Excerpt: Seasoned Sophomore by S.G. Lovell
Book: Seasoned Sophomore
Release Date: September 1, 2015
Release Date: September 1, 2015
Links:
Amazon | Goodreads
Blurb:
Angelina Masterson has heard it all during a lifetime of struggling with her womanly curves, but when pastry chef Edward Daniels criticizes her weight minutes after adding her notch in his bedpost Angie decides enough is enough. The Sophomore level pole dance class at New York’s hip pole dance studio Crystal’s is only one step in her plan to shed the pounds. The second step is to overhaul her diet. Not a problem, now that she has sworn off Edward’s desserts. If only it was as easy to stop craving the man…
When the girl he has fallen hard for suggests that their one-night stand could have been business rather than pleasure, Edward doesn’t think twice about lashing out. He has been burned before and he is not going to let the past repeat itself. If only he wasn’t so desperate to have Angie in his future…
Chapter 2
What a nightmare.
Edward stared at the email that had arrived in his inbox half an hour earlier with an attachment titled
“Spec Sheet for Ground Bean Audition Applicants.”
His marketing expert, Cecily Jones, wasn’t only a pain in the ass when it came to finding him the right model for his campaign, she was also an efficient pain in the ass. Which was worse, considering Edward did not think turning his beloved coffee shop into a modeling agency, even for a day, was a good idea. He had hoped that this whole marketing hoopla would be dealt with swiftly and quietly.
Preferably without much input from him. Instead he had been fighting disaster after disaster for the last two months. Ever since he got it into his head to shoot this year’s marketing campaign early there’d been nothing but trouble. Wasted time. Wasted money. And now Cecily’s crazy notion of a public audition. It would be a logistical ordeal to organize all the bits and pieces that differentiated a successful event from a half-baked fiasco. The devil was in the details, as any small business owner was sure to agree. He needed to find the right date. Make certain he marketed the marketing event sufficiently to ensure a reasonable turnout. Edward huffed.
The whole thing would disrupt his perfectly profitable routine flow of business. This was not what he wanted. Maybe he would feel differently if he had actually agreed to Cecily’s ridiculous idea at some point during their meeting. As it was, Edward couldn’t remember doing anything of the sort. The marketing expert must have read acquiescence anyway. In his tone? In his demeanor? In the way he had knotted his fucking apron this morning? Who the hell knew? The only thing that Edward was certain about was the electronic communication glaring back at him from his laptop screen.
“You okay? I heard some, uh, groaning.” Edward looked up to find his pimple-faced trainee, Lucas, poking his head into the small office from the adjoining kitchen, his dark hair as always his most prominent feature. Edward suppressed a sigh. When would the guy learn that the pompadour hairstyle had died along with “the King” some thirty-odd years ago? “Do I look like a yes man?” Lucas laughed, probably as surprised by the question as Edward was about asking it. Edward employed a number of experienced staff, all of whom had been with him for at least two years. Each one of them was better placed to judge Edward’s character than a wannabe impersonator who had met him a mere three months ago. But for some reason Edward knew he couldn’t have chosen a better person to tell him the truth. For all his youth—and his misguided sense of fashion, or maybe because of it—Lucas had shown a number of times already that he had enough spine to speak his mind.
Lucas’s next words cemented Edward’s opinion of him. “With the customers of the Ground Bean you try to be. But not when it comes to running the business.” He shrugged, clearly uncertain where Edward was going with all this. Edward frowned at the spreadsheet he had open on his desktop. “Then, tell me, why on earth I am considering this bullshit?” Lucas sidled closer to take a look at the screen. “Ah, the marketing audition. You know it makes sense.” “I do?” Edward raised an eyebrow. Lucas snorted. “You want me to believe you haven’t told Cecily “no,” because what? She steamrolled over you with all of her hundred pounds?” The picture made Edward grin. “Of course not.” But it was reassuring that his employees seemed to realize it too. “Tell me what you make of this.” He leaned back and watched the younger man carefully. “Are you trying to get me to think outside the box again?” Lucas asked. “Paving your way to owning your own business one of these days,” Edward confirmed. Lucas rubbed his fingertips over his chin. “Cecily is clearly unable to find someone you approve of. Short of giving the contract to somebody else, something that I assume will blow this year’s advertising budget out of the water, holding the audition is the only way to make sure we’re not ending up with a bag of bones.” Concise and correct. “You’re right.” That didn’t mean Edward had to be a fan of the plan. But it seemed he had to go along with it. “I’ll need to brief the staff.”
