The Shopping List: The Neighborhood, #3

By Megan Derr

Shannon's had just about all he can take, and catching his boyfriend cheating on him was the last straw. Single again weeks before Christmas, all he wants is to get through the holiday without further trouble. The only real thorn in his side is that he now has no date for Winter Wonderland, a Christmas event put on by the popular Art in the Park, where his ex is sure to show up with his beautiful new girlfriend.

 

A chance encounter in the grocery store leads to a wild proposition from Crispin, the man his ex vehemently hates: pretend to be boyfriends for Winter Wonderland, and help each other out. In exchange for helping Crispin secure a promotion, he'll help make Shannon's ex furious and miserable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Megan Derr
• Release date: Dec 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215454107

Megan Derr

Megan is a long-time resident of queer romance and keeps herself busy reading and writing it. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she’s not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her wife and cats, or watch movies. She loves to hear from readers and can be found all over the internet.meganderr.compatreon.com/meganderrmeganderr.blogspot.comfacebook.com/[e-mail]@meganaderr

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Shannon's had just about all he can take, and catching his boyfriend cheating on him was the last straw. Single again weeks before Christmas, all he wants is to get through the holiday without further trouble. The only real thorn in his side is that he now has no date for Winter Wonderland, a Christmas event put on by the popular Art in the Park, where his ex is sure to show up with his beautiful new girlfriend.

A chance encounter in the grocery store leads to a wild proposition from Crispin, the man his ex vehemently hates: pretend to be boyfriends for Winter Wonderland, and help each other out. In exchange for helping Crispin secure a promotion, he'll help make Shannon's ex furious and miserable.

The Shopping List

The Neighborhood 3

By Megan Derr

Published by Megan Derr

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.

Edited by Samantha M. Derr

Cover designed by Ashborne Stardust Editing & Design

http://www.ashbornestardust.com

This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, places, and incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.

First Edition December 2022

Copyright © 2022 by Megan Derr

Printed in the United States of America

The Shopping List

The Neighborhood 3

Megan Derr

Shannon slumped over his kitchen bar and half-heartedly sipped his second cup of coffee, staring through the window at the snow already starting to fall. You should have been up hours ago, it seemed to say. Screw you, he muttered, and sipped more coffee.

When he was feeling about 65% awake, he finally looked over the scattered pile of sticky notes, scrap paper, backs of receipts, and torn pages of both lined and unlined notebooks. You should have been awake at eight, they seemed to say.

It's not my fault.

Except it was his fault, staying up until four in the morning, drinking significantly more Modelo than his diet permitted, and getting his ass kicked by hard mode on Rise of the Tomb Rider. He'd already gotten approximately ninety texts and seventeen DMs from his mother wanting to know why he hadn't been at church…

And all of that because he'd just wanted to get out of his house for the night, and what had he gotten for being stupid enough to give in to an impulse to be social?

He'd caught his stupid cheating boyfriend in Splendor with the most beautiful woman Shannon had ever seen. Shannon had begged for months to go to Splendor. He'd followed the buzz about it from the very first whisper, had hinted and asked and cajoled to go there opening week…then to go there at all…

Corey had constantly refused, claiming work, then that it was too stupidly expensive, before finally just admitting he didn't care, had no interest in Shannon's obsession with 'stupid, overblown, overpriced, gimmicky restaurants'. He'd later apologized, and taken him to dinner, but it had only been to a steakhouse they'd been to a hundred times because Corey loved the place.

There he'd been, not quite dead center of the restaurant, with a girl who looked like an Indian princess, a flight of reds, and a meal that looked even better than all the splashy magazine and blogger pictures.

Shannon's heart, only barely starting to heal from his last disastrous relationship, had cracked in two all over again.

It had never been about the restaurant, apparently. Corey of the perfect everything just hadn't wanted to take his bland, nerdy, perpetually scatter-brained, unpolished boyfriend out.

He hoped the drop-dead gorgeous princess dumped Corey in front of his whole office and waltzed off with that serious hottie Corey was forever bitching about. What was his name? Something ridiculously 'rich white people'. The kind of name that might turn up as the Vegeta type character in a sci-fi hackers saving the world retelling of Pride & Prejudice. Corey had taken great delight in regaling him with the name. Darn it, what was it? Began with an R and then something like 'crispy'…

Ah, that was it. Reginald Crispin Gaylord-Jones. Christ, what a name.

But shit he'd been hot. One of those tall, trim but pleasantly muscled dudes who looked like they'd just stepped out of a painting one day. Shannon had wanted to climb him like a tree and stay for a while.

Reginald Crispin Gaylord-Jones had also been nice. Like, legit nice, not sarcastic or faint-praise nice. Shannon had long suspected jealousy was at the root of Corey's loathing, but once he'd actually met Reginald, he'd known it for fact.

His cat startled him from his meandering thoughts, jumping up on the kitchen bar, scattering the mail, and wailing loudly for his much delayed breakfast. You were asleep anyway!

Goldfish fluffed his orange tail, planted his butt on the water bill, and gave an imperious meow.

Yeah, yeah, I'm getting, Shannon grumbled as he obediently got His Lordship his late breakfast.

He'd just cleaned up the mess Goldfish had made when his phone started ringing. He winced to