Beautiful Tragedy (A Standalone Romance Novel) by Alycia Taylor Page A

opened the door I
said, “Hi, I’m glad you’re here.”
    She smiled, “Thanks, me too.”
    She didn’t look glad though. She looked nervous. She
was glancing around like she was looking for the dungeon and the chains that I
would use to cuff her to the wall.
    “Have a seat,” I told her. “Do you want something to
drink?”
    “Just some water, thanks.”
    My heart actually went out to the poor girl. She
really looked about ready to crawl out of her skin. I didn’t know what to do to
put her at ease, but I knew that sometimes keeping busy helped me when I felt
anxious so I said, “Do you want to help me cook?” She smiled.
    “Nice trick, guy. Invite a girl over for dinner and
then get her to cook.” I laughed; she was loosening up a bit.
    “Oh you don’t have to help me. I think I can cook the salmon
without burning it, and you fry asparagus, right?” She really perked up then.
    “Salmon and asparagus, really?” she said. “I’m
impressed.”
    “I’m kind of on a diet.”
    She did something then that sent a jolt of electricity
down my spine. She looked me up and down. The she cracked me up by mimicking
what I had said to her that first day that we’d met.
    “Looks like it’s working for you,” she said with a
grin. “I’ll do the asparagus.” I got the asparagus and the steamer out for her.
She also seemed surprised by that. “You have a steamer, really? Did you buy
this today just to make yourself look good?”
    “No,” I said as I seasoned the salmon. “It’s Jake’s.”
That made her laugh.
    “No offense, you know I love Jake right? But I doubt
if you hit him in the face with that thing he would know what it was.”
    “No offense taken and I bet you’re right,” I told her.
It was fun, cooking with her. She was so different from the other girls that
I’ve dated. Since I was sixteen, girls always seemed so worried about their
looks or how cool they sounded that I would find myself incredibly bored by the
end of the first date. With Molly, she was so natural. She didn’t look like she
was trying. I don’t know if a woman would take that as a compliment or not, but
it was absolutely one. She didn’t wear much make-up, and her hair looked like
it just fell into place without trying. She wasn’t always running to check that
it wasn’t messed up, or that her lipstick was reapplied. It was refreshing. She
probably wasn’t even wearing any.
    When dinner was ready, we sat in the living room and
ate off the coffee table. Jake and I have an island in the kitchen and some bar
stools, but no dining room table. Molly said she didn’t mind, and she didn’t
seem like she did.
    “You want to watch a movie while we eat?” I asked her.
    “Sure,” she said. “What do you have?”
    “What do you like?” I asked her. “Between me and Jake
we have every comedy and thriller that has come out in the past few years.”
    “Comedy like Laurel and Hardy, or comedy like Adam
Sandler and Jim Carrey?”
    I laughed, “I said the last few years, not the last
few hundred years. Laurel and Hardy, really? How old are you?”
    She laughed and said, “My grandmother says I was born
thirty five.”
    “Well if that’s the case that would make you about
fifty-three or four. Laurel and Hardy make sense,” I said. “But I’m sorry, no
Laurel and Hardy here.”
    “Okay, I’ll take Adam Sandler then. Which ones do you
have?”
    I named them off and she picked Fifty First Dates . It was his chicky -est
movie, so I wasn’t surprised. Is that a word? Chicky -est?
I don’t think so. I’m glad I didn’t say that out loud. I put it on and then I
took our plates to the kitchen. “Do you want seconds?” I asked her.
    “No, thank you, I’m stuffed. You did a good job on the
salmon.”
    “Thanks,” I said. “The asparagus was divine.”
    “I think divine is laying it on a bit thick, don’t
you?” she said with a grin. “I mean, I might have gone with heavenly, or
celestial.”
    “And divine is