Chapter Two: California Dreaming

Gabrielle Connor sat in her hotel room staring at her schedule.  She had yet another stop on her book tour tomorrow in Beverly Hills.  It was at a place called Stacks & Racks no less.  She shook her head at the play on words.

She couldn’t remember the last time that she’d had a day off from work to just do whatever she wanted.  Of course, she hadn’t been able to do what she wanted for almost a year now.

It wasn’t as if she was ungrateful for her success in the past year, but it really did interfere with the ability to just lead a normal life.

After her little catering business had been discovered by an executive from the Meal Network, she’d been offered her very own cooking show.  She’d excitedly turned her store over to her assistant chef, Monique.  She was still the owner and she received calls and reports all the time, but she missed her little store.  

She’d built it from the ground up and she was thrilled that it was doing so well these days.  It was doing far better now than it ever had when she was running it.

After a couple of months of filming episodes for her show, she was approached to write her first cookbook.  Since its release last month, A Tale of Two Grilles had already made it to bestseller status and she was hard at work on her promotional book tour.

She sighed as she slid the paper copy of her schedule across her hotel room bed and lay back on top of the comforter.

She loved cooking and food had always been her passion, but her success had come with a price.  She’d had to all but give up her personal life.  There was no such thing as going on a simple date or even running out to the store with no makeup on.  Everywhere she went, she was usually captured on film by the paparazzi.  Lately, it had become a real drag.

Having excitement in her life was something that she’d always craved, but lately she just wanted something different.  She needed something in her life that wasn’t in the food business.  She needed a private life that she could escape to when her days were long and tedious.

She rolled over onto her side and watched as the rain began to fall outside her Seattle hotel room window.  Tomorrow she’d be in sunny California.  The thought of that should appeal to her but she couldn’t remember the last time that she’d had something or someone to genuinely smile about.

Her last relationship had ended in a huge fight. Her ex Kyle had been supportive of her small business. He, after all had owned his own business that was now profiting tens of millions of dollars a year. He'd built it from the ground up and now spent his time touring around public speaking and teaching other male entreprenuers. It was very much part of the "bro marketing" style of work.

Honestly, it gave her the ick. And it gave her the double ick when he'd started to very quickly get jealous of her new found success. She'd soon figured out that he was only happy for her when she was still beneath him income wise. Now that she'd found success and opportunities were popping up daily for her, he'd quickly lost interest.

His loss of interest had led him to another woman and that had led Gabbi to cut ties with him. And even though she was glad to be out of his life, it didn't mean that she wasn't lonely. Particularly at night and particularly while she was on the road. Alone.

She sighed as she stretched out her arms above her head. Her mind wandered to the last time she'd had sex--it seemed like ages ago. Plus, she hadn't been all that fulfilled with Kyle. She wasn't sure she'd ever been fulfilled with any man in her past come to think of it. There was always something missing. Something just out of reach.

She ran her hands down her body as she imagined what it would feel like to have a man's arms around her right now. Someone to hold her. Someone to make her feel wanted and desired. Someone to make her just feel like a woman.

Sometimes it felt like just a fantasy that would never come true. A dream that was just out of reach.

She rolled over and tucked her hands beneath her pillow as her eyes begin to close. Well, tomorrow was California and maybe tonight she'd have sweet dreams of that perfect mystery man out there. One who was waiting for her. One who wanted only her. One who would take her and make her his.

As she drifted off to sleep, she felt herself smile. A girl could dream.