Read Romance: Catching Helena Handbasket for Free Online

afternoon.”
         Helena laughed, but only briefly.
         “I’m talking about this whole situation, Trey,” she gestured between them with a broad wave.  “Is it a really good idea for us to get involved—especially considering the fact that we’ve just met today, and you’ve already seen me eat a snail during the course of this very lunch—a fact that I’m sure does very little to enhance my appeal?”
         It was Trey’s turn to laugh—and not at all briefly.
         “You’re hilarious, my dear—this is what enhances your appeal,” he chuckled.  “You also happen to be bright, honest, and energetic—not to mention downright adorable.  And although I’ve known you for just one day, I must say it stands as one of the exciting, revealing and out and out invigorating days I’ve ever enjoyed.”  He paused here, adding with a chuckle, “I well knew that my office needed an editor.  What we really needed, though, was a Helena.”
         His lunch date chuckled.
         “Well if you really needed a Helena, I guess I do have most of the necessary qualifications to bring to the table,” she admitted, adding with an ominous glance in Trey’s direction, “And there are six more just like me at home.  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.”
         Trey beamed.
         “Actually, darling, we only need one,” he affirmed, adding more seriously, “I only need one.  Listen, Helena, I just came out…”
         “Oh no, seriously, you just came out?”  Helena buried her head in her hands—separating her fingers to fix him with a sharp, sardonic gaze.  “And here I thought things were going so well.  Why does it always have to be the hawt, rich ones?”
         “I just came out of a relationship with a WOMAN,” Trey corrected her with a snide smile.  “A fashion model who has appeared on some of our book covers.  She sure looked stunning on those covers—the only time, incidentally, that I’ve seen her with her mouth shut.  This woman, Helena, spent all of her time talking about herself and her newest book and magazine covers. I don’t rightly believe, by the way, that she actually read her own or any other book, unless one counts that epic literary title It’s All in the Curl: The Magic of Mascara, Volume I.”
         Helena nodded.
         “I saw It’s All in the Curl: The Magic of Mascara Volumes II and III on the classics shelf at Barnes and Noble recently,” she revealed, tone stark and dead pan.  “I was going to pick them up, but I was afraid that—by skipping the first volume—I wouldn’t be able to grasp the true message and intellectual depth of the trilogy as a whole.  Kind of like The Lord of the Toe Rings series.”
         Trey guffawed outright.
         “Julianne never made me laugh like this, at least not intentionally,” he rolled his eyes heavenward.  “I did have to chuckle, though, when she insisted that she was the most beautiful model in Manhattan—and that Gisele and Kate Upton might just as well hang up their stilettos.”
        “Oh, I’ve thought the same thing about myself, so many times,” Helena interrupted, tossing the strands of her unruly blonde hair with an exaggerated flip.  “That’s exactly why I never dared to venture into the modelling field.  As a feminist I don’t believe in depriving other women of work.”
         Trey chuckled.
         “Don’t sell yourself short, Kid.  You, my lady, are downright adorable,” he assured her, reaching forth a tender hand to stroke the same hair she’d ventured to toss.  “The hair I’m touching is kissed by the sun—and I love those big blue eyes I see sparkling behind those glasses. I’ll tell you something else—after months of trying to make love to a stick figure mannequin, I’m more than ready for a voluptuous woman.”
         Helena rolled her eyes.
         “Voluptuous,” she repeated on a snort.  “Yep yep.  When people