Window Shopping Tessa Bailey

Choosing to live independently in a highly urbanized city is a decision Latisha Thaviya Fallarco made at such a young age. Despite her parents prohibitions, she still managed to convince them by performing well in academics. She wanted to attend parties, get drunk and dance in the club, go shopping, and explore neighboring cities. She wanted to live her life to the fullest in the place she considered the best. Yet, she never saw the coming of an incident that would end that kind of lifestyle. She was forced to leave and be with her family. Latisha thought that living in a province would be hard for her, but she was wrong. In a particular town in Iloilo Province, she found her true home. Ps. This story is written in Filipino and English.

Ella Murray is a lawyer who was married for three years, until she discovered a betrayal by her husband. Ella lives in an apartment, where she always saw her neighbor's window as very hot and sexy. She always saw the partying life he led, an endless in and out of women, and thought what it must be like to live this way, since she had always been a one-man woman and had never considered casual sex. However, after her divorce, Ella became afraid of getting involved with certain men who wanted nothing more than a night of pleasure. What Ella didn't expect was that after seeing her neighbor through the window of her apartment, sometimes even appearing naked, she would begin to desire him. Her body lit up every time she saw him, and just seeing him made her need for long cold baths. Until a simple bump into him at the entrance of the building where Ella lives, the two finally get to know each other and maybe something beyond a friendship could arise.

I jolt awake to splash of ice cold water making contact with my warm skin and ripping me from my dreams. Looking up I see my perpetrator and best friend Bailey giggling, and holding a now half-emptied bucket. “Wake up loser! Last day on the beach and you choose to sleep?” I roll my eyes in annoyance at her bubbly enthusiasm. “Alright I’ll get in for a bit but I’m not going to stay long,” I state with a huff. We each grab a floatie and make our way waist deep before hopping on and linking arms to keep from drifting apart. “Are you excited to be heading back tomorrow? I know I am!” Bailey quipped. Honestly I’d been avoiding that thought the whole trip. Returning to our pack was the last thing I wanted to think about. This week at the beach had been the calm environment I desperately needed after senior year. Returning would mean I would have to finally confront the drama that has become my life the last three months. All through high school I kept my head down, focusing on my team and training. Despite keeping to myself there was always one person stirring sh*t up, my ex, Austin. His father, the Alpha to our pack, gave his life in one of the pack battles last year. Leaving his Luna to raise Austin and his sister on her own. Austin would now be eligible for the Alpha title which worried me. Up until we left he had shown blatant disrespect to my father, Beta to our pack. Not to mention he still had his eyes and ears on me. Returning was the last thing I had on my mind, knowing sh*t is about to hit the fan.

Four babies. A billion lies. One mess. Ares Langford is reckless, spoiled, and dangerously close to losing his billionaire inheritance. One more mistake and his father swears to cut him off for good. So when a cop pulls him over for speeding, Ares panics and lies. His girlfriend is giving birth, he claims. The officer insists on escorting him to the hospital. Desperate, Ares bribes a random nurse and finds a stranger who just gave birth to quadruplets. Tessa Monroe is exhausted, broke, and alone with four newborns she never planned to raise by herself. When a cocky rich guy begs her to play pretend for a million dollars, she agrees. But one lie spirals into a full blown scandal when Ares’ mother storms into the hospital, declares Tessa family, and whisks them all into the billionaire’s world. Now Ares is stuck playing baby daddy to four kids who aren’t his, pretending to love a woman he barely knows, and fending off his father’s wrath all while the world watches. What starts as a lie turns into the biggest twist of their lives. Will love bloom in the chaos or will the truth destroy everything?

