All the blood rushes to my face. “Eww. No! There’s nothing like that! I’m just working to pay off my debts.”
Meghan giggles. “Sounds like a brilliant start to a porn video. ‘I don’t have any money but is there a way I can make up for the payment?’” she adds in a throaty pornstar voice. “What a missed opportunity. He’s pretty hot, for someone walking around with a stick up his ass, that is. And he’s rich.” She reaches over and tries to steal the last of my fries. I fight her off. “Tell me, what’s he like?”
“He’s definitely reserved, but nice.” I bite my lower lip as I remember the warmth in his deep voice and the spark in those dark hazel eyes. “A little stand-off-ish, but once you get to know him a little, pretty easy to talk to.” I don’t tell Meghan how sometimes he is as cold as the Siberian winter and other times, as warm and welcoming as the summer sun. He can bark orders at me and then perform some charming little act that melts my heart. Sometimes I think he thinks that I’m an idiot. Other times, I think he wants to kiss me. I shake the image of those thin, sensuous lips out of my mind.
“Gosh, Am. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re in love with this guy!” I know that Meghan is just teasing me, but her shot-in-the-dark comment comes perilously close to the truth. I can’t get this guy out of my mind.
“What? No! No way. I barely know him.” But you do, he’s been telling things about himself he hasn’t said to everyone else before, hasn’t he? A stealthy voice whispers in my ear. That’s just sweet talk, I’m sure he says it to every girl he meets.
Plus, he’s rich and I’m sure, entitled. He has been acting nice recently, but that’s probably just because he is trying to get into my pants. I’m sure he would turn around and toss me aside like a used tissue as soon as he gets bored with me.
I swallow a hard lump in my throat.
Meghan doesn’t hear my response. She is too busy typing on her phone again. I roll my eyes without her noticing.
After a long silence, she suddenly says out of the blue, “I think you should fuck him.”
“What?” I almost fall out of my seat, then I scan furtively around the room. I make sure that neither the eighty-year-old proprietor of the diner nor the waitress, her sixty-year-old daughter-in-law, has heard what Meghan just blurted out.
“I think you should sleep with him. It’ll do you good,” Meghan remarks thoughtfully.
“Not so loud,” I hiss.
“So? It’s not like there are any virgins in this place.” Her eyes dart from the white-haired old lady and her daughter-in-law, who is a grandmother herself.
I turn red and snatch the last of my fries. Meghan stares at me with incredulity as I stuff my mouth.
“Don’t tell me that—”
“No,” I say between chews. “Just drop it.”
“But that can’t be true. How old are you? Twenty-one? Twenty-two?”
“I’m twenty-three.” I slump into my seat, feeling like a colossal, virginal failure.
“And you haven’t—”
“No!”
Meghan tugs on her side ponytail thoughtfully. “Oh gosh, I guess I’ve never known you with a guy all these years. Do you even like guys? I mean, it’s okay if you don’t, I won’t judge.”
I scoff, “Of course I like guys.”
Meghan’s eyes roll upward. She does that when she gets what she deems to be a “brilliant idea.” “I think you should lose your V-card to Charlie. Have you seen his abs? Why are surfers all so good-looking?”
“And empty-headed.” My idiot boss thinks Charles Dickens wrote Harry Potter.
“He’s had a crush on you since the day you met.”
“He has not.”
We bicker for a while on this age-old topic.
“Then you definitely should—” She stops as the old Mrs. Davidson drops by with our bill. “Make love to your billionaire friend.”
I cringe and feel a little sick. “Make love? What am I? A Jane Austen gentleman caller?”
“Fine.” Meghan leans back and finishes her milkshake. “You should just bonk his brains out. What’s the harm?”
“Can you help me clear out the garage today?” I follow Fletcher into the small, cluttered garage. There are tools and equipment everywhere. “Someone is picking up the old car today.”
I yawn and nod. I really shouldn’t have had that pitcher of margaritas with Meghan last night, or the second pitcher either. But she has been studying so hard through her finals, and she really wants to let off steam before she starts working. A single lightbulb swings overhead and I wince. Even the dim yellow light is giving me a headache.
I watch him bend over to move some boxes out of the way and wonder dully what it would feel like to “bonk his brains out.”
What’s the harm? I wonder. It’s not like he’ll still be in town after a few days. Not to mention that he doesn’t seem like the typical cocky billionaire type. He seems like a normal human being, capable of genuine emotions. He doesn’t just live in his own little bubble created by his wealth and power, where he is right all the time and others are always wrong. Meghan is absolutely right about at least one thing. He is pretty hot.
“Did you hear what I said?” he asks me in a clipped voice.
I bob my head eagerly, even though I have no idea what he was going on about. He eyes me suspiciously so I move away from him, trying to look as casual as I can. But I have to admit that Meghan’s comments have gotten to me. I feel giddy just being in his presence. Part of me just wants to run out of here before I embarrass myself, but the other part just wants
