Bachelor Number Five is finally here! My latest romance novel and the first book in my new Bachelor Series is finished and live on Amazon. This series follows the lives and loves of a group of young
professionals living in the same apartment building in Hollywood,
beginning with the story of Amanda Perkins, a small-town girl from Iowa
living in the big city for the first time.
For anyone who has been stopping by here for the past five weeks, I've been posting sample chapters. This week I'll conclude these excerpts with Chapter Six. If you care to check out the book on Amazon, please click on the cover image above. Thanks!
Chapter Six
Amanda sat with
her laptop computer on the kitchen table, scrolling online ads for waitressing
jobs. She’d already applied for a few
positions, sending her short resume in an email to some promising places. As she read the listing for a job at a kosher
deli on the west side, her eyes wandered to the search box at the top right
corner of her browser. The box was
taunting her; tempting her to type in the query she was really most interested
in after all. It was far too hard to
resist. Amanda clicked her cursor in the
box and typed the words. Grant Hutchinson The Bride. Enter.
Back came a whole string of results, mostly articles about the show
itself. She clicked on “Images” and saw
various photos of bachelor number five; in a tuxedo, on a horse, holding a
bouquet of flowers. She’d already seen
this stuff before. What interested
Amanda at the moment was any information she could find about where he hung out
in LA. Besides the nightclubs she
already knew about, what restaurants did he go to? What part of town did he live in? Who were his friends? How could she organize her life to give
herself the very best chance of crossing his path?
The realization
that Amanda actually was stalking him did bother her some. Apparently Piper was right. Was Amanda turning into one of those people that
you read about in the papers, arrested on the street in front of some famous
person’s house, refusing to leave them alone?
Obsessing over some fantasy and desperate for a life not their own? Hers wasn’t all just a fantasy, was it? She and Grant wanted the same things; to find
that perfect mate, settle down, get married.
They both wanted kid and a happily ever after. Grant wouldn’t be on the show if he didn’t
want those things. He wouldn’t be
chasing after the bride if he didn’t
want to end up with someone in the
end. Obviously he failed to understand
that this bride was entirely the wrong woman for him. He hadn’t seen the segments showing her dates
with the other bachelors. He had no idea
how narcissistic she really was. He
didn’t understand how miserable he would be if he went through with the wedding
at the end of the show. If Amanda could
somehow meet him, she’d be doing him an enormous favor. Even if she didn’t end up with Grant herself,
at least she could warn him. That was
all the rationalization she needed to carry on searching. She was merely being a humanitarian, and so
she scoured the links, looking for clues.
Facebook had more
than 20 Grant Hutchinson’s, none of whom looked like her man. A few had avatars for their pictures, making
it impossible to tell what the person really looked like. The restrictive privacy settings made these
profiles a dead end. Her general web
search offered no information that she didn’t already have. What she needed were some basic clues. Where did he like to eat? What gym did he go to? What neighborhood did he live in?
IMDB listed a few
acting credits; bit parts on some second-rate television shows. Nothing useful. It was when she checked LinkedIn that Amanda
finally hit pay dirt. Grant Hutchinson,
actor, Los Angeles. She clicked on the
profile and a smiling picture of Bachelor Number Five stared back at her from
the page. Born, Houston, Texas. Age: 26.
Graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. His resume included some of the same acting
gigs plus a few roles in regional plays.
Below that was a series of food service and bartending positions,
starting with a honky-tonk in Austin and continuing on to a hamburger joint in
Hollywood. Her heart almost quit beating
when she saw the word “present.” Could
it really be true? Was he still working
there, even now? The possibility that
all she had to do was go get a hamburger and she might finally meet the man of
her dreams made her lightheaded. On The Bride he was referred to as an
entrepreneur but there was no mention of that here. Maybe he waited tables to supplement his
income until his company took off? She
did a quick search for the restaurant, The Hamburger Hut. It was located on Melrose, less than a mile
away. Hours: 11 a.m. to midnight, seven
days a week.
The clock on
Amanda’s computer read 9:02 a.m. She had
just two hours to wait. She’d go there
for lunch and maybe even apply for a job while she was at it. There was no better way to get to know Grant
than that, working with him side by side.
Amanda felt a surging sense of confidence and well-being. Everything was going to work out, she was
sure of it. As for right now, she’d have
a quick bowl of cereal and then head down to Santa Monica. She wanted to see first-hand where Bachelor
Number Five went to the beach. Who knew,
maybe he’d even be down there catching some waves before work? Amanda moved across the kitchen and pulled a
box of cereal from her shelf. Next she
took out a fresh container of milk from the fridge. When she’d poured the cereal in a bowl and
added the milk, she could hardly get it down fast enough. Today was the day, she told herself! Deep in her bones, she could feel it.