The housekeeper’s daughter, Selena Greene, deliberately chose to get married on the same day, at the same hotel as me. When our cars passed each other on the way to our weddings, she rolled down her window and asked to switch my bridal bouquet with hers. My bouquet, however, wasn’t just any bouquet. It was hand-carved from priceless jadeite by my grandfather himself—a one-of-a-kind heirloom and his blessing for my wedding day. “Trish,” she pleaded softly, “please. I’ve sacrificed so much for this wedding. I just want it to be perfect. I’ll give it back to you as soon as we get out of the cars.” My heart softened. Against my better judgment, I handed her my bouquet and took her cheap, plastic flowers instead. However, when we stepped out of our cars, she refused to return it. Worse still, during her ceremony, she tossed my jade bouquet onto the floor, shattering it into countless pieces. That bouquet had been my grandfather’s way of being present at my wedding. It was all I had left of him. Yet, in front of everyone, Selena put on an innocent act and accused me, “Who takes back a bouquet after a switch? A glass bouquet like this is all over online shopping platforms for ten bucks. I’ll just pay you back. Trish, you’ve made my life hard enough on normal days. Do you have to humiliate me on the most important day of my life, too?” Furious, I confronted her, but she ducked behind my fiancé and my brother, wiping at her eyes like the victim. My fiancé immediately went to comfort her, leaving me standing alone at the ceremony, humiliated and ridiculed by everyone. My brother, too, called me cruel and heartless. He cut me off financially and threw me out of the family home. Selena’s husband, having quickly risen to success with the help of powerful backers, unleashed his relentless revenge on the now penniless and alone me. In the dead of winter, hired thugs found me and brutalized me to death. And Selena? She became their princess, adored by all three of them. I sank into darkness, full of rage and regret. However, when I opened my eyes again, I was transported back to the day of the wedding.

Tessa is the picture perfect student with good grades, flawless attendance and a charming smile. With one year left to graduate high school and a bucket list imposed by her best friend, her goal is pretty much the same with an extra addition—tick off every item on the cursed bucket list. But trouble comes knocking in the form of blue eyes, muscled body and an ego the size of her head. What happens when the school's badboy, Benjamin notices her in a boxing ring?

Alcohol and heartbreak are definitely not a good combo. Too bad I learned that a little too late. I’m Tessa Beckett and I painfully got dumped by my boyfriend of three years. That led me to get drunk at a bar and have a one-night stand with a stranger. Before he would see me as a slut the next day,I paid him for the sex and deeply insulted his ability to please me. But this stranger turned out to be my new boss!

My mother is a forensic doctor. When she's at the market for some grocery shopping, she sees human flesh being sold at a butcher's stall. She calls the police before contacting my cousin to tell her to stay safe. Her friend reminds her to also pay attention to me, but my mother is scornful. "She can die out there for all I care. I never want to see her again!" She doesn't know that she's already seen me, though. She didn't recognize her daughter from the pile of flesh that's waiting for her examination.

Gianna Windsor and Brandon Baker have been married for two and a half years. Since it was an arranged marriage, Gianna accepted the fact that Brandon would never love her, but she was satisfied with the respect and care he showed her. That was until Brandon’s best friend, Bailey, announced her pregnancy with his baby. The bubble Ginanna had created for herself shattered and she had no choice but to divorce him and make room for the child. A few weeks after leaving, she finds out she’s pregnant as well. When Brandon sees a child that resembles him a few years later, he is determined to get back in Gianna’s life and take care of her and their child. Will Gianna allow him back into her life? Will she fall for him again?

Clara Nguyen is a fox princess from a demon kingdom. After saving a human with marble, she fainted and entered the modern world. She becomes an ordinary person without magic. Clara is always looking for her marble. During a shopping trip, she tracked down and discovered the whereabouts of marble. The magic gem is in the body of Jonathan- Owner of a comic book publishing company Omen. She hastily kissed him to get the jewel back but failed. The marble only returns to her if the kiss is voluntary. To get the marble back, she becomes an Omen employee to make Jonathan fall in love with her. She is determined to make him kiss her voluntarily. Will Clara’s plan succeed, or is she the one who will fall in love with Jonathan first?