Grrr.
Then an email came in to meet with a finance advisor. Something must have come through requiring a personal interview. Yeah, to show she’s not Alex!
“Cute dress,” the admin remarked to her as she led Lexi through a maze of corridors.
“Thanks, I got it on sale,” she said, following the admin deep into the bowels of the finance offices where a low hum of voices murmured around her.
Law school was crazy expensive. Lexi becoming a lawyer had been her father’s dream. He’d died on 9/11 with many other firefighters. Her undergrad tuition had been paid in full, thanks to the generosity of many Tuesday’s Children scholarships.
That charity didn’t extend beyond undergrad. Her NYU law degree was on her dime. Not that anyone owed her free tuition for life. Didn’t make it any less expensive. Her mother, who’d refused other forms of charities out of pride, had scraped and managed each semester’s payment for NYU with two cents to spare. Their roadside family motel down at the Jersey Shore did crap business in the winter, so those months had been tough.
Years of free tuition at the expensive and prestigious Fordham University drove Lexi’s altruistic side. She’d spent what free hours she had volunteering at food banks. She never earned any real money for a rainy day. Now it was pouring, and she felt like a drowned rat.
“Right this way.” When the admin flew right passed the Dean of Finance’s suite where Lexi expected to sign her loan paperwork, a pit formed in her stomach fearing something horrible was about to happen.
The cushy office where the dean sat faded in the distance behind her and low mauve cubicles came into view. Something very visceral awoke in her. Fear pulsed through her veins, the bottom falling out, like the day she watched in horror as two tall towers fell and her mother’s piercing wails skidded up her spine. Even at six years old, she’d known something was wrong.
Any panicky feeling now brought back the memory of that terrible day.
By the time she reached the desks in the collections department, Lexi no longer had the ability to swallow. Anita Canter, the most unsympathetic woman in the world, treated law school students like they were already conniving sharks.
Maybe the dean was busy? Please. Please. Please.
“Have a seat.” Mrs. Canter pointed to a stained chair, no emotion in her cigarette-hoarse voice.
Pushing past the disgust of her bare legs rubbing against that nasty fabric, she sat. “Thank you for seeing me,” she said, forcing herself to sound chipper.
“We received the final rejection from your last-minute loan application blitz.” It was like the woman couldn’t help the dig. “But it’s March, Miss Markham. I’m sorry, but after today if the tuition isn’t paid in full, I have to suspend your enrollment.” Mrs. Canter held up Lexi’s financial papers covered in dandruff flakes. Gross.
The pulse in her throat throbbed. She’d fought this for two and half years. The bottom. No money. The stretching finally snapped. She’d also missed the merit scholarships. The only time a 3.95 didn’t help her.
“Can I make a small cash payment?” She had a few hundred dollars available on one of her credit cards.
“It’s too late to apply for a payment plan. You needed to do that at least six weeks before the semester started.”
At Fordham, she studied business management and minored in economics. A charm school it wasn’t. She also hadn’t mastered sweet talk. Not that schmoozing would work on this woman. “What about a teaching assistant job? A clerical spot here in the bursar’s office?”
The woman glared at her. “There aren’t any of those jobs available in the middle of the semester.”
Lexi looked away from the scowl and studied her hands resting in her lap. Her dress inched above the knee as she fidgeted. She’d wanted to look nice for her tour of the 9/11 Memorial earlier that morning. Being a daughter of one of the firefighters who lost their lives, and all.
She closed her eyes, resisting the temptation to use the 9/11 tragedy for sympathy. Neither she nor her mother had traded on her father’s death in twenty years. Even though this was Dad’s dream, her going to law school. She just...couldn’t do it.
“What’s the real harm to NYU if I pay this semester back with interest mind you, after I graduate and get a job?” After she took the bar and god-willing passed it.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Mrs. Canter snapped back. She probably heard more excuses in one day than Lexi could conjure up in a year. “What kind of message would that send to the other students?”
Lexi scoffed. “Oh, so now what other students do and think is relevant. I keep hearing how everyone’s situation is different and don’t go by anyone else. Blah blah...blah.”
Mrs. Canter stared with beady eyes while frowning at Lexi’s hair and makeup. “Excuse me.” The woman marched away from the desk. That might have been a bad sign.
The well finally emptied. There was nowhere to turn. With all the other corners she’d cut, she’d forgone expensive Manhattan room and board and endured a long commute home to the Jersey Shore each night. There she and her widowed mother shared a two-bedroom cottage located across the road from their family resort. A dump that didn’t exactly rake in the green. The Portside Inn needed serious cash for an overhaul just to make it a viable business again.
Mrs. Canter returned a few minutes later looking even more annoyed. Maybe her supervisor said it was okay to let Lexi slide. Victory spread through her, then she got handed a printout:
Withdrawn
Withdrawn
Withdrawn
Withdrawn
Withdrawn
All of her classes. I just got kicked out of law school.
Lexi shot to her feet. “You’ve withdrawn me? There’s only two months left. I’m supposed to graduate.” When the woman shrugged, she pleaded, “Can you just give me an incomplete and I’ll work with the professors to—”
“Incompletes are for paying students,” Mrs. Canter barked. “I’ll also be turning off all your campus badges as of five pm today.”
