Almost Lovers Read online

  Copyright © 2013 by Karisha Prescott

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  First Edition, 2013

  ”I’d recommend this book to any contemporary fiction fan out there.”

  — Indie Author Book Reviews, 4 of 5 stars

  “What a page turner! Well written, well developed characters and a story that just won’t let you go.”

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  "I really love this series. [Karisha Prescott] is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. "

  — Tina, GoodReads.com 5 of 5 stars

  "Loved this book! The author keeps you longing for more page after page!!! "

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  “I love the speed of this story. I have re-read a few times already! The characters grab you from the start and you can't wait to see where the story will go. Can't wait to see more from this great author”

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

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  Chapter 2

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  Chapter 3

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  Chapter 4

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  Chapter 5

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  Chapter 6

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  Chapter 7

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  Chapter 8

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  Chapter 9

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  Chapter 10

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  Chapter 11

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  Chapter 12

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  Chapter 13

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  Chapter 14

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  Chapter 15

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  Chapter 16

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  Chapter 17

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  Chapter 18

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  Chapter 19

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  Chapter 20

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  Chapter 21

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  Chapter 22

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  Chapter 23

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  Chapter 24

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  Chapter 25

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  Chapter 26

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  Chapter 27

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  Chapter 28

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  Chapter 29

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  Chapter 30

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  Chapter 31

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  Chapter 32

  *

  CHAPTER ONE - Prussia

  I jumped out of bed and rushed through the apartment to get ready for work. My makeup was minimal and my outfit was the same one I had worn yesterday. Maybe no one would notice. I didn't bother with toast, though I did make coffee to go as I rushed. Gulping down a hot mouthful, I grabbed my keys from next to the door as I left. I had to go back a few precious steps to lock the door.

  By the time I got to my car I was only 20 minutes late but I still had to drive to the grocery store. You would think a few blocks would be easy but this was downtown traffic. I could have jogged and made better time. But truthfully, I wanted the extra time to wake up in the car.

  When I strolled through the grocery store doors I could see Sarah wasn't in yet. And there stood the manager standing in as a cashier. I winced. Not the best way to start the morning or end the week.

  "You're late," said Tom.

  "Tom, I'm sorry," I said, "It won’t happen again,"

  "That's what you said last week," said Tom.

  Tom’s tapping his foot. I know this even if I couldn’t see the tapping. It’s what Tom always does when he’s trying to look down on me and make me feel bad.

  "Sarah in yet?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

  "Changing the subject does not help the situation," said Tom, "Prussia, You're good at your job but every week you end up late at least once,"

  "I said I'm sorry," I said, "What else do you want me to do?"

  "Be on time," said Tom.

  I bit my lip and clocked into work, stepping into my cashier role. Tom went into the back manager’s office. I didn't expect I would see him again until lunch. Sarah came in a few moments after Tom went into his office. Sarah smiled as she walked straight into his office without knocking and closed the door behind her. I expected 15 minutes at least, no more than 30 minutes until she would begin working her shift instead of our manager. Just another day at work.

  Closing time came slowly and the steadiest customer the grocery ever had came in. She spent fifteen minutes getting the exact same things she always got each night. She took her time placing them on the check out counter and I scanned each item as she recounted her day. It was ritualistic. She always chose my register and if there was only one other customer in the entire store and they picked my register, she would wait. She wouldn't go to Sarah. I think that's why I liked her so much. It annoyed Sarah which made my day.

  "How are you today, Ma'am?" I asked.

  "Victoria, please," insisted Victoria. She smiled at me and patted my hand as she did every night.

  "My night is grand. How about yours? Any plans?" Victoria asked, her eyebrows rising with a big smile on her face.

  "You know me," I said, "I'm going straight home after work to get ready for date night with Robert,"

  "When are you two getting married, anyway?" asked Victoria, "It has to be soon. You've been dating forever,” Victoria said as she handed me the money for her purchase.

  "No date yet," I said, trying to keep my smile.

  "So he finally popped the question?" asked Victoria, her eyes lighting up in excitement.

