If We Were Perfect - Ana Huang Page 0,43

with was Sammy.

Donna groaned at her answer while Natalie and Tamara high-fived her. Kat merely smiled.

“Yes! I knew we could count on you!” Natalie’s eyes glittered with excitement. “I’m so happy you joined the club. We finally have a tiebreaker.”

Natalie and Tamara were on Team Anal; Donna and Kat were not. Olivia was indeed the tiebreaker.

“Plus, we like you,” Kat added.

“Yes.” Natalie nodded. “That too.”

Olivia grinned, happily buzzed from her first jumbo-sized margarita. “I like you guys, too.”

Two hours into her first erotica book club meeting and she was having a blast. The club was small—she was only the fifth member—but the other women had a playful camaraderie that instantly put her at ease. They’d welcomed her with open arms, and for the first time in months, she felt like she belonged. It was weird, because she’d only known them for a few hours, but she could already tell they were her people.

Donna was a thirty-six-year-old dental hygienist who’d founded the club last year because the other book clubs she’d been in were too “boring.” She was married and had the most infectious laugh Olivia had ever heard. Her bubbliness would give Olivia’s preternaturally chirpy friend Courtney a run for her money.

Kat, on the other hand, was quiet and observant. She was a Ph.D. student studying comparative literature at UC Berkeley, and she possessed a dry sense of humor that Olivia took a shine to immediately. Kat was one of those women who was beautiful but so unassuming you didn’t notice until you looked closely and saw the shiny, honey-brown curls, warm brown eyes, and delicate, lightly freckled features.

Natalie was Olivia’s age, the daughter of a major tech executive, and an aspiring romance author in addition to being an avid romance reader. She proudly declared she could blaze through one or two books a day. With her razor-cut platinum bob, sharp cheekbones, and designer clothes, she resembled a Russian supermodel/heiress, but her cold looks were at complete odds with her outgoing personality.

Tamara, a freelance graphic designer, was the person Olivia never would’ve imagined read erotica or romance. She had spiky black hair, eyes so blue they looked violet, skin pale enough to qualify her as Edward Cullen’s long-lost sister, and piercings in her left eyebrow, nose, and—judging by what Olivia could see through Tammy’s thin cotton tank—nipples. She looked like she’d be way more into gothic horror or kick-ass action novels, but the minute the thought crossed Olivia’s mind, she admonished herself for stereotyping. If someone saw Olivia on the street, they wouldn’t think she read erotica, either.

On the surface, the book club members couldn’t be more different, but they were all friendly, open, and non-judgmental. They’d spent the first hour of the club discussing that month’s pick—a dark erotic romance about a woman entering a BDSM relationship with her ex’s father—before they segued into a general conversation about relationships and sex. The book had featured a hot-as-sin anal scene, hence why they’d started debating the pros and cons of the act.

Kat’s phone buzzed. She glanced down and flinched, her cheeks paling.

“Who is it? That asshole again?” Natalie demanded. “Don’t answer, Katty Kat. He doesn’t deserve it.”

Kat’s bottom lip disappeared between her teeth. “Yeah, but—”

“No buts. He’s your ex for a reason, and if he had a hot father, I’d tell you to do what Jaimie did in the book and fuck him. The father, I mean.”

Kat snorted out a laugh. “It’ll only take a few minutes, okay? I’ll tell him I’m busy and that’ll be that. I’ll be right back.”

Natalie’s face scrunched with frustration as the brunette disappeared outside so she could take the call away from the noise and general mayhem of The Catalina restaurant.

Olivia was dying to know what was going on, but she didn’t want to be too nosy at her first meeting. Luckily, Donna filled in the blanks for her.

“That was Ben, her ex-fiancé.” The blonde made a face. “They were together for six years and all set to be married until Kat found him banging her best friend two weeks before the wedding.”

Olivia gasped. “No.”

“Yes.” Tamara nodded, her piercings glinting with anger beneath the lights. “To make matters worse, he blamed her. Said she was always busy with school, never made time for him, so of course he got lonely, blah blah blah.”

“Worst part is, Kat believed him,” Natalie jumped in. “I mean, she dumped his ass, but she also feels guilty because his fucking gaslighting got into her head and she thinks it