My Cup of Tea: Summer of Love

By Kat Lieu

The summer before college begins, like all other summers, is quite suck-tastic for baker and book nerd, Sara Lee-Affen. She's broke, she's single, and she'll probably die a virgin. At her beautiful cousin's wedding, Sara meets a sexy and delicious stud muffin, Ian Forrests. He's totally her cup of tea, that is until he laughs at her misery when a bee burrows into her ear. Yes, a dang bee. She's dying (well not really) as he's dying from laughter.

What a jerk. A smoking hot, Adonis of a jerk with strikingly green eyes, dark hair, and drool-worthy pecs and eight-pack abs. As luck and fate would have it, Sara keeps bumping into Ian all summer long and ends up working for him as a pastry chef at his failing bakery. Despite her better judgment, Sara falls for the sexy, badass rich boy, and discovers the truth about Ian: he's a tortured soul who's still pining for his girlfriend, Sarah. One look at Sarah's picture and poor Sara knows that she could never compete. Yes, Sara can't even compete with a dead girl, as she could never be Ian's cup of tea.

Or could she? Will this be a summer of love or a summer of heartbreak for Sara? Find out in MY CUP of TEA, an emotional, funny, and romantic new adult fiction by Kat Lieu, the best-selling author of the Maid for Me series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kat Lieu
• Release date: Jan 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310306587

Kat Lieu

Kat Lieu is a Jackette-of-all-trades. By day, she's a physical therapist who has bare-handedly lifted 200-pound people with her impressive 5'2" frame. By night, she runs a tween/teen empire, Nummyz Productions. Nummyz Productions creates original Flash games for girls and provides them with a safe community, love advice, free stories, and support. Nummyz Productions publishes books and ebooks. Kat's company has also created websites for celebrities of The Young and the Restless and Flash games for multi-million dollar company LittleMissMatched.

Book preview

My Cup of Tea

Summer of Love

Volume 1

KAT LIEU

Copyright © 2014 by Kathleen Lieu

Published by Nummyz Productions at Smashwords

All rights reserved.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Text copyright © 2014 by Kathleen Lieu

Cover art copyright © 2014 by Evelyn Lieu

Cupcake stock images belong to Alice Chuang

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Published by Nummyz Productions, New York City

www.nummyz.com

eISBN-13: 9781310306587

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademark owners of the following word marks mentioned in this fiction: Beano, Bentley, Cadillac Coupe Deville, Cake Boss, Chiclet, Chef Boyardee, Darth Vader, Facebook, Google, Hello Kitty, Hester Prynne, H&M, Junior’s, Macy’s, MetroCard, Michelin, Old Spice, Peter Pan, Ponzu, Raybans, Rite-Aid, Sherlock Holmes, Smaug, SpongeBob, Starbucks, Strawberry Shortcake, Swarovski, Vera Wang, Victoria’s Secret, and Wicked Witch of the West

Dedication

I dedicate this novella to all my Nummyz Moderators, fans old and new, and to all the dreamers out there. This series is also dedicated to patients with breast cancer. For the entire month of October in 2014 (and in subsequent years) 50% of sales of this book will be donated to Susan G. Komen For the Cure ®.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Sara, June 21st, afternoon

Ian, June 21st, afternoon

Sara, June 21st, evening

Sara, July 21st, late morning

Ian, July 21st, late morning

Sara, July 21st, noon

Ian, July 21st, afternoon

Sara, July 21st, afternoon

Ian, July 21st, evening

Sara, July 21st, evening

Ian, July 21st, nighttime

Sara, July 21st, nighttime

Sara, July 22nd, noon

Ian, July 22nd, noon

Sara, July 22nd, nighttime

Ian, July 23rd, morning

Ian, August 8th

Sara, August 9th, afternoon

Ian, August 9th, afternoon

Sara, August 9th, nighttime

Ian, August 10th, midnight

Ian, August 10th, late morning

Sara, August 10th, nighttime

Excerpt from Blood Angels

About the author

Prologue. Ian, May 18th, morning

Jesus Christ… is that an ass pimple?

This is just something you wouldn’t notice or expect when you’re piss drunk and f*cking a girl you’ve just met a few hours ago at a bar.

What’s her name, Karla maybe, has a fine tushy otherwise–once you overlook that little monster of a bump in the middle of her right butt cheek. Shudder. I cover her exposed body with the comforter. Her blond hair is a mess. From the way she’s snoring, she probably has sleep apnea. She was definitely cuter last night when she was clothed and her makeup wasn’t smeared all over her face like a kindergartener’s painting.

I walk into the bathroom of our hotel room. Cold water hits my face in the shower. Damn it–my head feels like it’s about to explode.

Wake up, Ian. This isn’t numbing your pain. This isn’t helping you move on.

I can’t continue to live like this. Losing days of my life to pot. Nights like yesterday’s, lost to drunken sex with strangers with ass pimples.

A part of me just wants to end all of this. A bottle of sleeping pills with a bottle of wine.

Life without Sarah–it’s just life not worth living.

Water hitting my face washes away my tears. Her last words echo in my head.

"Live on for me, my love. Live on, so there’s someone who will always remember and love me."

A promise is a promise. And so I continue to live, holding on to memories of her. Until I breathe my last breath, I’ll love and treasure Sarah, my first love and the love of my life.

