Bitter Reflections (The Coffee Café Series #1)

By C.R. Mcbride

Sara was supposed to be starting her new life, new flat, new job, new man. That was the plan but it just wasn't happening. All that changes when Sara, misses her bus one day and her new sexy supervisor offers to give her a lift, it sparks off a passionate affair that leaves her breathless and feeling alive.

Jamie, loved her from the first moment he met her, but Sara, is not the woman he thought she was. Can he become the man to offer Sara, the love she so desperately craves? Or is he destined to become just a bad memory.

Bitter Reflections is a romance that follows Sara, through a tough time in her life where she needs to take responsibility for the mistakes in her past and learn to take control of love and life.

Contains adult language and adult themes.

5 Star Review - I didn`t want to stop reading. I found myself smiling all the way through the book and felt like the main character was someone we have all known at some time.

5 Star Review - This book made me laugh out loud and cry buckets in parts. And I have to say I really LOVED the ending!
I will certainly be looking out for more books by this author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.R. Mcbride
• Release date: Mar 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310215155

C.R. Mcbride

I love to write and I love to read. If I have any spare time between my jobs and my kids, there is nothing I like doing more than diving into a good book.I like to create interesting stories that I think I would enjoy reading myself.I hope that readers enjoy my stories and there are many more to come.https://mcbridecr.wixsite.com/author

Book preview

Bitter Reflections

C.R.McBride

Part One of The Coffee Cafe Series

Published By C. R McBride

Copyright © C. R. McBride 2013

All the characters, names, products and locations in this story are fiction, any resemblance to persons past or present is purely coincidental.

This book may not be copied, distributed or used in any way without the authors express permission

Cover image Rose by George Hodan

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=28058&picture=rose-and-reflection>Rose And Reflection by George Hodan

Cover image Male Torso

© Bortn66 | Dreamstime.com

The Coffee Cafe Logo Cup

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=1476&picture=cup-of-coffee>Cup Of Coffee by Petr Kratochvil

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Pat and Adrian Kerrell for their support and interest and for not laughing at me. I also need to thank Caroline Easton for all her hard work and support in the creation of this book. Your ideas, reading and enthusiasm have got me to this point.

Thank you

This book is dedicated to My Angel,

Who found me in the darkest of places but refused to walk away,

Who has never once thought I couldn’t do what I wanted to and who then pushed me until I did it.

Thank you

Chapter 1

Sara stared down at the white, embossed wedding invitation that had just arrived through her door. Unbelievable! she seethed. It wasn’t that her ex was getting married that made her mad. Well, it was but it was also the fact that he was getting married before her, well no, not even that really. It was all so messed up. Sara had been the one who had plucked up the courage to end their six-year relationship. She was the one who had been miserable and desperate to start a new life, he had acted like there was nothing wrong. All that heartache had been suffered so that she could start having a life, an exciting life. To allow her to find someone who really cared about her and wanted to spoil her. Find someone who wanted more than evenings in the local pub for quiz night. That had been their first, second and third date!

She thought that she was going to have a life at last, but no. Here she was in a bedsit that she could only just afford, working all hours of the day in a job she hated with an endless string of disastrous dates under her belt. Here he was, not ten months down the line, marrying his dental nurse. He was settling down so quickly, yet he had seemed devastated when she left and had told her that he saw nothing wrong with the way things were! He had recovered so easily. Did she secretly wish it was her? No. But he was starting again, carving a life out for himself with someone new whereas she - well, Sara was still stuck in the same rut, just different surroundings.

Sara threw herself down on her sofa and launched the invitation onto the floor, another curse leaving her mouth as she did so. Her bedsit was not a complete dump but then again it wasn’t a posh riverside apartment either. There was a small lounge bedroom that was painted olive green, and mismatched bookcases lined the walls making it look more like a study than a lounge or bedroom. The kitchen, (if you could call it that), housed a sink, two cupboards and a hob and oven, the toilet/shower was in a room just off that and that was about it. Not that she spent much time in there, why would she when there was an excellent pub not two streets away that served good food?

