Requited (Lost Love Series) (Erotic Romance) by Danielle Lewis Read Free Book Online

Chapter 1
    From: Clarke James
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2013 2:50 PM
To: Beka Thomas
Subject: Coffee?
    Hi Beka,
    I am coming to Pittsburgh this weekend for work. Want to grab coffee (or tea, or whatever it is you drink) this Friday?
    - Clarke
     
    Beka smiled when she saw the email. It brought back a lot of memories. When she was in college, Clarke was her dream man. She remembered trying to explain how she felt to her sister.
     
    “It’s just so frustrating! Everyone thinks we should be together. Hell, even my boss confided in me once that she secretly hoped we would become a couple.”
     
    “That’s crazy inappropriate,” commented her sister. Even though they were several hundred miles apart, Beka could picture her raised eyebrow perfectly.
     
    “I know,” said Beka. “It was uncomfortable. I can up that though.”
     
    “Really?”
    “We were in my room with two of our coworkers, and he and I got to talking about books.”
    “Of course,” laughed her sister. Beka had always been a bookworm.
     
    “Anyway, one of them decided to comment that we ‘flow really well’ whatever that means, and the other then followed that up with ‘the chemistry is palpable.’”
    “The chemistry is … palpable?”
     
    “That’s what he said,” Beka shrugged. “I mean, who the hell talks like that?”
    “Ten bucks says he is taking the GRE soon.”
    “You’re probably right,” Beka agreed with a laugh. “Anyway, the point is: everyone can see it. We’re so damn compatible!”
     
    “I know, but he is with someone else, Beka. You’ve got to move on.”
    “I know,” sighed Beka. It’s just so frustrating! If only I had realized I liked him sooner, or if only he hadn’t decided to study abroad or maybe if I was thinner or prettier like her…”
     
    “Don’t go there,” her sister warned her. “It wasn’t meant to be. You are wonderful just the way you are. Someday you will meet the right guy, and he will love you for you.”
    “I don’t want anyone else,” Beka said sadly.
     
    “Hey, snap out of it! No feeling sorry for yourself! He’s just a guy, and not even a great one. If he was the perfect man, he would have chosen you.”
     
    Beka laughed. “All right. I’ll drop the melodrama. After all, even though he doesn’t love me, I still have a really cool friend.”
    “I think that’s a good way to look at it,” declared her sister.
     
    “I love you, Anne. Thanks for letting me rant.”
    “What else are sisters for?”
     
    Over the next year, Beka did her best to follow her sister’s advice and move on. She and Clarke were never going to be a couple – that ship had definitely sailed, but they were good friends. In the end, she found she didn’t hate his girlfriend. How could she? Jen made him so very happy.
     
    No guy could compare to Clarke, but Beka found other things to take up her time. Instead of falling in love with him, she made herself fall in love with the rest of her life. She discovered how much she loved her research and even decided to devote her life to academia. By the time they graduated, she realized she had found her own path to happiness.
     
    After college, they sort of lost track of each other. She moved to Pittsburgh for grad school, and he and Jen moved to California where he had gotten into med school. Occasionally he would send an email, but they hadn’t actually spoken in years. It had been a long time since she had actually stopped to think of him. She wondered if he and Jen had gotten married. Probably. She imagined that by now he was probably done with his Residency and was practicing. It would be interesting to see how his life had turned out.

Chapter 2
    The truth was, emailing Beka for coffee was a relatively last minute idea. Clarke had been planning to speak at the conference for months, and he remembered just a few days before his flight left that Beka worked at the University there. Now he was deeply regretting sending that email.
     
    There