Chapter 1





Kelci


Jeans! That’s all I need, just a simple pair of blue jeans. No holes, no gimmicks, not too small, so my butt sticks out. Just a simple pair of jeans. How hard can that be? I flip through another rack and roll my eyes. Presumably harder than I anticipated before stepping into the small boutique. And this has been my seventh store.

“How about these?”

I look up and see Sabrina holding up a pair of jeans. I eye them up and down, then scrunch up my nose. “Too old.”

“How can jeans be too old?” Sabrina asks, snickering, slipping the jeans back into their spot on the rack. “If you’re talking about the ragged holes in the knees, that’s the style. Haven’t you heard?”

I smirk, shaking my head. “The jeans aren’t too old. But I’m not sixty years old. I’ll leave it at that.”

Sabrina sighs, falling against a rack. “I feel like we’ve been at this for days, weeks, months even—all for a pair of jeans. I’d much rather be shopping for makeup. Or men.” She snickers, raising her eyebrows up and down, a devilish smirk on her lips. “Where was the conversation before I got caught up in jeans’ talk?”

“I don’t recall,” I mumble, turning back to another rack. A rack that I already perused. What was one more time?

“Ah yes, I recall. Your blind date last night.” I look up to find Sabrina grinning from ear to ear. “I believe you were about to tell me what an amazing friend I am because I found you the love of your life, and you can’t possibly say enough fantabulous things about him. Is that right?” She arches an eyebrow, that grin still as wide as it was the first time she said those words.

I tilt my head. “Don’t recall the conversation going there.” I shrug, grabbing a pair of jeans and looking them over, then shrugging and putting them back in their place. “If memory serves me well, and I do believe it does, I was about to tell you that if you ever even consider setting me up again, I just might have to unfriend you.”

“Ouch,” Sabrina grumbles. “That bad, huh?”

“Bad is an understatement. If the guy wasn’t talking about his ex-girlfriend, he talked about his mom. Don’t get me wrong. If I were to start dating someone, I would love him to have a great relationship with his mother. I mean, who wouldn’t? Nothing compares to a guy that treats his mother like a queen, but all night? He didn’t want to get to know me. It screamed trouble from the moment I said hello.”

I grab a pair of jeans off a shelf and head for the dressing room. “What’s this, folks? Is Kelci Wiley actually going to try a pair on?”

I look over my shoulder and smirk as Sabrina drops her fist from her lips, removing her makeshift microphone. “Just trying to change things up.” I push through the dressing room curtain and stare at the jeans I took from the table moments ago. They are plain, just what I was looking for, with just a slight flare at the ankle. It didn’t hurt to at least give them a try. It’s more than I’ve done the rest of the morning, and the day has already flown by. After all, I have to be at work in less than an hour.

I start undressing, hurrying through the motions to get them on, make sure they fit and then buy them before rushing off to work.

“Spoke to Cat last night,” Sabrina says, hollering just outside of my dressing room.

“Oh yeah? What’d she have to say?” I ask, pulling my jeans up. The moment I get them on, I can tell they’re not quite the cut I’m looking for. For starters, they’re just a little too snug in the rear. I waste no time pulling them off and grabbing my clothes.

“Wanted to know when we’re going to get together. The last couple of times, something has come up, and someone has had to cancel. She went on and on about missing us and....” I pull the curtain back and step out of the room. “That was fast.”

“Not for me,” I mumble, walking back over to the shelving unit and dropping them to the pile. “I miss Cat and Anastasia as much as you do.”

“We’re only a city away,” Sabrina snickers. “And that equates to thirty minutes. I’m with Cat. We need to do better with making sure we get together. When you moved to the Big City, we all promised that we wouldn’t let time pass us by. Life is short.”