Unlucky In Love by Carmen DeSousa Read Free Book Online Page B

anywhere else for that matter. Now I
understood why an intelligent, well-read, and decent-looking man
was still single at thirty-two. I hadn’t been a fan of all of
Dick’s stories about irritating car shoppers, but I’d be willing to
listen about picky shoppers for another fifteen years than stories
about bugs. Eww …
    I’d like to think that Kyle could discuss
something other than his job, but since he’d gone into the sordid
details within the first five minutes of meeting me, I had to
believe that he couldn’t.
    And the one thing I knew more than anything
when it came to men: you couldn’t change them. Being raised by my
father had taught me that. Just watching him go from relationship
to relationship, each one ending almost exactly the same way, I
understood that fact better than any other facet of human behavior.
My father was a good man, but he liked to drink, fish, and play,
and no matter what a new woman in his life thought or wanted, he’d
never change.
    As sweet as Kyle seemed, people didn’t
change. At thirty-four, I was too old to take a car home and see if
it grew on me. If I didn’t like a car during the five-minute test
drive, chances were I’d never appreciate it.
    At the first sign of a pause in Kyle’s next
account about mice, I glanced at my phone. “Well, it was very nice
meeting you, Kyle, but I have to pick up my son.” Which wasn’t a
complete lie. I did have to pick up Eric, but
not until after practice. But Kyle didn’t know that. I’d purposely
scheduled our coffee date for one-thirty, though, as most people
knew that high school got out around two.
    “Oh, sure.” He stood as I got up, again
showing that he was a sweet guy, but I wasn’t willing to train a
new man. I’d leave that task up to some other woman. Maybe a fellow
exterminator.
    “Thanks for meeting me —”
    “I know you’re in a hurry,” he interrupted,
“so I’ll just throw this out there. Would you like to have dinner
sometime?”
    I smiled. “You’re a nice guy, Kyle, but I
think it’s just too early for me to start seeing someone. I didn’t
realize how hard it’d be.” Another lie, but I
told this lie so I wouldn’t hurt his feelings. After all, some
women liked mice, so they might like his stories. What did I
know?
    “Sure, sure … I understand.” He held the
door open for me. “You have my number. Call me if …” he trailed
off, seeming to understand that there wouldn’t be an if .
    I opened the door to my truck and offered
him a smile. “I will, Kyle,” I said, though, because who knew where
I’d be in a year? Maybe I’d go deaf or suddenly have a houseful of pests . Or maybe I would become desperate.
Still, after meeting Mr. Forgetful , I was pretty sure that
when I was ready to find another man, I’d be able to. When the time
was right.
    I was starting to think that the right
time just wasn’t right now .

Chapter 7 – New Hobbies
    While I typed up my review for the next day,
J’Austen laid her head as close as was catly possible to the keyboard.
    If I thought she did it because of lack of
attention, I’d feel bad, but I knew that wasn’t the case. Actually,
I didn’t know why she did it. Because once I finished whatever I
was typing, she would trot off and lounge around somewhere else in
the house. Lately I’d been finding her basking
beneath a slice of sun that had taken
residence for a few hours during the day across the bottom of
Eric’s bed. But next week, she might take up residence on one of
the barstools that surrounded my kitchen counter.
    As it was, it was getting harder and harder
to write reviews on contemporary romances, so as endearing as
J’Austen was, I needed to think. It wasn’t that the last book that
I read wasn’t good; it was. The writer had a firm grasp of the
English language, which was always a plus. I understood a few
errors here and there — we’re all human — but when I had to stop
and reread sentences throughout the entire book, it