Free Naomi & Bradley, It All Comes Down… (Vodka & Vice, the Series Book 1) by Angela Conrad, Kathleen Hesser Skrzypczak

unattainable, reckless, and full of life.
    If my mother was right, and I am too unattractive to hold a man, I can change that.  I’ll be a new person, not only in appearance, but also in my frame of mind.
    Naomi the doormat, the people pleaser, the yes sir and yes ma’am of Wall Street is gone.
    Snappy and lighthearted Naomi is whelped and she is going to raise her head high and howl.

Chapter Fourteen
Time to get back to work
 
     
    BRADLEY
    Monday, February 8th
     
     
    I wake up long after Manny has gone to…wherever Manny goes during the day.  Alone in his apartment, I think about my situation.  Maybe I should just let her go.  She seems determined to always see the negative, always believe the worst.  My God, what her parents did to her was criminal.  But who am I to talk?  My parents were never around, just those poor, beaten down nannies.  I couldn’t blame them, they came here on promises of a better life, but all they got was the life of an indentured servant.  I don’t know where they went after trudging out of our house, one by one, penniless and still not very good at English.  I would guess they became housecleaners or worse.  None of them were lookers.  Except Sabina of course.  That morning she gave me herself as my fifteenth birthday present was the best and worst of my life.  I showered and dressed after she left, buoyed up after our encounter.  As I neared the kitchen, I heard my mother speaking to her.
    “Good work, Sabina.  Now Bradley can relax and concentrate on his studies instead of always chasing the girls.  How is he supposed to become doctor when all he does is think about making the sex?”  I blushed hot, wondering if the stiff tube socks in the laundry tipped her off.
    “He is good boy, handsome boy.  He will do well whatever he chooses.  You should not worry so much.”  I heard Sabina’s voice and despite my embarrassment, I felt myself getting hard again.  But I had to see.  Had to see them together, these two women who were supposed to care about me instead plotting this sick plan.  I peeked around the corner, just in time to see Mother handing Sabina a thick stack of bills. 
    I turned and ran for the bathroom, not making it to the toilet, soiling myself and the floor with vomit.  I kept replaying the scenes in my head.  Sabina taking me shopping, going into the dressing room with me to adjust a shirt or tug at my waistband.  Sabina teaching me how to smoke cigarettes and skip meals to get me slimmed down.  How much did Mother know?  She sure knew about Sabina in my bed.  I dry heaved a couple of times.  No one came.  I cleaned it all up myself and threw the towels and my clothes in the garbage.  After another shower, I stood looking at myself in the mirror.  “Of course no one’s going to have sex with you unless she gets paid.  You’re nothing.  Even your own parents are disappointed in you, don’t believe in you.”
    By the time I emerged from my second shower, the house was quiet.  I took a cigarette outside and lit it, blowing the smoke up into the gray sky.  Happy birthday to me.   I thought.  I spent the rest of the day alone and I never saw Sabina again.

I think about all these things while I make some coffee, check my phone in the futile hope Naomi has called.  The only call is from my old agency.  Actually there are exactly ten calls.  I listen to the messages.
    “Bradley, bubbela, it’s Ronnie.  Listen, call me.  The Times is doing a shoot and one of the photogs is a huge fan of your work.  Saw you in Milan or something.  Anyway, it starts Wednesday and they’re going to be at the Wollman Rink—you can ice skate, right?  Call me bubbela, call your Auntie Ronnie.”
    I can’t ice skate, but I can sure as hell learn.  It’s time to get back to work.

Chapter Fifteen
Recreation
 
     
    NAOMI
    Monday, February 8th
     
     
    Bradley-less and single, only twenty-seven, I decide to move on, follow my own advice.  Let him