~*~

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. –Confucius

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. –Mother Teresa

1. Sara, June 21st, afternoon

What does it feel like to be in love? Are kisses sweeter than white chocolate? When there’s someone special in your life, do butterflies really dance in your stomach? Does your heart skip beats in this person’s presence? If that’s the case, then can being in love give you cardiac arrest?

I hope not.

My gorgeous cousin Millie gazes into her fiancé’s eyes. I wish I could feel what she’s feeling as he holds her hands, caressing her fingers. With him by her side, she looks calm and graceful like Mona Lisa.

Now don’t think for a second that I’m jealous of Millie. I don’t have a crush on her fiancé either. He’s not my cup of tea. I’m just as curious as a kitten born days ago. I yearn to feel what Millie is feeling. I want to experience her euphoria and giddiness.

Spring becomes summer today, and Millie is marrying her best friend John. They stand before a hundred and two guests like characters from a romance novel.

I wish that Millie had given me a bigger role in her wedding. I was sure that she would pick me as one of her bridesmaids. Or I could have baked her wedding cake. She always tells me that I’m the best baker she knows.

Millie and I have always been close, so it disappointed me when I found out that I would be nothing more than a guest today. I guess it’s okay. I have no experience with wedding planning. Bridesmaids have to spend a lot of money, and Millie knows that I’m poor. With her perfectionist ways, she just wanted everything to be absolutely perfect today. So I respect that.

I watch John smile at Millie and only Millie. In his blue eyes, he can only see her, his blushing bride. She’s so stunning, just like a model in a bridal magazine wearing a flattering Vera Wang wedding dress. Millie’s black hair, decorated in swan feathers and a large white peony, is coiffed in an elegant updo. It’s so pretty... Her veil, studded with hundreds of tiny Swarovski crystals, barely sways in the air. The crystals sparkle like baby rainbows, making Millie look like a fairy princess.

I fan my face. The weather is perfect for spending the day picnicking at Central Park, or sunbathing at the beach in Coney Island. Of course, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here by the Rose Garden in Planting Fields, witnessing the holy matrimony between two beautiful people. Happy bees buzz and dance before fragrant pink, white, red, and yellow roses. Nothing smells better than flowers toasting in summer sunlight. I think I can even smell honey from the butts of the bees.

For over a year, Millie had prayed for the weather to be pleasant today. Someone up there must have heard her, blessing the day with robin-egg colored skies, scant puffs of clouds, not a drop of rain, and beautiful sunshine.    

Millie couldn’t have picked a better place to have her outdoor wedding ceremony. Planting Fields is one of the most romantic public gardens in New York. All around us is an abundance of greenery: pretty flowers, large trees, shrubs, and grass. I love Planting Fields’ historic mansions complete with classical colonnades. Being here makes me feel like I’ve been transported to Pemberley, Mr. Darcy’s country estate.

I look around, wondering if there’s a modern-day incarnate of Mr. Darcy amongst this crowd. There are some guys my age sitting on the groom’s side. Since they’re all facing forward and wearing similar tuxes, I can’t really tell if they’re cute or not.

Then again, if a real life Mr. Darcy exists, he wouldn’t be interested in a girl like me. That’s no surprise since I’m no Lizzy Bennet. She’s smart, witty, and amazing whereas I am none of the above.

The guests are quiet like cicadas during the wintertime. Even the bees have stopped buzzing loudly, and the children are behaving. I watch with eyes unblinking as Millie and John exchange their personalized vows. Tears of joy spill out of Millie’s brown eyes, making her makeup run just a little bit. She tells John how much she loves him. How he completes her. How she had always felt that something was missing until he came into her life.

I sigh. This is all too romantic to be real. Millie doesn’t seem to care that her makeup is running. John looks teary even though he’s smiling with his Chiclet-teeth bared. Millie and John embrace for a long, passionate kiss. Everyone cheers for them, some rowdier than others.

Happy for Millie, I can’t help but cry too. Weddings–they could turn even the worst curmudgeon into a romantic.

Marrying at the age of twenty-eight to the love of her life seems like a great accomplishment. I touch my palm to the middle of my chest. I know there isn’t one, but I feel as if there’s a hole in my heart. A missing puzzle piece. At seventeen (almost eighteen), I’ve never been kissed before. I’ve never held a guy’s hand. On Valentine’s Day, I’ve never received any presents, not even a cheap piece of candy.

Will I find someone who will complete me when I turn twenty-eight?

Filled with doubt, I sigh again. No sparkling pink diamond is going to adorn my left ring finger anytime soon. But that’s okay. I don’t mind being alone. I don’t have to worry about someone else. I can be myself: silly, kooky, plain old Sara Lee-Affen. It’ll be hard to find someone who accepts me for me. I have too many quirks and not all of them are lovable.

It would be nice though to be standing where Millie is standing a decade from now. I imagine my groom to be tall. He doesn’t have to be too tall though because I’m just sixty-one and a half inches tall (5’ 1.5"). He doesn’t have to be incredibly DH–dark and handsome. I’m not picky or incredibly superficial. I just have a sliver of superficiality in me. Hey, who doesn’t?

I think I would wear a short wedding dress when I get married. Today I’m wearing a strapless teal-colored cocktail dress. It’s like a prom dress. It’s tight around the waist like a corset, which helps conceal my baby fat. It also deflates my