He started a handwritten list on an empty piece of printer paper in front of him. “Let the customers know that we are having an event.” “We could use a flyer for the customers,” Lucas suggested. “If we hang it on the billboard at the front of the shop, pedestrians can see it through the window. Some of them may be enticed to come in, buy a few desserts while they are here, even if they wouldn’t otherwise.” Edward made a note. “Good idea.” The trainee had good business acumen. It was the only reason why Edward even considered what he was about to do. “What else?” “A runway. Hear me out,” Lucas said, when Edward was about to refuse the idea outright. “The audition will be as much a spectacle for the audience as it is for the applicants. What better way to captivate the onlookers than to make sure they have plenty to look at? You’d want everyone to see the girls.” A touch of color rose into Lucas’s cheeks during his speech, giving Edward the distinct impression that the prospect of beautiful women strutting between tables wouldn’t be exciting only for Ground Bean customers. “Alright then.” He jotted down the last bullet point, then held out the piece of paper he had scribbled on for Lucas to take. “You seem to be quite passionate about this whole mess. You take charge.” His trainee stared at him. “Are you sure? I-I mean I’d love to, but—” “Positive,” Edward cut him off. “The less I see of this, the better.”
Especially, as something else had just caught his eye at the bottom of Cecily’s email. A side note about the specs that he had overlooked earlier. I used Avery’s measurements as a template for body mass and preferred stature of the applicants.
Are you certain we can’t get her back? Edward gritted his teeth. Yes, he was certain. It had finally sunk into his stubborn brain that his ex girlfriend was never coming back. The realization had taken long enough. Longer still, because he couldn’t believe that the sweet young woman for whom he had single-handedly created a place in the tight job market as the face of the Ground Bean was the same person who dismissed his coffee shop—and their relationship—as beneath her a few years later. Even now, eleven months after she broke up with him, he still got angry thinking of how she had looked at him with tears in her eyes as he described the future he envisioned for the two of them, weeks before she turned around and destroyed his dreams as easily as if they were spun sugar. She had used him as a stepping stone in her career and he hadn’t realized it until it was too late. His city-wide advertising campaign had been the perfect opportunity for her to get noticed by “the big guys” in the industry. As soon as she had signed a lucrative modeling contract with a fashion label that focused on healthy-looking women, rather than the rail-thin figures that still dominated most of the front-pages in magazines, she had been out of his life faster than he could blink. But not before she had dragged their whole relationship through the dirt. “This can’t be all I achieve in life.”
He still remembered the way she had waved her hand dismissively at the two little heart-shaped “his and hers” cupcakes that he had created specifically for her birthday because he had been stupid enough to try and be romantic. He had wanted her to eat “his,” knowing that he was giving himself to her. Wholeheartedly. Forever, if she wanted him. As she had searched the otherwise empty gift table with her eyes, Edward wondered if the symbolism was lost on her. “You can’t be all I achieve.” Yes, definitely lost on her. There had been exasperation in her tone, as if her deserving better wasn’t a concept that had just popped into her mind, but something that she had thought about often, and that she had finally found the courage to say out loud. Edward didn’t have to imagine the expression of mute shock on his face as he stared at her. The camera he had set up on a tripod to capture the moment had recorded his humiliation second by painful second. Worse still, he had watched the recording over and over until he knew every word, every gesture by heart. Sometimes Edward wondered if he was angrier at Avery because he had loved her, or because she had shattered all that stupid hope he had carried in his heart. Not that the reason really mattered all that much. The end result was the same.
