Free FORCE: A Bad Boy Sports Romance by Vivian Lux Page A

head. “I was so certain I had found someone.”
    Olivia grabbed me by the shoulders. “You did. You did find someone. And he was an ass to you, and you have every reason to demand why. Don’t go all Disney princess, ‘it wasn’t meant to be.’ That’s bullshit , Candy. What you need to do is take a breath, step away from the self-reflection, and just let what you have be what it is.” She smiled softly. “Or—let it be what it isn’t. You’re going to be okay either way.”
    I grabbed the wadded up toilet paper and wiped ineffectually at my nose. “But why would he be so mean?”
    Olivia threw up her hands, exasperated. “Candy, girl, I love you. I want to take you and stick you in a museum as the last known sample of a true romantic. You’re a rare specimen, and I think it’s really freaking good for my cynical ass to have you in my life. But honey, when you’re hurting, I’m hurting, so we gotta work on you not getting hurt so easily, okay? My heart can’t take it.”
    I sniffled, then laughed, and then sniffled again.
    “That’s a girl, show me another smile,” Olivia encouraged me. “See now, with that smile, the whole world should be at your feet. You don’t need to give your heart away so easily. Guard it, okay? It’s a fucking national treasure.”
    I sniffled, and then pulled her in for a spontaneous hug. “You are not allowed to ever take any job without me coming with you. Who else is going to give me pep talks in the bathroom?”
    “Well, definitely not your brand-new production team,” Olivia quipped. “In fact, I don’t really think my superior should really be sniffling into my shoulder right now. I smell a sexual harassment lawsuit.”
    I burst out laughing. “Baby, I’ve been harassing you since we were fifteen. If you haven’t learned to deal with it by now—”
    “Oh, I secretly like it,” Olivia smiled. “Good to see you smiling again, Candy-girl. Now what do you say? How about we emerge from the bathroom before our male coworkers start getting the wrong idea about us two?”
    “How do I look?” I asked her, widening my eyes.
    She pursed her lips. “Maybe we’ll tell people you got stung over lunch and are allergic to bee stings?”
    “Well—fuck,” I said. But I followed her from the bathroom with my head held high.
    Olivia was right. She always was. I had literally just met Ian into three days ago. And things were definitely moving too fast. But that’s what I did. That’s what I always did. I lost my dignity, just like he said. Maybe instead of getting mad at him, I should get mad at myself for always making the same kinds of mistakes. Maybe it was time I stopped looking for the one, that stellar guy that I could bring home to my parents. Then my parents could sigh with relief because their oldest daughter finally had the kind of love she grew up seeing. It was too much pressure, both on me and on any guy I met. How could anyone possibly live up to those standards?
    Back at my desk, I buried my face in my computer screen, immersing myself so completely in my new position that I didn’t even notice my phone until Olivia appeared at my shoulder. “Your voicemail chime has been going off every ten minutes, and I’m about ready to throw it across the room.”
    “Really?” Sure enough, the little red envelope was showing in the upper corner. “I’ll turn off the notification, sorry.”
    “Well, aren’t you going to see who it is?”
    “Whoever it is, I’ll deal with them later.”
    “I swear to God, if you want something done right, you need to do it yourself.” Olivia snatched my phone from out of my hands and deftly dialed my password.
    “Hey,” I protested lamely. “How do you even know that?”
    Olivia rolled her eyes at me, and tossed her hair over her shoulder to put my phone to her ear. Then her eyes went wide.
    “What? What’s wrong?”
    “You should listen to these. I mean, I still maintain that I am right, as a general rule, but—”