Love Me or Leave Me

Cover art by @LNRoberts1
College student, Aveen Sullivan, has a huge crush on the strapping rugby player, Jamal Jean-Pierre. They meet at a college dorm party the last week of her freshman year, and she's certain he likes her too. He's flirty and fun, and at the end of the night, he asks for her phone number.

You don't do that if you're not interested, right?

But after Aveen goes home for her summer break, she never hears back from Jamal. And to make matters worse, he turns up on her radar again, when her best friend, Jenna, texts her that she's dating a new guy from her summer internship, and his name is Jamal Jean-Pierre!

With the new semester just starting, Aveen must now pretend that she isn't bothered by seeing her crush and her best friend together, but Jamal keeps popping up everywhere: in her History class, at her part-time job, in the cafeteria, and pretty much everywhere else.

And unless she's reading things the wrong way, he still seems to be flirting with her. Confused and wondering whether Jamal is just a rake, Aveen makes a concerted effort to move on.

However, when Jenna and Jamal talk Aveen into helping them prepare for a TV game show with a trip for two to Miami as the Grand Prize, Aveen has had enough. But Jenna and Jamal won't take no for an answer. Instead, they insist on setting Aveen up with their mutual friend Fred, so that Aveen and Fred can compete as well.

It turns out that Fred has an interesting secret, but he's up for a free trip to Miami, so he agrees to fake date Aveen to see if they can win. But there's something else that Fred knows, and it's about Jamal's true feelings for Aveen and a family tragedy that has left him heartbroken and fragile.

This new information changes everything, and Aveen has to decide what to do. Should she trust her instincts, pursue Jamal, and risk losing her best friend, or should she move on and quietly try to mend her broken heart?