He was single, looking for a commitment most guys were still running from at thirty years of age. He didn’t have anyone suitable to replace Avery to represent his brand. And to top it all off, Cecily was driving him to the brink of madness. “I won’t let you down, boss.” Lucas’s excitement pulled Edward back to reality. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with the marketing expert for that much longer. Edward gave Lucas an encouraging nod. “I know you won’t.” Edward would make sure of it, keeping track of Lucas’s progress every step of the way. He couldn’t completely distance himself from the campaign, no matter how much he wished to do exactly that. To forget the memories it evoked. He was all about providing opportunities for his staff. He wanted to give each one of the guys and girls who worked for him the chance to prove themselves. But the coffee shop and everything to do with it was ultimately his responsibility. A responsibility Edward cherished. One that he never took for granted. He had worked too hard to make the Ground Bean into what it was today—a successful enterprise that catered to variety of customers. He had dodged many an uncomfortable discussion with his parents about why he wouldn’t choose a corporate career like all three of his siblings. He was a people person. He disliked suits. He hated answering to anybody but himself. Edward huffed. Of course, life wasn’t that simple. Not even the boss could do only as he pleased. He had obligations to fulfill. Promises to keep. Toward his customers. Toward his staff. Toward a certain cute eavesdropper. For the first time since Cecily’s email arrived in his inbox, Edward felt his lips kick up at the corner.
Ever since the curvy pole dancer had started to frequent his coffee shop a few weeks ago, Edward’s long dormant libido had roared back to life. Her luscious body and obvious enjoyment of life had captivated him from the get-go. Her quirky personality and genuine nature had kept his interest alive. He was utterly fascinated by her and determined to find out if she could be equally fascinated by him. Their foreplay was the longest Edward had ever participated in and he was ready—beyond ready—to take things to the next level. He had intended to let her dictate the pace, to make her feel comfortable. Only, he had a feeling she had no intentions to follow up her sinful innuendos with actions. Ever. To her it was all just a game. Well, he was through playing. She probably thought she was safe teasing him from a distance. She didn’t know he had plans to get very close, very soon.
They had circled each other for weeks now. Weeks they could have spent wrapped in each other’s arms. She hadn’t run the other way when he had turned the tables on her earlier today. In his world that made her fair game for his pursuit, until she told him otherwise. For the first time in months, excitement pulsed within him at the prospect of spending time with someone of the opposite sex. For the first time in a long time he could believe that there was a chance that the best was yet to, uh, come.
His marketing expert, Cecily Jones, wasn’t only a pain in the ass when it came to finding him the right model for his campaign, she was also an efficient pain in the ass. Which was worse, considering Edward did not think turning his beloved coffee shop into a modeling agency, even for a day, was a good idea. He had hoped that this whole marketing hoopla would be dealt with swiftly and quietly.
Preferably without much input from him. Instead he had been fighting disaster after disaster for the last two months. Ever since he got it into his head to shoot this year’s marketing campaign early there’d been nothing but trouble. Wasted time. Wasted money. And now Cecily’s crazy notion of a public audition. It would be a logistical ordeal to organize all the bits and pieces that differentiated a successful event from a half-baked fiasco. The devil was in the details, as any small business owner was sure to agree. He needed to find the right date. Make certain he marketed the marketing event sufficiently to ensure a reasonable turnout. Edward huffed.
The whole thing would disrupt his perfectly profitable routine flow of business. This was not what he wanted. Maybe he would feel differently if he had actually agreed to Cecily’s ridiculous idea at some point during their meeting. As it was, Edward couldn’t remember doing anything of the sort. The marketing expert must have read acquiescence anyway. In his tone? In his demeanor? In the way he had knotted his fucking apron this morning? Who the hell knew? The only thing that Edward was certain about was the electronic communication glaring back at him from his laptop screen.
“You okay? I heard some, uh, groaning.” Edward looked up to find his pimple-faced trainee, Lucas, poking his head into the small office from the adjoining kitchen, his dark hair as always his most prominent feature. Edward suppressed a sigh. When would the guy learn that the pompadour hairstyle had died along with “the King” some thirty-odd years ago? “Do I look like a yes man?” Lucas laughed, probably as surprised by the question as Edward was about asking it. Edward employed a number of experienced staff, all of whom had been with him for at least two years. Each one of them was better placed to judge Edward’s character than a wannabe impersonator who had met him a mere three months ago. But for some reason Edward knew he couldn’t have chosen a better person to tell him the truth. For all his youth—and his misguided sense of fashion, or maybe because of it—Lucas had shown a number of times already that he had enough spine to speak his mind.
