The Admiral's Table (Part 3)

By Myranda Patterson

China Doll is a collection of romantic short stories from Bryant Street Shorts. We recommend starting with "Obsession," the first story in this series, and then reading the rest in order. To find more stories in this series, simply scroll to “Titles In This Series,” located just below this description.

About China Doll

Alia Rose has the perfect life — or so it seems. She’s young, she’s beautiful, she has a hot boyfriend who thinks she hung the moon, and she recently started a promising career. There’s just one problem. Since her teens, Alia has had a secret obsession with the rock star Sam Gables, multi-Grammy winner and noted heartthrob.

Despite pining for this unattainable superstar for years, Alia has kept her admittedly crazy fantasies to herself. That is, until a girls’ trip to New Orleans, too much tequila, and a freaky bar called Killer’s Basement collide to bring her face-to-face with her idol.

He’s smitten, and she quickly understands that her life will never be the same. After a dizzying night — and a dose of unwanted social-media notoriety — Sam and Alia embark on a highly unusual courtship.

Alia finds out that falling in love with an eccentric rock star isn’t even close to what she expected. And despite his money and fame, Sam Gables soon comes to realize that he can learn a few lessons about life and love from the mysterious, practical, and very alluring Alia.

Recovering from her late night out, Alia ponders the events of the past day — including hooking up with Sam Gables, receiving an invite to a fancy dinner with him, breaking up with Josh, and experiencing her very own social-media scandal.

Dinner at the exquisite Admiral’s Table proves to be much more than Alia imagined, as Sam unexpectedly professes his feelings and also spills the beans about Elaine and Marty. With Sam and his limo in tow, Alia rushes out to find her friend.

About Bryant Street Shorts

Bryant Street Shorts is a new publisher specializing in exciting short-form fiction from talented and emerging writers. We’re passionate about creating immersive works that represent our readers and celebrate what matters to them, which is why our catalog of stories reflects a wide range of experiences and voices.

Many Bryant Street Shorts are collections of stories that follow ensembles of characters across multiple storylines. We suggest reading these stories in order to get the most out of your experience. Simply scroll down to “Titles In This Series,” located just below the description of every Bryant Street Short, to find the stories in their correct order.

To find more short stories and novellas on Scribd, simply search for “Bryant Street Shorts."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryant Street Shorts
• Release date: Apr 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781094409788

Book preview

The Admiral’s Table

1 p.m. Friday. Got wasted and made out with Sam Gables last night. Now it’s all over social media! Dinner with him tonight? Where is this going? Broke up with Josh. Getting fired on Monday?

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon in New Orleans, and here I was lying on my bed in a hotel room, trying to get a nap as I nursed a hangover, mulled over the insane events of the past twenty-four hours, and scrawled random thoughts in my journal. I had arrived midafternoon the previous day for a long weekend of fun with my best friend, Elaine, and things had quickly gone sideways.

Our trip did start out fun — if you consider hanging out with a group of hot architects offering free tequila shots to be fun — and ended with me taking a walk through the French Quarter and making out on a bench in Jackson Square with rock star Sam Gables, whom I’d been crazy over since my teens. We’d met in Killer’s Basement, and it appeared that he was desperate to get me into bed. Why me, I couldn’t say.

After I turned down a late-night invitation to go back