The Sunset Prophecy (Love & Armageddon #1) Read Free Page A

the upcoming summer Olympics, but his chiseled face and ripped body, which he always put on the line whenever he laced up the gloves, were ripe for a slew of commercial endorsements.
    Keelen sighed. “I swear, I’m gonna lose Matt.”
    “ You’re so negative.”
    “ How could I not be? He’s going places and I’m still working at this hell-hole of a gallery and I can’t land a paying acting job to save my life.”
    Cindy stopped her Beetle with the distinctive broken brake light in front of a strip of small boutiques on Melrose. Keelen quickly stepped out of the car.
    “You have nothing to worry about,” Cindy said.
    “ Yeah?” Keelen said, as she slouched through the passenger-side window and grabbed her purse.
    “ He’ll never leave you. You’re a great girlfriend and he seems to have his head on straight. No self-respecting man is going to pass you up.”
    “ Thanks.” Keelen smiled appreciatively, but with doubt sucking the optimistic gleam from her cerulean-hued eyes.
    “ Listen, if it all goes to hell, we have each other,” Cindy said.
    “ Oh, yeah? I don’t know about that.”
    “ Really?”
    “ I’m kidding.”
    “ Good. Because I think destiny has brought us together. You and I are in for some big things, just you watch.”
    Cindy was a n oasis of calm. The reputation of Los Angeles as a notoriously fake city was true, at least for Keelen. Friendships came and went like the local copycat, Korean-owned frozen yogurt shops that boomed and busted every month. And there were times where she would befriend a fellow ingénue at an audition, meet up with her at a bar and a week later, never hear from her again. In a city of transient people and businesses, Cindy was a constant friend, a much-needed one, as Keelen traded her dull life with guaranteed healthcare in Canada for one of extreme risk and fleeting fame in L.A.
    “ You gonna take the bus home, or are you going to let pride slide tonight and let me pick you up?” Cindy asked, smothering her hands over the psychedelic rubber covering that encircled her steering wheel.
    Keelen bit her lip and swayed her hips with anxiety. She abhorred codependence, but this time, she knew swallowing her pride was a small price to pay for not running into the umpteenth crack-head on the Metro line at fifteen before midnight.
    “ Sure, thanks,” she said, reluctantly. “But I owe you...in fact, you can have my Cocoa Puffs. How’s that?”
    C indy shrugged and flashed Keelen a half-grin.
    “ You ate them, didn’t you?” Keelen pointed her finger. “Just be here at 11:00, okay?”
    Cindy made a sweeping gesture with her hand as Keelen closed the passenger-side door and walked toward the gallery. “Meelenina Bascua.”
    Keelen turned around. “What was that for?”
    “ It’s to keep the bad spirits away. I sense too much negativity surrounding you,” said Cindy through the open car window.
    Keelen smirked, waved and tip-tapped on her boots into the chic photo gallery.
     
     
     

4
    A Night on the Mount
    K eelen, you’re late again,” said Carol, the paunchy, graying store manager who had finagled herself into the only position within the store that paid a living wage. Carol was childless, husband-less, and was always the first one to arrive early and leave late because she lived in the apartment above the gallery.
    “ I’m real sorry, Carol. It’s just that my ride...”
    “ ...this is getting old,” chided Carol. She grabbed Keelen by the arm and led her to a corner of the store. “You need to start taking this job seriously. I know you’re out there trying to make it, but I have on my desk right now over fifty job applications of kids trying to make it . Some of them are probably just as good or better actors than you—ones who could probably sell sin to Jesus himself.”
    “ I understand...”
    “ ...this isn’t the first time you said you understood. We’ll talk after Mr. Click’s visit.”
    Keelen ’s eyes widened. “What?