Lucas’s next words cemented Edward’s opinion of him. “With the customers of the Ground Bean you try to be. But not when it comes to running the business.” He shrugged, clearly uncertain where Edward was going with all this. Edward frowned at the spreadsheet he had open on his desktop. “Then, tell me, why on earth I am considering this bullshit?” Lucas sidled closer to take a look at the screen. “Ah, the marketing audition. You know it makes sense.” “I do?” Edward raised an eyebrow. Lucas snorted. “You want me to believe you haven’t told Cecily “no,” because what? She steamrolled over you with all of her hundred pounds?” The picture made Edward grin. “Of course not.” But it was reassuring that his employees seemed to realize it too. “Tell me what you make of this.” He leaned back and watched the younger man carefully. “Are you trying to get me to think outside the box again?” Lucas asked. “Paving your way to owning your own business one of these days,” Edward confirmed. Lucas rubbed his fingertips over his chin. “Cecily is clearly unable to find someone you approve of. Short of giving the contract to somebody else, something that I assume will blow this year’s advertising budget out of the water, holding the audition is the only way to make sure we’re not ending up with a bag of bones.” Concise and correct. “You’re right.” That didn’t mean Edward had to be a fan of the plan. But it seemed he had to go along with it. “I’ll need to brief the staff.”
He started a handwritten list on an empty piece of printer paper in front of him. “Let the customers know that we are having an event.” “We could use a flyer for the customers,” Lucas suggested. “If we hang it on the billboard at the front of the shop, pedestrians can see it through the window. Some of them may be enticed to come in, buy a few desserts while they are here, even if they wouldn’t otherwise.” Edward made a note. “Good idea.” The trainee had good business acumen. It was the only reason why Edward even considered what he was about to do. “What else?” “A runway. Hear me out,” Lucas said, when Edward was about to refuse the idea outright. “The audition will be as much a spectacle for the audience as it is for the applicants. What better way to captivate the onlookers than to make sure they have plenty to look at? You’d want everyone to see the girls.” A touch of color rose into Lucas’s cheeks during his speech, giving Edward the distinct impression that the prospect of beautiful women strutting between tables wouldn’t be exciting only for Ground Bean customers. “Alright then.” He jotted down the last bullet point, then held out the piece of paper he had scribbled on for Lucas to take. “You seem to be quite passionate about this whole mess. You take charge.” His trainee stared at him. “Are you sure? I-I mean I’d love to, but—” “Positive,” Edward cut him off. “The less I see of this, the better.”
Especially, as something else had just caught his eye at the bottom of Cecily’s email. A side note about the specs that he had overlooked earlier. I used Avery’s measurements as a template for body mass and preferred stature of the applicants.
Are you certain we can’t get her back? Edward gritted his teeth. Yes, he was certain. It had finally sunk into his stubborn brain that his ex girlfriend was never coming back. The realization had taken long enough. Longer still, because he couldn’t believe that the sweet young woman for whom he had single-handedly created a place in the tight job market as the face of the Ground Bean was the same person who dismissed his coffee shop—and their relationship—as beneath her a few years later. Even now, eleven months after she broke up with him, he still got angry thinking of how she had looked at him with tears in her eyes as he described the future he envisioned for the two of them, weeks before she turned around and destroyed his dreams as easily as if they were spun sugar. She had used him as a stepping stone in her career and he hadn’t realized it until it was too late. His city-wide advertising campaign had been the perfect opportunity for her to get noticed by “the big guys” in the industry. As soon as she had signed a lucrative modeling contract with a fashion label that focused on healthy-looking women, rather than the rail-thin figures that still dominated most of the front-pages in magazines, she had been out of his life faster than he could blink. But not before she had dragged their whole relationship through the dirt. “This can’t be all I achieve in life.”
