Free Love Came Back (a Pyro-Princess Design and Style novel Book 1) by Stephanie Nicole Garza Page B

would rather be alone. I am not going down that road of romantic-mayhem again. Besides, if I wanted pleasure so damn bad, I can do it with my own Rabbit Vibrator named Rabby.
    And kids? I have plenty of nieces and nephews to spoil. They made me happy enough. A dream of a wonderful husband, and 2.5 kids was just that, a dream.
    Shaking my head clear of the cobwebs of my past, I took the exit off the loop. And under the I-45 underpass was the main entrance to the Outlet and I pulled in the parking lot by my two favorite stores, besides mine, Lane Bryant and Barnes and Noble. Sexy undergarments and a good, hot romance novel made my day complete. Owning a Kindle, I didn’t need to buy books from a bookstore anymore. I did like browsing the goods to help determine what I wanted to read on my e-reader. Historical romance novels were my absolute favorite; all that old-fashioned, alpha-male chivalry and courting transported me to a different time and place.
    Today was Monday and although I was feeling off, I usually always stopped at my store to check on the girls. Today I was wearing my new line of Shimmer Jeans, which were a black boot-cut pair, paired with red high heeled ankle boots, and a red silk button-up off the shoulder blouse with lace trimming. The blouse was one of my more racy designs, and it made me feel somehow more chic and somewhat lascivious because the lace trimming came just above the swells of my breasts. It hinted at an inappropriate amount of cleavage. Nothing indecent but I loved the feeling of the silk and lace on my milky white skin.
    I made my way over to my shop, Pyro-Princess Design and Style, PPDS for short, and was instantly filled with a sense of clarity. I named it this because what girl or woman doesn’t like being treated as a princess? A nd I had a thing for fire. As a teenager I loved everything that featured flames. Blankets, pillows, hell, my whole room had been decorated in red and blue flames. The store was my baby. It was all mine, with no financial partners to nag me.
    Walking into the store, I noticed my three faithful employees, Cambria, Koralen and the third being my manager, Callana working diligently.
    “You ladies look like y’all are having way too much fun!” I joked as I stepped up to the register and greeted Callana.
    She’d been a childhood pen pal who lived in NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana). Her daughter had been kidnapped and she had been traced to Houston, but after that, the trail went cold. She didn’t have anybody else, and I took it upon myself to offer her a place to stay until she got back on her feet and a job. I trusted her fully and knew that even as she was actively looking for Aurora, her daughter, she would still be rock solid as my manager. She accepted a place for a time, and had insisted I call her Callie like when we were teens. She was a year older than my twenty-five years with shoulder length brown, blue eyes, and shorter than myself. She stood at five foot nothing and had beautiful curves to match.
    Callie looked at me and laughed. “Yeah, Sidda, a total blastfest. Mondays have always been a slow-steady kinda day. What are you doing today? Can’t you ever rest elsewhere? You work too hard.”
    “It is my day off, Callie, so I can choose where I want to be. I’ve been feeling off today so I wanted to come here and make sure everything was going ok. What are our sales so far today? It doesn’t look busy now.”
    I glanced around and noticed just a few customers browsing the skirt section of the store.
    Callie let out a small laugh. “Yes, well, you were definitely not here about an hour ago, were you girlie? You know the rush we get around noon and one o’clock.” Callie ran a sales receipt through the register and handed it to me.
    “763 dollars is good. And we have only been open since eleven. Its half past three now. This is great. Hopefully sales like this keeps up then I might see a raaaaise in y’alls future!” I wagged my eyebrows up and