When Sara had first moved in she had been filled with excitement, (not to mention three bottles of red wine), at which point the room looked fabulous. She had intended to redecorate and was determined the place would look homely once finished, a new start, the beginning of her new exciting life. Unfortunately her trainee dentist/loser boyfriend otherwise known as ‘The Bastard’, had changed the locks on their old apartment when she left and refused to let her back in to collect her things. He had then gone on to sell everything they owned and moved to God knows where, leaving her with nothing. Nothing but bad memories. She had scrimped and saved and worked her arse off to get the precious few possessions she had now gathered. Of course, she had since discovered that he had qualified now and was earning a pretty penny working in a huge dental practice in a very affluent area. The new girlfriend had taken great delight in posting Sara a cheque for three pounds forty-seven, which supposedly amounted to the profit of selling all Sara’s stuff. She also included their new posh uptown address and how well he was now doing. Hence the big wedding.

Just as Sara was finishing off yet another outburst, all the while making a mental note that she really needed to moderate her language, the phone rang.

Hello? she answered sharply, there was a long pause then a voice said,

Sara? Hi it’s... erm ... Jamie, hope you’re OK, I wanted to speak to you at work today but I missed you. I erm...well I ... I was wondering if you would like to go out this evening?

Sara rolled her eyes, regretting that she had picked up the damn phone, this was not going to help her mood. Jamie worked at her company, Saltec; it sold and installed computer equipment to companies all over the world. Jamie was one of the company ‘geeks’, with scruffy black hair and an endless supply of black faded t-shirts. He had been persistently trying to get Sara to go out with him since she asked him for help three months ago. Not many people ventured into the ‘geeks’ domain and if they did they never went back. It wasn’t that they were unpleasant; they were all really intelligent people. It was just that their social skills were a bit... well, lacking. They seemed to speak a whole different language to most people but expected everyone to automatically understand every word they said. If only she’d known that a missing order could cause so much hassle, she wouldn’t have bothered chasing it and therefore having to ask him to help her. She would have just re-entered it into the system manually.

Sara! Are you there? Jamie asked down the line after Sara had not replied. She sighed, unable to keep the frustrated tone from her voice,

Yes, I’m here it’s just that I am rather busy, Jamie, and to be honest not the best company at the moment.

It was so hard to not upset his feelings but Jamie was about twelve years old, well OK, not twelve but there was no way that he was older than twenty three. With Sara approaching her thirty fifth birthday, there was no way that her sex life had become so depressing that she was going to scrape the bottom of the barrel by becoming a cougar.

You are mental, her friend Jo had screeched at her when she had told her about Jamie’s advances. You should totally go for it, it’s not like you’re getting any from anyone else!

Shut up. He’s a child, there’s no way on earth I am going out with a child. He probably plays computer games all day, Sara complained.

You have had no decent man in your life since you left your ex, Sara, and let’s be honest, with the hours you work you hardly fit time in to see me, let alone start a relationship.

It was true, Jo was right, she just had no free time whatsoever at the moment. Lonely didn’t begin to describe how she felt and as for her sex life - it was non-existent. Other than a few thrills from the romance novels that Jo had lent her, Sara had given up on men completely. Jo, however, moved freely from one guy to the next, never really looking for anything permanent, just someone to have fun with. Sara could never be like that. She had tried it once with a bloke from the coffee shop, Troy, what a disaster. Sara was not fun like Jo, she had been nervous on the date and not interested in him at all. The night had been a total waste of time and after a very weak attempt of seduction on his part and some fumbling, Sara had sent him packing and decided quick flings were not for her! Why couldn’t she just meet someone like the men out of her books? Someone who understood her, who loved her and seduced her passionately? Unfortunately there were no men like that in real life!

Is he good looking, Sara? If so, you are an idiot for not going for it, Jo insisted. That had been a good question, the truth was she had never really looked at Jamie that way before, she didn’t even know his full name. But he was so much younger than her and she was not getting into that, no way.

Sara? Are you still there? the voice continued.

Oh God, sorry, Jamie, I went off in a daydream then, yeah I’m fine, just a bit of bad news, that’s all. Look I really appreciate the offer but, Jamie, I just want to be alone tonight.

There was a long pause before he asked almost in a whisper, Does that mean that there may be a night when you don’t want to be alone? Sara couldn’t help herself and let out a little giggle, you’ve got to love the persistence and eternal hope of youth. She said goodnight and put down the phone, not feeling half as bad as she had before.

Chapter 2

Sara jumped out of bed, knocking over two empty wine bottles. God, her head hurt. What on earth had she been thinking of, drinking that much last night? Damn her ex for making her so miserable that she had drunk herself into a major hangover.

