THE PARADISE PROBLEM BY CHRISTINA LAUREN – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Christina Lauren
- Language: English
- Genre: contemporary romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 10.6 MB
- Price: Free
ANNA
Three years later
If you’d told me back in college that my primary source of income at twenty-five
would be working as the night cashier at the corner convenience store, I… well, I
might have believed you. Having done a one-eighty junior year when I
acknowledged that my brain does not “science” and pivoted from premed to art,
I remained realistic about what life as an artist might entail. Every fine arts major
at UCLA has dreams of becoming the next big set designer, costume
mastermind, or art scene It kid, but those of us whose ambitions are simply
“afford rent and health insurance” are aware we will most likely be waitresses by
day and hobby painters by night. So the fact that it’s 12:44 a.m. and I am
womaning the register at the Pico Pick-It-Up and not at some fancy party
rubbing elbows with the creative elite shouldn’t surprise anyone, least of all
myself.
But with my dad’s medical bills slowly climbing, my ambitions might have to
climb, too.
I carefully turn the page of the US Weekly I borrowed from the magazine
rack. There are lots of lucrative jobs on display here. Do I have what it takes to
be the next big art influencer, someday featured in the Celebrities… They’re Just
Like Us! page? I’m young and know how to wear a T-shirt without a bra. That’s
at least half of what’s required, right?
I imagine it:
Instagram sensation Anna Green caught with a perfectly messy topknot outside
of Sprouts!
TikTok star Anna Green and her sexy actor boyfriend caught canoodling in
front of Soho House!
I wonder how much an influencer makes these days and whether it’s worth
the humiliation of monologuing into a selfie stick in front of Picasso’s Woman
with a Book at the Norton Simon, or the patience it would take to get a ring light
positioned just right to draw tiny tigers on my eyelids using only vegan skin care
products.
This thought exercise has clarified something for me: I’m too lazy for an
influencer life.
But it’s fine. Between five nights a week here, three lunch shifts at Amir’s
Café, the occasional dog-walking hustle, and plasma donation when things get
really tight, I’m paying my rent. I’m covering most of Dad’s health insurance and
medical expenses. That’s what matters. Deep breath. I flip the page, moving
onto the Red Flag Exes! section.
“Anna.”
I lean across the checkout counter and look both ways. My boss, Ricky,
stands in the doorway to his small, cramped office, his wispy blond hair falling
over his boyish eyes, tight fists planted on his narrow hips. He’s wearing a
Naruto T-shirt and sweatpants bearing the logo of his recent alma mater,
Hamilton High School.
“Yeah?”
“Could I speak to you for a moment?”
“Sure.” I hook a thumb over my shoulder toward the store’s entrance. “Want
me to close up for a few?”
He shakes his head. “It’s one in the morning. We average half a customer
from one to two.”
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