Welcome to my stop for the #BuqoSteamyReads Blog Tour! :) This first stop is for the Sizzling bundle, Volume 1 of the five-bundle #BuqoSteamyReads as sold on Buqo. For readers 18 years old and up.
Today I'm going to feature The Best Friend Hook Up by Suzette de Borja. I had the chance to read the book, and it definitely has a whole lot of sizzle going on. So if you're looking for something steamy and cute and romantic, this short story has it in spades.
Excerpt:
Mara had one week left to find herself a scorchingly hot
date for the wedding. She had only
herself to blame for pushing this matter way, way back on her list of
priorities. True, it was a problem but Mara was an optimist and she knew
cramming was her forte. Didn’t she always deliver during their Grand Rounds
presentation? Breezed her way through the quarterly exams with just a few hours
worth of review? Managed to juggle and multitask volunteer work for her causes
while going through residency and caring for her pet fighting fish Charm? True,
changing the water in the fish bowl every other day wasn’t as taxing as walking
a dog but since all Mara wanted to do after a grueling 36−hour duty was flop on
the bed and sleep like the dead, she gave herself credit for developing her
nurturing abilities. Research showed that caring for a pet significantly
reduced anxiety and so she got herself a fish. Compared to med school, finding
a date would be a walk in the park. Anything she set her mind to, she could
accomplish.
Or so she thought, seven days to D−day left and counting,
glancing about the lecture hall surreptitiously. The only marginally attractive
male in the room was three years younger than her, a sophomore medical student
and attached to boot, his girlfriend leaning into him possessively as if all
the other single ladies might snatch him away from her. Mara felt the first
stirrings of panic but ruthlessly clamped down on it. Get a grip, Mara. You
will deliver. You always do.
Furtively, she opened her bag, rummaged blindly inside
for her mobile and scrolled through the list of eligible men she had jotted
down on her smart phone. Dr. Gonzalez was droning on and on about irrigating
blocked Fallopian tubes and his soporific voice had lulled half of his audience
to sleep. Mara couldn’t blame the esteemed professor for failing to capture the
attention of the class. Medical students were constantly sleep deprived she
doubted a pole dancer cavorting on stage or an announcement of a grand shopping
sale would wake them up. Or would it?
Mara hated shopping. Well, hate was too strong. She
disliked it. She would not go near a shopping mall if there was no need for it.
Too crowded. Too many stimuli. Too many choices. If she needed clothes, she
asked her childhood friend and neighbor Anna to go with her to lead her
directly to what she wanted. The endless selection of tops in different
materials, cut, styles, embellishments and colors paralyzed her decision making
process.
“You decide,” she would tell Anna when confronted with a
choice of two tops. Anna would hand her the sparklier, or the sexier or the
bolder colored top and Mara would shake her head and opt for the subdued one.
“Really? This is the fashion trend? Korean pop meets Little Mermaid?”
Anna, who was a computer graphic artist, would retort
snarkily, “Better than Amish meets old maid.” And it never failed to rile her
up. “Just because I don’t go around having casual sex with any available male
does not make me a spinster!”
Anna rolled her eyes. “You never have sex, the casual or
non- casual type. Period.” And then Mara waited for the inevitable line.
“You’re too choosy.” She had heard it on countless occasions, reunions and even
from patients who felt it was their duty to hand out unsolicited advice on the
state of her nonexistent love life.
Mara’s already stiff spine, thanks in part to all the
dancing she did in her meager spare time, stiffened some more. “I beg your
pardon,” she huffed. “I am certainly choosy when it comes to inserting a
probable disease−ridden appendage into my vagina!”
Anna half chortled, half coughed at Mara’s choice of
words. After all these years she still hadn’t quite gotten used to the
anatomically precise terms that liberally peppered her friend’s language.
Mara’s parents were worse. Both doctors, they had no qualms discussing medical
procedures like lancing a boil or repairing a hernia over family dinners and
were unmindful that Anna would often be in danger of regurgitating her food.
But they were both lovely, kind people and Mara had inherited their no nonsense,
call- it−what−it− is attitude. “Oh Mara, you are always good for a laugh!”
“I’d be a laughing stock indeed if I appear at the
wedding without a date,” Mara said grimly.
Suzette de Borja
If you want to read more, get Sizzling, #BuqoSteamyReads Volume 1, and get five short stories for only $0.99 or PhP 45. :)
Don't miss out on the awesome giveaway! It's open to local and imternationL international readers. Woot woot!
**Quickstop Tuesdays is a feature in My Book Musings where I review books/comic books/graphic novels that have less than 200 pages, on Tuesdays.
