Crystal Clear

Chapter one

Dear Dairy.

Today I met the man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. His name is Joshua and he is absolutely gorgeous. He's a presenter at Wizz fm and the first time I heard his voice on the radio, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. His voice was like honey poured on hot delicious biscuits and made my toes curl. I knew I had to meet him, so I asked Lucille, my next door neighbour who works at the station to introduce me to him.

She teased me endlessly, but then, on friday, she called me on my cell phone and told me she was having lunch with him at Joey's and if I hustled, I could 'accidentally' bump into them there. Ryan of course thinks I 'm totally nuts and gets this strange expression anytime I talk about Joshua, which is pretty much all the time. But what does he know? He's a guy and they can be totally clueless. So anyway, I did go to Joey's and Oh my God! I spoke to him. He is HOT with those cobalt blue eyes and strong jaw. I'm in love. He is my soul mate and I intend to have him. So I've come up with a plan- a good one. Oops! I've got to stop now, Sparky peed again.

CALLIE.

'Do I smell dog pee?' Amanda asked as she stood at the entrance to the den, well- shaped nose delicately sniffing the air, a look of utter disgust on her face. 'damn you Sparky' I muttered to the puppy sleeping contented on the sofa beside me. Sparky simply snored on, leaving me undefended against the witch's assault. So I decided to play ignorant. I sniffed too. 'I don't smell anything' I replied and pretended intense concentration on the TV that was currently showing a rerun of Grey's Anatomy. Behind me I heard Amanda sigh. ' don't tell me he still isn't housebroken Callie. It's been six months'

"some dogs take longer to break in" I said.

Sparky opened one eye and looked at me as if to say 'yeah right loser', then shut it and went right back to sleep. The traitor.

Amanda signed again and turned away. I waited until I heard the door to her room shut. I leaped from the sofa and grabbed the can of air freshener I'd kept beside the coffee table for emergencies and sprayed the room again, hoping that Ryan wouldn't notice the smell of dog pee when he came in. If he did, then I was in for some major trouble because the rug happened to the one of his favourite things. The last time Sparky had peed on it, Ryan had threatened to kick me and Sparky out of the house if either of us dared mess up his lovely brown rug. I sniffed the air and choked. Damn, maybe I'd put too much air freshener. Now the room smelled like a bordello. Oh well, I shrugged, better a bordello than a dog lavatory. I turned off the TV and grabbed the box of Hershey's chocolate that I'd been feasting on. Scratch that. Sparky had been feasting and I was only allowed a nibble now and then, especially when he wasn't looking. Making my way to the kitchen, I spied a bottle of white wine sitting on the work island.

"Great Amanda must have some good news". I said.

It was tradition at no 10 Armshead street, Boston, Massachusetts. Whoever had news usually had to buy a celebratory wine. Given my track record for horrible dead end jobs and numerous rejection letters from publishers, I rarely had any good news. Amanda however, must have been born under a lucky star. Blonde with a body that made tons of guys worship at her feet.Captain of the cheerleading squad when we were in high school together(I barely made the drill team), valedictorian, got into Harvard because Daddy threw a lot of money around, graduated magna cum laude, got a job as a buyer for Nordstroms with a salary that ran in six figures. Me, on the other hand had been born to two normal struggling parents who never had the money to throw around. I'd never been skinny- on a good day I weighed about 150 pounds and on my bad days, well I hated to think about my bad days. I'd never really known what I wanted to be when I grew up. I'd gone from wanting to be an astronaut to a ballerina, the president of a third world country. Instead, I'd worked as a waitress at burger king, a dog walker, a temp at a law firm. I am currently unemployed- by choice- cos I needed to concentrate on my book.