Her Surrender (Irresistibly Bound 2)

Chapter One

“I can’t believe she broke up with me over text.” April scowled and placed her phone on the table next to her plate. “Who does that?”

“That’s pretty cold,” Lexi said between mouthfuls. “Did she say why?”

“No, but I have a few ideas.” Actually, it was more like a long list of ideas. At the very top of it was the fact that April and Christie had fought constantly. “We were only together for six weeks, but the least she could do was call me!”

“No one makes phone calls anymore.” Lexi pushed one of her dark curls out of her face. “At least she didn’t just ghost you.”

“You’re not helping, Lex.” April’s long-time friend and coworker had a cavalier attitude when it came to relationships.

“Sorry,” Lexi replied. “I know it sucks, but just last week you were saying that you weren’t that into her. Admit it, you were going to break up with her anyway.”

“If I was going to break up with her, I would have done it in person.”

“Look at it this way. She saved you the trouble of an uncomfortable conversation.”

“I guess.” April rested her chin on her hand. “I’m never getting back that book I lent her, am I?”

“Probably not,” Lexi shoveled the last of her lunch into her mouth.

April wasn’t that upset, not really. Christie had been nice, and they had a lot in common, but there were no sparks between them. What bothered April was that this was just the latest in a string of short relationships that had fizzled out, mostly because of personality clashes. April, as one of her exes put it, was “strong-willed”. She was pretty sure that meant that she was hard to get along with.

April sighed. She was twenty-eight now. She knew that it was silly, but she was beginning to feel like she was doomed to spend the rest of her life alone. All her friends were pairing off and getting married, then moving away to start new lives, and April was being left behind.

“We should head back,” April said. Their lunch hour was almost over.

“Yes, boss,” Lexi said.

Waving goodbye to the cook, April and Lexi left the diner. It was a short walk from the library where they both worked, so they went there regularly for lunch. The diner had been there for as long as April could remember, and it was one of the few remaining local, family-run businesses in the area. But with rent prices going up as they were, April wondered how much longer the diner would last.

April and Lexi made their way back to work, chatting as they walked. Their workplace, the Oakmont Street Library, was just a few blocks away. The library was more than a library. It doubled as a community center and a meeting place for everyone who lived in this part of the city.

April was the library’s director, but only for the last few months. She’d worked at the library for years and had been promoted to the top spot after the old director’s sudden resignation. The timing couldn’t have been worse. As soon as April had taken over, all of Oakmont Street, including the library and the surrounding apartments, had been bought by a multinational property development company. Oasis Developments had big plans for Oakmont Street. And those plans didn’t involve leaving the library standing.

Lexi and April reached the library and headed to their small shared office in the back. Lexi was the library’s event coordinator, which had been April’s position before her promotion. The two of them, along with a few others, made up a bare-bones staff that barely kept the place running. Somehow, the library scraped by despite all the funding cuts.

But now, its time was running out.

April picked up the bundle of mail that had been left on her desk and flicked through it. She reached an envelope with a familiar logo. Her heart stopped.

It was a letter from Oasis Developments.

Ever since Oasis bought the building, April had been trying to get in touch with them to talk about the library, but all of her phone calls and emails had been ignored. This was the only piece of correspondence the library had received from Oasis in months.