The Unexpected Boyfriend: A Contemporary Romance Novella, #1

By Cassandra Johnson

Audrey Holbrook is your average twenty-something. The nameless, faceless individual who sits behind the reception desk and takes your name and tells you to have a seat in the waiting room. With a lackluster career and no social life to speak of, Audrey's mother is sure that her daughter will end up a lonely old spinster with no one left behind to remember her when she dies, much to Audrey's denial that she's happy being single.

After another one of her mother's fateful Sunday dinners, Audrey meets Michael Butler.

Charming, funny, sweet. All the ideal characteristics that Audrey always admired in the ninety-nine cent Prince Charming's she read about from the bargain bin at the bookstore.

When Michael won't take no for an answer after bumping into Audrey at the mall and clumsily spilling tea all over her dress, Audrey realizes that she can use this situation to her advantage.

"Ok. If you really want to make it up to me, and you aren't doing anything tomorrow… perhaps you wouldn't mind coming to my family's house tomorrow around lunch time? My dad is hosting a big cookout, and honestly, it would get my mother off my back for never bringing anyone to dinner."

Striking up a deal with Michael, Audrey fully expects never to see him again, but what winds up happening is quite unexpected.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cassandra Johnson
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393388555

Cassandra Johnson

Growing up in the deep south I was taught some precious life lessons; you should always answer with Ma'am or Sir, tea that isn't sweet and iced is blasphemy, and that you catch a lot more flies with sugar than you do with vinegar. I was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas but I was raised in the small town of Marion, Arkansas a short fifteen-minute drive from Memphis, the birthplace of rock and roll. While it may not seem like an accomplishment to some, I am proud to say that I was a published author before the age of thirty and I have many more books left in my head to share with the world. My first novel, LRR Hood is a twist on the classic Little Red Riding Hood fable, and I currently have two more books lined up for a trilogy series of the main character, Elle Marshal's dramatic encounter with werewolves, one of my favorite mythical creatures. My writing continued to evolve from the time I was a teenager, getting involved in text-based roleplay games where my friends and I would create storyboards where we each contributed to the story through the eyes of the character's we chose to write for. I also love fan-fiction and was an avid reader and still am to this day. I decided to throw my hat in the ring and write some of my own fanfictions until eventually, I wanted to work with characters that were my own. From those days I continued to write short stories that never reached the public until I was introduced to Kindle Direct Publishing because while I wanted to be a writer and I wanted to publish my work, I never truly believed that anyone would publish my writing and I now have a work in progress list as long as my arm, and it continues to grow every day, LRR Hood won't be the last you hear from me.

Book preview

Friday

Chapter One

GOOD MORNING, DOCTOR Hanson. Audrey Holbrook chimed cheerily from her seat, instantly feeling her fair cheeks flush with heat. He never noticed her. It was like Audrey was invisible as far as Doctor George Hanson DDS was concerned.

She couldn’t complain too much, it had always been as such. Audrey started working behind the receptionist desk of Hanson Family Dental almost two years ago and Audrey was sure that she could count on one hand the number of times that George acknowledged her presence—that did not count how many times he’d said hello. That was another slightly emptier hand altogether.

You’ve never got to get his attention, hiding behind your desk. Shari, the agency manager, clucked from behind her computer screen.

He’s a busy man, Audrey replied, her voice hushed. I don’t want to waste his time. Audrey continued feeling slightly embarrassed.

He isn’t too busy to flirt with Claudia every time he had a minute to spare. Shari didn’t miss a beat in pointing out the painfully obvious truth.

That’s just because Claudia has a naturally flirtatious personality. But the way that Audrey said it, Shari knew that her younger co-worker was now pouting at her computer screen.

Shari didn’t often involve herself in office semantics -after thirty years working in an office environment, she didn’t like sticking her nose into others business or playing around with office romances, but she sat down her pen and walked over to the reception desk.

If you ask me, aside from being good at what he does, and being a decent employer, George Hanson is a bit of a pompous ass. And if he doesn’t have the good sense like any red-blooded member of the male species to see a lovely young woman like you, then he isn’t worth wasting your time on. Shari smiled, chucking Audrey under the chin gently. No more frowning. They were in the business of smiles after all.

Thank you, Shari. I know that you are right, but you know how it is when your mind sets itself on something and doesn’t want to listen to reason. Audrey explained with a sigh. But I am working on it.

You keep it up and you will get there. Then some sweet, kind, prince charming will come along and snatch you up before we know what hit us. Shari was a very optimistic thinker and as hard as Audrey tried -she wanted to believe Shari was telling her the truth.

I will. Blinking softly, Audrey returned her focus to the monitor in front of her. It was eight-fifteen in the morning and Dr. Hanson’s first appointment of the day was walking through the door.

Good morning. Audrey smiled, getting them checked in before she went back to let Claudia know that their first patient was there.

The rest of the day flew by in a similar fashion. Each day was just like the last with very little variety to stave off boredom until lunch time rolled around and Audrey would leave her desk to walk down the sidewalk in the small shopping plaza where the dentist's office was located to see her friend Gavin at the tiny hair salon and buy herself a sandwich.