  "No, not exactly," I said, "We're waiting for the right time,"

  Victoria's face fell, "You should give him a few hints." Her face lit up again with the idea.

  "Oh I don't know about that," I said, "We're taking things very slow,"

  "Any slower and you might wind up like me," said Victoria.

  Victoria winked at me and gave a little grin, "You give that Robert a nudge and if he doesn't budge then he doesn't deserve you. You know I would just love to set you up with my grandson. He's a peach. You'd love him,"

  "I'm sure," I said, trying my best to give her my biggest smile, "You have a good night, Victoria,"

  "Could you please walk me out, dear?" asked Victoria.

  And as always, I ended my shift with the slow walk out to Victoria's car, helping her with her groceries. Every night it was the same song and dance. And every night I had to race home. It was only a few blocks but it was a long few blocks when you're late and it’s date night.

  As soon as I got into our apartment building and up the elevator I knew that Robert hadn’t waited. I could hear the giggling and the music from Lydia's apartment near the elevator. Since Robert and Lydia had been spending a lot of his free time together, I figured they were both in her apartment having a great time.

  My suspicions were confirmed when I got in our apartment and found another note from Robert. Waited, hav
ing tea at the neighbors, the same old note. I crumbled up the note and threw it across the living room. I would have to pick it up later. I poured some cereal and plopped down on the sofa with a blanket. This had become far too common on date night.

  The hours slipped away from me and made me restless as I sat all-consumed on the sofa, cereal all gone and blankets toasty-warm but lonely. After a few hours of listening to the nonsense down the hall, I finally got tired of it and decided to take a walk. The park wasn't far and the weather was warm. I dug my running shoes out of the bottom of my closet and laced them up. Grabbing a light jacket and with keys in hand I headed out the door.

  I shoved my keys into my jacket pocket as I stomped past Lydia's apartment and onto the elevator. Punching buttons didn't do much but it made me feel better even if by a very small amount. I jabbed at the elevator buttons and they lit up, carrying me down to the ground floor.

  If I could just breathe. If I could just think. I could figure out how to get Robert back from the brink of Lydia. Her influence had crept over Robert these past few months.

  It didn't help that he worked at the clubs on the weekend. I had been able to keep the other club girls at bay but having Lydia right down the hall had just been too close to beat back. I couldn't sit on Robert and watch him all the time. She had snaked her way into our lives, destroying our chance to take our relationship to the next level and start a family.

  My steps were brisk down the side walk toward the park. At 1 a.m. nothing was open and the streets were calm, empty. The noisy clicking of the traffic lights sounded. They turned from green to yellow to red and back to green without a single car. I realize as I wait for the walk signal that I’m out of breath.

  Perhaps it was the slight chill in the air or my anger, whatever the reason my breathing quickened. My body felt pumped up which didn’t match how completely relaxed my mind felt. I tried to slow my breathing and the walk signal clicked to tell me I could continue on my walk. And I did. I walked through the cross walk and straight onto the walking path for the park.

  What had begun as a sure pace became much faster. I began walking so fast that it turned into a jog and that’s when it hit me. I felt it all at once. I felt angry. Each footstep fell and I felt it through my entire body. Each footstep became heavier until landing as an angry stomp onto the walking path.

  My anger disappeared into the asphalt path only to be followed with another angry footstep. I lost control of my breathing and it quickened beyond my stomping steps. My panting changed into something else. I had begun hyperventilating. I stopped and leaned over, placing my hands on my knees and panting in the humid air. I felt it coursing through me for the first time that I could remember, so much anger bubbling up inside of me that I could hardly contain it.

  The night was still and there was no one around to observe my complete madness in the deserted park. My hyperventilating continued and I had to choose between passing out or getting myself under control. In the middle of a full blown panic attack, I stood up so fast that I nearly fell to the ground.

  I wobbled on the walking path and began laughing for no reason. My laugh was a chaotic and uncontrolled. It would have brought stares if the park wasn't empty. It made my laughter that much heavier in the silence. I walked a few steps and I stopped trying to contain it. I laughed and laughed and then when I couldn't find the breath to laugh any more, I began running down the path.

