I have two more minutes to reach my time-allotted twenty.”
    Stepping next to me,
Kara adjusted blond locks around her shoulders. With light blond hair and
naturally big boobs, no one noticed the big—it really wasn’t—nose she
complained about. Well, except for her. Funny though, Kara was always going on
and on about how, if I dressed right, my darker hair coloring in contrast with
my fair skin paired with my toned body were the perfect recipe for sexy. But I
was sure it was my pert nose that she envied most.
    Finished with
arranging her hair to frame her chest, she started arranging my hair. “Naomi, you’re not going to get
back on the bike if you hide in the restroom. Or sit sulking over your beer. I
know you want this. You read so many of those smutty romance books and watch
that guy at lunch that it’s obvious you want this. You want this, right?” she asked,
suddenly sounding worried.
    “Well, books and men
across the way are safe. I’m not ready to get dumped again.”
    She fluffed the hair
at my temple. “You can’t really count the first two.”  
    “Well, my heart
does,” I said stubbornly. From Jake, my eighth-grade boyfriend—yeah, that
wasn’t going to last, but tell that to my thirteen-year-old heart—to my high
school love, Shane—I’d spent three years withthat cheating douchebag—to my college fiancé, each one had broken
my heart. I’d never been the jealous or clingy type, rather the easygoing fun
girlfriend. Yet I’d gone through the wringer with every single one of my
relationships in the end. Obviously, the last had been the worst.
    “Middle school and
high school don’t count, Naomi,” she said as if reading my mind. “That’s puppy
love, but James…” She dropped her hand and clenched the edge of the sink.
“Yeah, I get your heartbreak there. You two were inseparable for over two
years. I was stunned when he broke
your engagement and beyond pissed when he started dating that gymnast…”
Noticing my despondent look in the mirror, she flinched.
    James had been one
of the soccer team’s trainers, so we had started as friends, slowly moved
toward dating, had the same interests—soccer—fallen in love, and gotten
engaged. Yet the moment my future career had fallen apart, James and I had
fallen apart too. The accident had not only broken my body, but apparently my
connection to him. Though he’d never admit it, I was sure that he had wanted an
Olympic wife more than me. And though everything about him ending us had hurt,
that had hurt the most. It still hurt.
    Kara’s expression
turned stern. “It’s been over two years. You have to stop letting the accident
and James hold you back. I’m not saying go and fall in love like usual. Just
live a little, date widely, and maybe even get your confidence back. Maybe even
think about coaching again.”
    I let out a sad
sigh. Dating and falling in love had once brought a lovely rush of excitement
and warm, glowing feelings. I probably did fall into too fast, but now, all I
could imagine was heartbreak and tears along with depression and gallons of ice
cream.
    No. Thank. You.
    And coaching? My
coaching at the collegiate level seemed on par with my becoming a dominatrix. I
just couldn’t see it anymore, other than as a fantasy.
    When Kara stepped
back, I shot the paper towel into the basket across the room. Score . “It’s more me I’m scared of. I
obviously have a problem with the guys I’m attracted to, but those three are nothing
I want,” I said, a grimace twisting my overly coated lips.
    Her hands fisted on
her hips. This seemed to be her perpetual stance with me. “They’re not that
bad.”
    “Oh,