“For what?”
“For non-payment.” Mrs. Canter folded her arms. “You spoiled kids think you’re owed everything in life. Welcome to the real world. There are no free rides.” Her nasal rant faded as Lexi stormed out of the cubicle and tromped down the hall.
It wasn’t worth the argument. Not while people stared at her with disdain. Like she was a loser. As if duds got into one of the most prestigious law schools in the country.
A wave of warm March air and the flip flops she kept in her school bag left Lexi no excuse not to hoof it north to Penn Station. Her mom had taught her to be self-sufficient. And she wouldn’t waste the last of her cash on a taxi.
Two decades since 9/11, Sylvia Markham never remarried. Lexi’s frugalness came from watching her mom scrape by in tough times. No one had been happier or prouder when her brother, Theo, became a firefighter, too. New York’s Bravest made peanuts and her brother had to live in the city, so he was stretched to the bone. Didn’t even have enough money for a girlfriend.
How sad was that?
Then again, she wasn’t much of a catch at the moment, was she? She never doubted her good looks and her brains, but with her head always in books and bad credit score, she hadn’t had much luck in the love department.
Spotting crowds milling around Penn Station, she hoped they were just drunks celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, or fans waiting for a New York Rangers hockey game. No one wore any of those green felt hats, and she’d heard on the news that morning the Blue Shirts were out of town. Everyone standing around wore suits and dresses and looked super miffed. She concluded this was the Friday rush-hour crowd pissed-off because of train delays.
Her head tipped back. New Jersey Transit had been going for some kind of record lately with ridiculous service interruptions. Her tiny shore town was already on a line with very few expresses. The upside to this disaster meant she won’t have to trudge back to the city anytime soon.
Lexi hooked a right
onto West 33rd Street to find a quiet bar. Might as well make her last night in Manhattan count.
Find out what happens next...
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MEET THE LORDS OF GOTHAM
New billionaires navigating the world of serious money and the women who can’t be bought.
A high-heat romance series set in the glitzy and wealthy world of New York City about HAF guys who’ve gone from middle classy to filthy rich. These alphas never had trouble with women before they were loaded. Now they have fortunes and secrets to protect. They need strong women who want a man for richer or for poorer.
Trophy wives need not apply.
The Lords of Gotham series features a recurring cast of sexy billionaires, but each book can be read as a stand-alone. No cheating. No cliffhangers.
Get the whole series:
Reluctant Billionaire, Book 1: A Fake Fiancé Billionaire Romance
Alpha Billionaire, Book 2: A Love Mistake Billionaire Romance
Bossy Billionaire, Book 3: A Grumpy Boss Billionaire Romance
OTHER BOOKS BY DEBORAH GARLAND
The Mallory Family Series in order
Family Drama Romance
Available Now:
Must Love Fashion
Must Have Faith
Must Be Crazy
A Must for Christmas
Must Keep You
The Princeton Allegiant Series in order
Paranormal Romance/Vampires
Available Now:
Drawing Bloodlines
Guarding Bloodlines
Matching Bloodlines
Standalone Romances Coming Soon
Cruel Cowboy ~ A Cowboy Bully Romance
Wild for You ~ A Rockstar Reverse Harem
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In 2015 I envisioned a couple who met on a cruise. But they were there for very different reasons. In the five years I’ve been playing with this idea, the couple went through some changes. Laney (who had a different name) was always a textile designer. And Tristan (also had a different name) wasn’t a billionaire. Didn’t own a hotel. And didn’t have two brothers.
What readers will walk through fire for changes. I hoped billionaire brothers was the right reinvention for Tristan.
After what I knew would be the final reinvention for these characters who really deserved their HEA, I reached out to my blessed writer friends who I can’t live without. Thank you, author Lyla Bellatas who critiqued this for me. Then scenes were spliced out and given to Julie K. Cohen and Suzanne McKenna Link for comments. My writing chapter, Long Island Romance Writers read Chapter One and laughed in all the right places. Finally, my incredible beta readers, MF, KB (who cracks me up with her comments), and even thank you to CB who didn’t like the story very much. (She liked book 3, though!)
As always, I thank my husband who shows his unwavering support and looks the other way when I throw money at my book problems...
HERE’S DEBORAH!
Deborah Garland is now an Award-Winning author!
Must Be Crazy has won The Carolyn Readers’ Choice Award.
In addition to a great book, she loves pugs and chocolate and eats her bacon cheeseburgers with a Grey Goose Cosmopolitan.
After years of doing the whole corporate thing, it was finally Deborah’s turn to make the dream come true of being a published author. Her 2017 debut novel, Must Love Fashion, was a Golden Leaf finalist for Best Contemporary Romance. She writes strong and witty heroines and the heroes fall hard for them.
Deborah’s novels have received words of praise from RT Book Reviews, Kirkus Reviews, InD’tale Magazine, Library Journal, and Uncaged Magazine.
Give her your heart and fall in love with her flirty dirty romance novels.
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