TWISTED FATES BOOK 1: THE FIRST TWIST by Jacklyn Rogers (read after TXT) 📕

were good, they were not good enough to make me think of him other than a fuck buddy. No job was worth the headache. I knew I should have never crossed the lines between professionalism and personal life, but what can I say? I’d only ever been with one other guy sexually, and Justin was very persistent.

This man was definitely going to be the death of me.

Chapter 8

Sammie's POV

Earlier in the evening, I received a text reminding me that I had dinner plans with my BFF, Dasha. I had gotten home a couple of hours earlier and fallen asleep on the grey micro-suede chaise lounge in my living room. Having only one client to tend to, Fridays were my early days. I rubbed my hands over my face and glanced over at the silver star-shaped clock hanging on the wall to my left. Shit - I completely forgot. I had less than two hours to get ready and meet her. Since traffic in the city could be unpredictable, I knew I needed to get a move on. Even though we spoke practically every day, with her decision to move to a town like two hours away and our conflicting schedules, I hadn't in reality seen Dasha in a while.  It had been at least six months, to be exact, so I genuinely missed my BFF.

Tonight, I was utterly looking forward to some good old-fashioned BFF bonding time.

I took a quick shower, dried my hair, and decided on what to wear. I chose my little black halter dress, which had a low scoop front, that showed off just the right amount of cleavage, and my Black Fairy Louboutin's. I threw my hair up in a messy bun, put on a little light make-up, grabbed my evening bag, and after a quick once over in the mirror, I decided I was ready to head out for the evening.

Driving through downtown Minneapolis traffic was relatively more comfortable to deal with this evening. Despite a few detours due to road construction here and there, I arrived at my destination in record time. Fortunately, I was pretty comfortable navigating around the one-way streets and managed to pull my car into the parking garage located next to the restaurant with ease. I was a few minutes early, so I decided to text Dasha that I had already arrived and would meet her inside the restaurant. I checked my lip-gloss in my rear-view mirror and made my way over to where we were meeting - Hell's Kitchen.

When I stepped inside the restaurant, my senses were seized by all of the fantastic aromas of food drifting around inside the room. I had been here a few times for their featured brunch items on Redemption Sundays. They had the BEST lemon ricotta pancakes. I was relatively new to their dinner crowd, so I was looking forward to trying something new. Needless to say, the mouth-watering scents surrounding me caused my stomach to emit a little grumble, making me realize how hungry I actually was; since I hadn't eaten anything since this morning.

I checked in with the petite hostess and was promptly seated at my table. I let her know that the rest of my party was still on their way, to which she smiled and assured me that she would bring them over to the table once they arrived.

Not too long after I was seated, I was greeted by a charming twenty-something server named Shawn, who was sporting the most adorable damn dimples. I let Shawn know that I was still waiting for the rest of my party and ordered my usual drink, the Foxy Devil, a ginger vodka, basil lemonade cocktail that was to DIE for. With a killer smile and wink, Shawn took my drink order and walked over to the bar. This allowed me the perfect opportunity to ogle at the great view of his muscular backside through his tight-fitting black tee and dark washed jeans, which showed off his sexy ass.

Yeah, this guy must definitely get good tips.

Just as I was about to peruse the menu, I noticed the hostess heading in my direction with someone following close behind her. It was Dasha. But not as I had remembered her. She had dramatically changed her appearance. Don't get me wrong; my BFF Dasha was already gor-gina. She had olive skin, which gave her an exotic appearance, black hair, and hooded dark green eyes with criminally long lashes. However, now Dasha looked even more amazing. I could tell that she had indeed been working out because her svelte body was much more toned than it used to be. She was now wearing contacts instead of her wire-rimmed glasses, so her eyes appeared more vibrant than before. But it was her hair that shocked me the most. She had dyed it bright Cherry Red.

The same color that I had before Jay's death, to be exact.

When she got to the table, she immediately sat down, smiled, and greeted me.

"What's up bitch?" she jokingly declared.

I just stared at her blankly, blinking my eyes as if I were sending some sort of Morse Code message.

Evidently, nobody seemed to be deciphering my distress call. 

I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that Dasha was now the spitting image of, well ... me.

Needless to say, I was at a momentary loss for words.

**********************************************************

I quickly regained my senses and returned Dasha's playful greeting as I stood up and reached over to give her a warm hug.

"What up Whore!"

Hmm, was that my signature perfume she was wearing too? 

Suspish.

I had missed Dasha so much, and clearly, during our time apart, she decided to make some alterations to her appearance without even telling me. Not gonna lie; this made me feel kind of upset that she didn't think to share any of this with me. To say that I was flabbergasted, not to mention a little weirded out,