He still remembered the way she had waved her hand dismissively at the two little heart-shaped “his and hers” cupcakes that he had created specifically for her birthday because he had been stupid enough to try and be romantic. He had wanted her to eat “his,” knowing that he was giving himself to her. Wholeheartedly. Forever, if she wanted him. As she had searched the otherwise empty gift table with her eyes, Edward wondered if the symbolism was lost on her. “You can’t be all I achieve.” Yes, definitely lost on her. There had been exasperation in her tone, as if her deserving better wasn’t a concept that had just popped into her mind, but something that she had thought about often, and that she had finally found the courage to say out loud. Edward didn’t have to imagine the expression of mute shock on his face as he stared at her. The camera he had set up on a tripod to capture the moment had recorded his humiliation second by painful second. Worse still, he had watched the recording over and over until he knew every word, every gesture by heart. Sometimes Edward wondered if he was angrier at Avery because he had loved her, or because she had shattered all that stupid hope he had carried in his heart. Not that the reason really mattered all that much. The end result was the same.
He was single, looking for a commitment most guys were still running from at thirty years of age. He didn’t have anyone suitable to replace Avery to represent his brand. And to top it all off, Cecily was driving him to the brink of madness. “I won’t let you down, boss.” Lucas’s excitement pulled Edward back to reality. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with the marketing expert for that much longer. Edward gave Lucas an encouraging nod. “I know you won’t.” Edward would make sure of it, keeping track of Lucas’s progress every step of the way. He couldn’t completely distance himself from the campaign, no matter how much he wished to do exactly that. To forget the memories it evoked. He was all about providing opportunities for his staff. He wanted to give each one of the guys and girls who worked for him the chance to prove themselves. But the coffee shop and everything to do with it was ultimately his responsibility. A responsibility Edward cherished. One that he never took for granted. He had worked too hard to make the Ground Bean into what it was today—a successful enterprise that catered to variety of customers. He had dodged many an uncomfortable discussion with his parents about why he wouldn’t choose a corporate career like all three of his siblings. He was a people person. He disliked suits. He hated answering to anybody but himself. Edward huffed. Of course, life wasn’t that simple. Not even the boss could do only as he pleased. He had obligations to fulfill. Promises to keep. Toward his customers. Toward his staff. Toward a certain cute eavesdropper. For the first time since Cecily’s email arrived in his inbox, Edward felt his lips kick up at the corner.
Ever since the curvy pole dancer had started to frequent his coffee shop a few weeks ago, Edward’s long dormant libido had roared back to life. Her luscious body and obvious enjoyment of life had captivated him from the get-go. Her quirky personality and genuine nature had kept his interest alive. He was utterly fascinated by her and determined to find out if she could be equally fascinated by him. Their foreplay was the longest Edward had ever participated in and he was ready—beyond ready—to take things to the next level. He had intended to let her dictate the pace, to make her feel comfortable. Only, he had a feeling she had no intentions to follow up her sinful innuendos with actions. Ever. To her it was all just a game. Well, he was through playing. She probably thought she was safe teasing him from a distance. She didn’t know he had plans to get very close, very soon.
They had circled each other for weeks now. Weeks they could have spent wrapped in each other’s arms. She hadn’t run the other way when he had turned the tables on her earlier today. In his world that made her fair game for his pursuit, until she told him otherwise. For the first time in months, excitement pulsed within him at the prospect of spending time with someone of the opposite sex. For the first time in a long time he could believe that there was a chance that the best was yet to, uh, come.
Chapter 1 available on Obsessed With My Shelf Blog
Chapter 3 available on August 17 at S.G. Lovell’s Website
About the Author:
So, you want me to be an open book? Here goes…
I’m Austrian. Originally. But so far I haven’t found my permanent home. I lived in Sweden, UK, and currently in Australia. Who knows where I’ll end up next? And when?
In a former life, I was a track-and-field athlete and an IT specialist. I have two dogs who rule the household and a family who rules my world.
I enjoy reading, writing, and plotting new stories. I self-published my debut novel in April 2014. My first language is German, though I dream in English and have ambitions to become trilingual. I love a good thunderstorm, snow in winter, and chocolate in almost any form.
I write fantastic fiction with a romantic twist, because life is what’s happening anyway.
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