  CHAPTER TWO - Prussia

  I instantly felt better. I felt my mind clear, my breathing began to slow to the steady heavy breathing of jogging and I just smiled in my insane midnight jog through the park. I came to a curve and rounded it with great stride, coming upon the small pond and just looked out across the water as I ran. I had no worry about another jogger. I had no concern about catching a Frisbee to the temple. The park in the middle of the night felt relaxing and I felt at home.

  My stride lengthened even more and I smiled as I ran. For an instant, I could see my problems and my solution clearly. Robert had become distracted by Lydia and I needed to stop playing nice and to fight for what I wanted. I needed to remind Robert of what we have. I needed to make him see how desirable I was and in the process, get rid of Lydia for good. The better of the two of us would win. And I knew that winner would be me.

  I ran the entire perimeter of the pond and was out of breath by the time I rounded the far end for the return trip.

  As I turned the corner and jogged around a boulder that sat near the path, I was blindsided. Out from a bush leapt what I thought was an animal. I lay on the ground with my head throbbing. Surprise set in when I looked up from my place cowering on the ground to see a face.

  Neither twisted in anger nor calm with a pristine type of crazy, the face of the man that attacked me was simply blank. And that look gave me more terror than anything. I reached into my pocket for my cell phone and remembered I had only brought my keys. I hadn't grabbed anything else. In that instant I realized how stupid I was to be in the park at this hour, alone, without anything to protect myself, jogging in the moonlight.

  He lunged towards me and grabbed at my arms. I kicked at him and watched as his knee bent backwards with the force of my kick. It caused him a moment of pause. I struck out again, seeing that he had hesitated. He dodged my kick this time and leapt on top of me, grabbing me by the hair.

  My first instinct was to scratch and hit at any part of him I could. It didn't deter him in the least. I felt terror drop into my chest and my throat tightened in fear. I tried to scream and couldn't. It wasn't fear around my throat, it was his hand and it was ice cold.

  My eyes went wide and the exhilaration of rapid breathing I had experienced moments before stopped. I had no way to breathe and my sight started to fail me. I was about to faint. With the swiftness with which he had jumped out from the bushes and landed on me, he was off of me. I gasped in the chill air. It stung my lips, my throat and my lungs.

  I was completely alert though disoriented and I backed away, crawling away on the ground, from where this evil man had just been.

  I could see his body fifteen or so feet in front of me on the ground and another person stood over him. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief at a dark figure that towered over him. The body on the ground was limp, unresponsive.

  I could make out that the person standing over my attacker was a man. I rubbed my eyes again and found my voice to scream but as I sucked in as much air as my lungs would allow his eyes were upon me and something stopped me.

  In the darkness I could see his eyes, even while his face remained shadowed. I could only see his eyes on me. I felt them searching me for something as if asking a question and the answer was simply on me.

  "You lack some self-preservation instincts," said the man, "or you are just plain crazy,"

  I regretted not screaming. Sarcastic with the first words out of his mouth couldn’t make for a much better night.

  "Or perhaps you don't like competition in the park," I said.

  He straightened after the words left my mouth. He didn't say anything and for a moment there was only silence. The body on the ground moved.

  "I'm Prussia," I tried to humanize myself to this man who had saved me in the event that my attacker was simply competition after all, "Thank you so much for saving me,"

  I smiled and the man tugged on his jacket to straighten it. He wasn’t completely disinterested but wasn't completely paying attention to me either.

  "I'm glad you are not hurt," he said, "I don’t think this man had the best intentions,"

  With those words, the body on the ground grabbed the leg of the man that had just saved me and threw off his balance, sending him to the ground. The attacker leapt to his feet. I scooted away. My attacker looked at me and for a moment I thought he would come after me again. He looked at my savior on the ground. My rescuer had begun to rise and that seemed to make him think it unwise to come after me again. He ran.

  The man who saved me got up from the ground and began to run after the flee
ing man but after about fifteen steps gave up.

  "Did you get a good look at his face?" he asked as he walked back over to where I sat on the ground.