Today, Gavin was off work, so Audrey had to eat her sandwich at her desk while she went over appointments for the next day. Audrey had to call patients to confirm their appointments for the next day. It was a policy in the office that all cancellations had to be done twenty-four-hours in advance.

Audrey couldn't help the small sigh that erupted from her as she hung up the phone after her last call. Today was Friday, which meant she was calling patients to remind them that their office wouldn't be open Monday in accordance with Labor Day weekend. Audrey didn't know why she needed to do this, their appointment cards were all set up for Tuesday—Shari was always on top of those calls and if she missed them, she got a heated scolding from the older woman which Audrey never enjoyed. Shari was a wonderful woman to work beneath, but when she was angry, Audrey wasn't even upset by it—it was the fact that she disappointed her that made Audrey feel worse. It was like being a child all over again and her mother was looking at her report card shaking her head and clicking her tongue against her teeth.

It just didn't feel good. But it was this thought, that lead Audrey to remember Sunday dinner with her parents was coming up and she would soon be facing her mother’s disapproving and disappointed eyes.

It looked like Audrey would be spending her holiday weekend with another paperback special from the bookstore. Of course, she wouldn’t be entirely alone –there was Sunday dinner with her parents and then Audrey would be turning around and having dinner with them again on Monday because Ben, her dad was already boasting his big plans to fire up the grill on the back deck and cooking a Labor-Day feast.

Kathleen, her mother would spend the day in the kitchen, fawning over the new grandbaby, and asking Audrey when she was going to add a new name to the family tree. Oh, joy.

Sunday

Chapter Two

SUNDAY DINNERS HAD started a kind of routine in her life, while Audrey, in her own opinion didn’t think of herself as this mousey, mundane woman. She was twenty-five years old and had a good career and while she didn’t like the thought of tooting her own horn, Audrey wasn’t an unattractive woman either.

Audrey had a nice clear complexion; she couldn’t seem to hold a tan to save her life –typically she just turned red like a tomato and then a week later she was just as fair skinned as she was the day she was born. But except for a once a month blemish thanks to mother nature, Audrey’s skin was clear. Thanks to genetics Audrey had her moms’ emerald green eyes –Kathleen liked to say that it was due to their Irish heritage, but Audrey was certain that her mother’s ancestry had nothing to do with the Emerald Isle coming through in their eyes. Luckily, because her dad, Ben was a mammoth in the height department, Audrey didn’t suffer from those short girl struggles, she was five, five and her hair, despite a once a month bottled blonde that she got from the pharmacy, her hair was long and healthy and shiny. Of course, it probably helped a good deal that she was friends with a good stylist. And as far as physical appearance went for her body, Audrey wasn’t thin or thick –she was somewhere in the middle, like the perfect milkshake.

But, with all that –Audrey often felt like it was a requirement to show up to Sunday dinners with her game face on. Shouldn’t spending time with your family be one of the few times when you could show up in a pair of yoga pants and sneakers with no makeup on? Nope. Not in Kathleen Holbrook’s mind. If Audrey showed up for dinner without makeup on it meant that she was giving in to a state of permanent spinsterhood and was on the verge of adopting sixteen cats.

As she drove to her parent’s house that Sunday afternoon, her mind recalled the day she’d come to dinner with a pet carrier for her new pet. A tabby kitten that she’d adopted from the local animal shelter after she went to volunteer with her friend Gavin.

‘Oh, Audrey,’ was Kathleen’s response when Audrey took little Winslow out of his carrier and held him up to her face, nuzzling his warm soft fur against her cheek. Kathleen thought he was neither precious nor adorable. He was an admittance of Audrey’s pitiful social life.

Needless to say, Audrey didn’t bring Winslow to anymore family dinners, there was no reason both of them had to suffer, it wasn’t his fault that her mother didn’t appreciate his charm, but it didn’t mean that she’d given up anything –if anything, as she had tried to explain to Kathleen that he made her life feel fuller, because now she had a sweet little fur baby at home who brought joy to her home life. Kathleen still didn’t see it that way.

So, as was the case, Audrey parked on the street, looking up at the house her mom and dad lived in. If she recalled, Audrey was three-years-old when they bought it, but she couldn’t remember anything that far back –what she remembered was her bedroom, the teenage years where she never wanted to come out, the backyard where her Dad built herself and her sisters a playhouse, trips up and down this lane for years dressed up as princesses, pirates and pixies shouting, ‘Trick or Treat!’ at their neighbors. Learning to ride her first big-girl bicycle. Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations where relatives had to park a block down the street sometimes and walk up to the house because the driveway was already packed with cars and the house was filled with warmth and laughter. They were sweet, tender memories, though Audrey wouldn’t deny she didn’t look at these Sunday evenings at her mom and dad’s house with any amount of happiness.

Getting out of the car, she could already hear Jason wailing his cry before she walked in the door.

It sounds like someone is crying for his favorite Auntie. Audrey smiled, quickly stepping inside and taking the little man from her oldest sister, shooting a teasing look at Tina, she was the second to oldest in the brood of four Holbrook children. Audrey and Quinton were the babies –Irish twins because they were only nine months apart in birth.

Taking Diana’s son into her arms, Audrey looked at him,