by Anita Claire
Kelly’s cheery voice interrupts my thoughts. “Snow,” she says as she pulls out a chair and sits down.
Simultaneously, I close down my Kindle app, smile, and then explain. “Two guys, two days, no conclusion.”
Squinting her eyes, she shakes her head. “Burger first, Dr. Phil next.”
I slide ten dollars slowly across the table. “I’ll save our spot if you order me an iced tea and a chicken, blue cheese, green chili, and tomato burger.”
She smiles in agreement, as she heads over to the counter. A few minutes later, she’s back with our drinks. Picking up my phone, she says, “So what’s the name of the guy your texting.”
My eyes get big as my chest constricts. “Kelly, don’t do anything. Please.”
Laughing she pulls the phone out of my reach as she looks through my texts.
“Kelly, I don’t want to make a scene but please, be a friend. Don’t text him.”
With a twinkle in her eye, she starts reading through Nate and my correspondences. “Juliette you are so disappointing. You’re never going to see any action with these kinds of lame texts.”
“Kelly, you can dictate a sexy text, but please not tonight. Tonight I need a friend.”
Shaking her head, she places my phone back on the table, sliding it over to me as she says. “So two guys, two dates, no conclusion. Is it good or bad you have no conclusions?”
Staring at her. I purse my lips, while I lean back in my chair. “They’re both cute, nice, comfortable be around, athletic, and smart.”
“Yeah, my heart bleeds for you—two great guys, but it’s Saturday night and you’re eating a burger with me.”
Tilting my head to the side, I give her a weary look, “I’m not going to jump their bones or move things too fast until I make a decision and know that they’re serious about me.”
“What, did you fall asleep in the 1950s and wake up sixty years later?”
“Kelly, you’re not helping.”
“Juliette, you can date two guys, even in the 1950s women dated two guys at once. You haven’t committed to anything, they haven’t committed to you. Just kick back and enjoy, stop overthinking everything.”
“Yes, but it’s confusing. I want clarity; I want one guy, one relationship, and no guilt. I don’t do well with duplicity.”
“Dating is not duplicity. Telling someone you love them, that you’re monogamous, and then dating other guys is duplicitous.”
We get our burgers as I think about what she says. It’s true, but it’s much easier to have clarity when you’re not in the middle of it.
Kelly takes a big bite of her burger, looks me in the eye, then pointing with her burger she says, “You want clarity?”
I shake my head yes.
“Well, then the first guy who contacts you is the guy you go with, friend zone the other guy. That way if guy number one doesn’t work out you can just thaw out guy number two.”
“What a simple solution. It takes the angst out of the decision.” I muss.
“Juliette, dating should be angst filled. In twenty years when we’re knee deep in kids, house, and job we’re going to look back and long for the angst of our current lives.”
“That might be true twenty years from now. But I’m living my life now. I’m an analytical engineer. I like solving problems with formulas. All this relationship stuff is for the literature majors.”
Changing the subject, she says, “I saw Rocket and Jennifer last night.”
“And?”
“”You would just barf if you saw the two of them together.”
“Has she sweetened him up or has he made her wild?”
“The jury’s still out. They’re still so intertwined you can’t tell.”
My phone buzzes. We both stare at each other.
Laughing Kelly points “Are you going to get that?”
My eyes get big as I grimace “Yeah, at some point.”
“Get it now; it might be your ‘choice.’”
Dramatically turning my phone over to look at the icons, sure enough, it’s a message. My breathing gets tense. Any decision is difficult. With flair, I touch the message icon. A big coy smile registers on my face while I turn the phone around so that Kelly can see who it’s from.
“Well, now,” Kelly says with raised eyebrows. “I think you have your answer.”
Appendix – A - Books in “The Princess of Silicon Valley” series
Book 1 – Meet Me in Silicon Valley – The Juliette Trilogy
Book 2 – Kiss Me in Silicon Valley – The Juliette Trilogy –
Book 3 – Be with Me in Silicon Valley – The Juliette Trilogy
Book 4 – Nate – available July 1, 2014
Book 5 – Jennifer – available August 1, 2014
Book 6 – Isabelle – available September 1, 2014
Book 7 – Meredith – available October 1, 2014
Book 8 – Hita – available November 1, 2014
Book 9 – Olivia – available December 1, 2014
Book 10 – Kelly - available 2015
Book 11 – Cassie - available 2015
Book 12 – Amanda - available 2015
Appendix – B- Characters
This story has a lot of characters. To help navigate all these characters I have included my character chart.
Princesses – college friends
Juliette Cole – Snow White – long dark hair with curls, white skin, brown eyes
Meredith Price – Cinderella – morning running friend – blond hair blue eyes – works biochem, lives with her college boyfriend Sam.
Hita Chamarthi (pronounced Heeta) – Pocahontas – works with Juliette – parents came from India
Isabelle Becker – Belle – dad white, mom Chinese – plays soccer – lives at home studying for her LSAT
Jennifer Takahashi – Mullen – Asian – from Hawaii – teaches middle school, very crafty – dates tattoo and pierced guy Rocket
Olivia Habibi - Jasmine – middle eastern – med student
Kelly Flannigan - Marida – wild red hair – very athletic, wild energy
High school
Grayson (Gray) Barber - Fencing with Juliette growing up – now a law student – brown eyes
Elizabeth Wilder – high school queen bee
Cassie – high school friend, lived in LA
Cody - ex-husband
Luke Tomlinson – boyfriend - professional football player
Mom – Karen
Brothers Justine (2 years older), Joshua (4 years older), Andrew (12 years older)
Work
Terri - round face, blond hair, blue eyes
Caroline - works in the client side department –has bad relationships
Kami - works in the client side department, on the chubby side
Roger – boss – late 20’s early 30’s, from New Jersey
Flint CTO – Matt Flinter, Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer, 33, PhD in Electrical Engineering. He’s about 6 feet tall, built like a swimmer, and has dark hair and gray blue eyes.
Tyler – CEO of the company – 33 undergraduate EE, MBA, 5’ 8’ runner build
Mark – nice coworker – annoying dog buddy
Sid - VP engineering - shaves his head and dresses like a hipster – lives in SF
Rajive – fellow new engineer
Jim – macho engineer
Jessica – manages swag – lives in SF
Megan – works in web design – Asian, dresses artsy – lives in SF
Miscellaneous characters
Soccer coach Max – girlfriend Mia
Nate Lombard – MD opposing players brother, 29 years old, tattoo on right arm, brown curly hair and blue eyes.
Older sister Leigh – 5’8”, same coloring, very thin,
Alex – owns fencing studio – Juliette’s high school coach
Jessica and Emily – two fencing students who are in their 20’s and bond with Juliette
Swimmers
Zach – Abs guy –dark
hair and steel gray eyes - engineer
Kevin – half Asian - engineer
Austin –blond hair - engineer
Amanda – Kevin’s sort of girlfriend, manages swag
Sean – dark hair – material science
Author’s Notes
Writing this series has been an incredible experience. I’ve spent many enjoyable hours developing Juliette and her wonderful group of friends. I hope that you have as much fun reading about them as I have had creating them.
I’d like to give a special call out to Yinka Bogdan. This was my first book of fiction. Yinka’s been a supportive friend who was instrumental in my efforts and provided me with a great deal of help.
For more on The Princesses, my blog, and a visual tour of places Juliette visited you can go to my web site: http://www.anitaclaire.com
To sign up for my e-mail list which will only be used to notify you when the next Princess book becomes available go to: http://www.anitaclaire.com/blo02/02blo02.htm
