Deserving Love: A Contemporary Romance Series (Nick & Lexi Book 1) by Kay Brody Page A

with the use of a name I reserved for friends and loved ones. “Let me introduce myself.”
    “I’m pretty sure we’ve met,” I laughed. “What did you slip into your coffee Evan?”
    “Nothing,” he laughed as well. “You know me as Evan Monroe.”
    “Is that not your name?”
    “It is. Evan. More specifically, it is Evan Nicolas Monroe.”
    “Nicolas,” I repeated. “That’s your middle name?”
    “Yes,” he replied. “And its   what sparked the Facebook name Saint Nicolas.”
    “How do two people have the same……”
    Suddenly it hit me. Nicolas. Saint Nicolas. He was Nick. He was Nick and Nick was him. The guy I’d come to rely on to chat with by night turned out to be the same man that was making my life a living hell by day.  
    “No,” I shook my head. “No, that’s not ….you can’t be….I don’t believe…”  
    I decided to test the theory and I hit send on the message. Within seconds his phone went off and he looked at the screen.  
    “Ugh, don’t ask,” he spoke quietly and I felt everything inside of me freeze. How the hell did this happen?  
    “I need to get back to work,” after an awkward ten minute silence, it was the only thing I could think of to say.  
    “Lexi,” he began, but I interrupted.  
    “I’m sure you know the way out,” I huffed and walked back to the counter, feeling uncomfortable and unsure of anything that had happened in the previous month.  
    The only thing I knew as I watched him quietly walk out of the shop was that Kendall was going to absolutely love this turn of events.  

    *****

Chapter 10
    The rest of the day was virtually uneventful. Two or three straggling customers made their way to the shop and I faked the ability to handle communicating with them. Truth was, I needed to leave and deal with the blend of emotions that I was feeling.  
    Throughout the afternoon my head continued spinning. Evan was Nick. How could that have even been possible?  
    I thought back through the conversations with Nick, trying to find anything that would have given me a clue. There really wasn’t any. We’d talked about a lot, but not enough personal info had been shared to piece the two together.  
    I remembered the conversation about people that were making our lives hell at work. He had been talking about me. Attractive and bat shit crazy. He had called me crazy. I had basically said he was an egocentric asshole. I had been talking about him.  
    None of it made any sense and it all made me feel weird. I had been attracted to and disgusted by the same man at the same time. The one making my days feel like shit was the one making my nights feel a little less lonely. The one that was winking and asking me to dinner to get his way was imagining me naked as I bathed.  
    I felt chills go down my body. I wasn’t sure if I was happy or mad at the turn of events. I just knew that I felt odd and wished I knew what to say or do about it.  
    Nick’s life crisis had been real. It had been Evan being booed out of the church. He had realized that he didn’t like where he stood in life. I felt bad for him, but I wasn’t sure if I was okay with them being the same person.  
    A part of me felt violated. Realizing that a man I hadn’t wanted to know personal details about me and now had found out made me feel deceived. But it wasn’t legitimate and I knew that. I had voluntarily shared that information with Nick, knowing that we had never met. I was aware that he could have been anyone that I’d run into on the street. So I had no right to feel like he’d done something wrong.  
    But it was Evan Monroe. The one man I had found myself despising. How was I supposed to reconcile that in my mind?  
    I decided it was a good day to have a drink with Kendall. The minute I asked her to meet me she knew something was up. She hoped that the coffee date had gone well and was eager to hear details so she agreed easily. I closed up the shop and headed towards the bar