Read Online The Billionaire's Secret: A BWWM Romance Mystery by Mia Caldwell - Free Book Online Page B

meaningfully. "A
very special, thoughtful bouquet."
She let that hang in the air for a moment before continuing, "Two, he
takes you on these impressive and thoughtful dates, but leaves you hanging
afterward." I felt like I was attending one of her lectures. "Three,
he'll drop you like a hot rock when a woman named Lily calls him." She
rested her hands in her lap. "That's what we know, right?"

 
    I knew what Jazzy was trying to do.
Concentrate on the facts to slow my descent into wild speculation. It would
have worked too...if I wasn't already so far gone. But after last night's
debacle, I was too miserable for sense. I was in the mood to let my friends
pick at my wounds, to count them and cluck over them while I drowned in self-loathing.

 
    "And her name is Lily!" I
moaned piteously, ignoring Jazzy's attempt to derail my pity-train. "In
flower language, it means beauty . I
bet she's some skinny blonde white chick with no ass, you know?" I grabbed
my thick thigh and grimaced. "And, and ,
what's even worse, his mother's name is Dahlia!" I laughed hysterically.
"I should have known from the start. You know what those me? Instability!"
Kiki rubbed my shoulders sympathetically as I slumped forward. "Aside from
everything else, those should have been the biggest warning signs?"

 
    "Red flag city," Kiki
nodded. She began to work on my neck.

 
    I leaned forward and cradled my knees
to my chest, and closing my eyes. "I feel like I'm swimming in a sea of
red flags," I sighed, leaning into her digging fingers.   "But I was somehow hoping that if I
kept swimming the water would clear." Kiki's thumb found a tight spot and I
gripped my legs tighter. "I'm making the same mistakes all over again,
aren't I?" I moaned into the room. "It's right there in my face. I'm
his other woman and I swore I would never do that." I turned and punched
the sofa. "Dammit. Poor Lily."

 
    Kiki patted my shoulder
sympathetically and Jasmine slid the salsa bowl in my direction. Neither of
them said what I should do next. I already knew.

 
    But what was so strange was how much
I was rebelling against doing it. He had proven my worst fears correct. Why did
I still want to believe him when he said there was only me?

 
    What was wrong with me?

 

Chapter
Fourteen

 
 
 
 
 
    My phone buzzed.

 
    Then it buzzed again.

 
    When it angrily vibrated its way
right to the corner of the desk, I swore and shoved it into my purse.

 
    When it kept buzzing, I swore again
and kicked the whole thing across the office.

 
    Now the buzzing was faint enough to
ignore. I sat back down to my invoices and turned up the music on my iPod.

 
    Let him stew. Let him be left
hanging, with no explanation, for hours on end. Let him feel shitty about himself for a while.

 
    Kit poked his red head in from the
front of the store. "You okay back here, lover? I heard banging."

 
    I gritted my teeth. "Yes, I'm
fine." It was a lie that I needed to believe.

 
    Kit stood there for a beat, waiting
to see if I'd elaborate. When I didn't, he sighed. "It's deader than Shia
LeBouef's career up here. I'm locking up and heading out. You ready?"

 
    I frowned at the stack of unpaid
invoices. After the optimistic rush of Valentine's orders, and the subsequent
spending on inventory and payroll, we fell right back into the red. The
longtime clients, used to Mrs. Young's lackadaisical bookkeeping, were up to
their usual tricks. I needed to come up with new funds - and quickly - just so
she could pay me. "Nah, I'll close up," I told him. "You go
home."

 
    "Okay, lover, don't forget to
turn down the heat. Love ya." He sounded tired and dispirited. I
understood.

 
    I gathered the stack of invoices and
the wheezing laptop and pushed through to the front. The sun was setting below
the snow clouds, sending out a weird golden haze over the glass-fronted stores
of 8th Street. The yellow cast it gave the snowbanks made the streets of South
Philadelphia look like