Rushing in and out of the shower she quickly dressed, desperate to catch the bus that was now not five minutes away. Unfortunately, she had not had time to wash or iron her usual suit and so had to select a dress that she wore for evenings. In a vain attempt she threw a suit jacket over the top to try and look more respectable. Not that Sara owned a single piece of clothing that could ever be considered daring, her wardrobe was split into work clothes and weekend clothes and never would the two mix, but today she had no choice. Looking out of her third floor window over the top of the other houses, she saw the bus turn the corner and head towards the next street. After that it would be heading down her street, there was no way she was going to make it, the dress would have to do.

Bollocks! she shouted, grabbing her bag and running down the stairs two at a time. Inevitably just as she reached the path outside, her bus shot past her. The next bus was not for another twenty minutes, making her definitely late for work. In all the time she had worked there she had never been late, not even once. If she walked through the reception door bang on time, then as far as Sara was concerned she was late, she liked to be there ten minutes early at least to get settled in ready to start at nine o’clock.

Bloody bus! she called out after it. Shit!

Good grief! That is no way for a lady to speak, surely? a voice called out. Sara jumped and turned around to see her supervisor, Mr Blakley, sitting next to her in his black BMW, smiling broadly. Tom Blakley was an extremely handsome man, he was in his early forties and had aged very well with light brown hair that he wore short and smart. He dressed impeccably and had dark brown eyes that twinkled mischievously. Not that she had taken any notice of him before...much! Just gazed over him like the other girls when he first started, then blushed scarlet when he had touched her hand whilst handing him a coffee. Spent hours wondering what he was like outside work, thinking about him taking her to dinner, picturing him as all the lead characters in her stories as she read them, but other than that she hadn’t given him a second thought!

Oh, Mr Blakley, I’m so sorry, I just missed my bus and...

He silenced her with his hand. Jump in I’ll give you a lift, save the public from any more of your foul filthy language! Sara blushed scarlet again, frantically looking around for an alternative option; she knew there wasn’t another bus for ages, no one she knew drove past here. Still she searched, still he waited. Sara let out an exasperated sigh then climbed in reluctantly, muttering her thanks and thinking that everyone at work was going to get the wrong idea when she turned up in his car. The office was like a hub of gossip, no one did anything without the whole place finding out. Tom Blakley had been transferred to head up her department not three months ago but all the office girls had found out gossip about him within minutes of his arrival. I think it would probably be for the best if I drop you off at the corner, if that’s OK? he said as if reading her mind. I would hate for you to have any unnecessary attention over me.

She smiled and watched as those dangerous eyes of his twinkled brightly, and wondered why he hadn’t been snapped up years ago. Most guys his age were married with grown-up kids or divorced with grown-up kids, yet he remained single, as in never attached. He had his past, of that Sara was sure, if not for the endless stream of beautiful girls that the office gossips had told her he always brought to the work functions. His last girlfriend had apparently been a tall stunning blonde with never-ending legs! Sara was just deciding if maybe he was gay or a complete arsehole (because those seemed to be the only choices left when it came to single men of that age that weren’t already divorced or widowed), when the car came to a sudden halt.

What the...? Stupid bloody arsehole! Tom shouted out, as a white van cut straight across his lane forcing him to slam on the brakes. Sara could not control herself, after he had made comments about her bad language; she tried in vain to suppress her laughter, sucking in both lips to contain herself.

I’m so sorry, are you alright? The concern in his face made Sara stop laughing abruptly.

I’m fine, I’m fine honestly, just shocked, that’s all. She adjusted her seat belt that now began to cut her in two.

Shocked by the near miss or shocked with my bad language? He grinned, his eyes lost the concern and now began to glisten again. Sara’s relieved smile spread across her face and she flushed. God, what was wrong with her? She never went all girly like this.

Mr Blakley..., she began.

Please, call me Tom.

Erm, not sure that’s a good idea, Sara said anxiously. I’m pretty sure that calling you Tom would definitely get me unnecessary attention! Sara’s heart was suddenly racing, almost jumping out of her chest; it must have been the near miss, she told herself. Adrenaline or something like that, people always say after a shock or accident adrenaline causes giddy-like symptoms – this must be them. A loud horn, blasting in the background, reminded them that they were still stationary in the middle of the road, making them both jump. Sara let out a little, startled shriek. Tom put the car into gear and slowly pulled away, whilst the cars behind still sounded their horns aggressively.

The rest of the journey was carried out in silence, and true to his word, Tom pulled