Read Online Confessions Of A Billionaire 1 by Lea Michaels - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Lea Michaels
Tags: Romance, Billionaire
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she was supposed to have done it months ago. The thought of giving up her California plates made her feel like she was giving up her home. Even though she’d already done that.
Driving back to work left her with a lump in her chest. This was so much harder than it had to be. Did everyone feel so awful saying no?
She’d taken a break from work to have an easy coffee date; Madison felt that made things more informal and easier to walk away from. Belvedere Health & Fitness was a quick two-minute drive from their meet location in Ellicot City. There were others closer but she didn’t want to meet someone too close to home either.
Was it just usual practice for men to lie so they would seem more attractive? Did they think no one would find out? So far, online dating had proved to be wasting more of her time then doing any good in her life.
“Hey Willow,” Madison walked in and waved at the quirky woman behind the front desk. “Busy day?”
“Usual,” Willow said. Willow had short hair with an orange tint and a face that already resembled a goldfish. She’d been a receptionist at Belvedere Health & Fitness for the last six years and, to Madison, she felt like an important permanent fixture.
“I got you a coffee,” Madison lifted the cup up over the front desk. “Just the way you like it.”
“You read my mind. How did you read my mind?”
“You always want coffee, I don’t think that counts as reading your mind.”
Madison began to walk back toward the fitness room. She had a client in twenty minutes and she wanted to prepare. The little office that she shared with two other people was encased by glass walls so she could see out and everyone could see in. The fundamentals stocked this room. Training programs in the filing cabinets, reports on each client, injuries and doctor’s notes, a doctor’s scale in the corner, fat calipers in the desk, measuring tape next to the fat calipers. A computer took residence on the standard office desk for any and all paperwork that needed to be done for each of them to get paid.
Technically Madison was a fitness coach, but her title had been turned into a myriad of things depending on who she might be talking to. Her mother called her a fitness trainer, her clients often called her their personal trainer, she’d been pegged “guru” by one enthusiastic client and a merciless tyrant by another (she liked that one best.) She didn’t care what people called her as long as they didn’t add a girly touch. Something like, aerobics trainer, was too Jane Fonda for her taste.
Madison had just taken a seat when her cell phone pinged. A text message from Dave popped up, “Thinking about you, maybe coffee again?”
It had been maybe twenty minutes ago that she’d told him she wasn’t interested. Men were weird. What made him think she would change her mind in twenty minutes? Or had he just blocked that part out altogether? Madison turned it off and shoved her cell phone into a desk drawer before it could go off again.
~
“…I think it’s a sign that you should move back home,” Ana said from 3,000 miles away.
“Men are just as weird in California,” Madison was sitting with her legs lifted on the wall while laying on the full-size bed that was all she could fit into her new studio apartment.
“I just miss you.”
“I miss you too.”
There was silence between the girls for a few moments as each felt the physical distance keeping them apart. Ana was Madison’s best friend; they’d met in high school, went to college together at Fresno State, and then went on to be roommates for four years out of college.
“I was thinking that maybe I would come visit you,” Ana framed it more as a question.
Madison smiled, “You can’t afford it. Plus, you just started a new job.”
“Actually, they give me a vacation day per month until I’ve been here for a year so I’m up to eight days.”
“What about the rest of your family?” Madison had known when
Driving back to work left her with a lump in her chest. This was so much harder than it had to be. Did everyone feel so awful saying no?
She’d taken a break from work to have an easy coffee date; Madison felt that made things more informal and easier to walk away from. Belvedere Health & Fitness was a quick two-minute drive from their meet location in Ellicot City. There were others closer but she didn’t want to meet someone too close to home either.
Was it just usual practice for men to lie so they would seem more attractive? Did they think no one would find out? So far, online dating had proved to be wasting more of her time then doing any good in her life.
“Hey Willow,” Madison walked in and waved at the quirky woman behind the front desk. “Busy day?”
“Usual,” Willow said. Willow had short hair with an orange tint and a face that already resembled a goldfish. She’d been a receptionist at Belvedere Health & Fitness for the last six years and, to Madison, she felt like an important permanent fixture.
“I got you a coffee,” Madison lifted the cup up over the front desk. “Just the way you like it.”
“You read my mind. How did you read my mind?”
“You always want coffee, I don’t think that counts as reading your mind.”
Madison began to walk back toward the fitness room. She had a client in twenty minutes and she wanted to prepare. The little office that she shared with two other people was encased by glass walls so she could see out and everyone could see in. The fundamentals stocked this room. Training programs in the filing cabinets, reports on each client, injuries and doctor’s notes, a doctor’s scale in the corner, fat calipers in the desk, measuring tape next to the fat calipers. A computer took residence on the standard office desk for any and all paperwork that needed to be done for each of them to get paid.
Technically Madison was a fitness coach, but her title had been turned into a myriad of things depending on who she might be talking to. Her mother called her a fitness trainer, her clients often called her their personal trainer, she’d been pegged “guru” by one enthusiastic client and a merciless tyrant by another (she liked that one best.) She didn’t care what people called her as long as they didn’t add a girly touch. Something like, aerobics trainer, was too Jane Fonda for her taste.
Madison had just taken a seat when her cell phone pinged. A text message from Dave popped up, “Thinking about you, maybe coffee again?”
It had been maybe twenty minutes ago that she’d told him she wasn’t interested. Men were weird. What made him think she would change her mind in twenty minutes? Or had he just blocked that part out altogether? Madison turned it off and shoved her cell phone into a desk drawer before it could go off again.
~
“…I think it’s a sign that you should move back home,” Ana said from 3,000 miles away.
“Men are just as weird in California,” Madison was sitting with her legs lifted on the wall while laying on the full-size bed that was all she could fit into her new studio apartment.
“I just miss you.”
“I miss you too.”
There was silence between the girls for a few moments as each felt the physical distance keeping them apart. Ana was Madison’s best friend; they’d met in high school, went to college together at Fresno State, and then went on to be roommates for four years out of college.
“I was thinking that maybe I would come visit you,” Ana framed it more as a question.
Madison smiled, “You can’t afford it. Plus, you just started a new job.”
“Actually, they give me a vacation day per month until I’ve been here for a year so I’m up to eight days.”
“What about the rest of your family?” Madison had known when