After Hours (Part 4)

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.

Having cut short their first real date, Alia and rock star Sam Gables find her best friend, Elaine, surrounded by a group of firefighters mesmerized by her beauty, wit, and way with a story. Sam invites the whole gang back to his place for a party, and he and Alia soon end up in his upstairs bedroom suite.

One night of steamy lovemaking later, Alia wakes to find Sam gone and imagines the worst. A note, coffee, and breakfast set her straight, however, and she enjoys one more night of fun with Sam, Elaine, and Sam’s manager, Marty. Early the next morning, she and Elaine must say goodbye to their two new love interests as they board a plane for home — and the realities of everyday life.

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: 9781094409801

Book preview

After Hours

Sam Gables and I were headed to my hotel to track down Elaine, my best friend. She’d told me she had plans that night with Sam’s manager, Marty, so that I wouldn’t skip my big date with Sam at Admiral’s Table.

When I realized Elaine had fibbed about her plans for Friday night — after Sam mentioned that she’d ditched Marty the night before because of his very recent breakup — I had to get out of the restaurant immediately and find her.

Throughout my teens and adult life, I’d lived by a strict code concerning my female friends. One tenet of that code was that under no circumstances would you leave a friend alone while on a trip together — especially for a guy you’d just met. Even if that guy was Sam Gables. You came on the trip with your friend, it was your responsibility to entertain her for the duration, no matter what.

Sam had just told me he loved me, and fortunately my compulsion to run out of the restaurant and go track down my perfectly grown-up friend didn’t send him fleeing. In fact he wanted to go with me, and he insisted that we could get there much faster via his limo, which was parked right outside. As unbelievable as this whole situation was, I was starting to believe that Sam really did have strong feelings for me — and that our relationship might turn into something very real.

When we left the restaurant, the driver, Kristoff, was enjoying