Billionaire Bad Boys of Romance 2(84)

Dammit, I really needed to get over this thing I had for him.

As the night wore on, I could see he was enjoying himself. More directly, he was enjoying the attention Josephine, Alexis, and Katarina were lavishing on him. He laughed at what they said. He flirted with them. He complimented them. He made them all feel special.

Just like he had me.

After seeing him tonight, I now knew I was no one special to him. I was just another woman he liked to flirt with. Another woman to feed his ego.

When Marguerite rang her little bell and told the men it was time for them to pick one special girl to visit with for the rest of the evening, he had no trouble choosing one. He picked Alexis. Off they went, to the bar across the street, to become better acquainted while Marguerite and I thanked the remaining girls who hadn’t been selected by any of the guys and let them know about next week’s events.

An hour later, after I cleaned up, I was weary, and ready to go home. My plans: turn on the TV and watch every TiVo’d episode of my favorite reality shows until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I trudged out to my car, dumped my purse into the passenger seat, and buckled myself in.

As I drove home I blared the radio. It was a silly, futile effort to drown out my thoughts. And it didn’t work. By the time I shoved the gearshift into park in my building’s parking lot, I felt a little sick. Images of Tevin smiling at those perfect bitches kept playing through my head, over and over.

Couldn’t he see past the fake smiles and fresh-from-the salon hair? Those girls wanted their names on his bank account and his ring on their finger. Nothing more.

Suddenly, I absolutely despised my job.

It wasn’t the best job in the world. It was the worst. I was playing people like pawns in a stupid game. Making promises I couldn’t keep. Promising a fantasy that would never be real.

If I could have, I would have quit.

I snatched up my purse and stomped inside my apartment. Sasha was out on a date with some guy she’d met online. Left to my own devices, I drowned my sorrow in Southern Comfort and vanilla ice cream. By the third bowl, I was feeling a little better. At least I wasn’t ready to call Marguerite and tell her to take her crappy job and shove it.#p#分页标题#e#

I crashed on the couch, watching reruns of Big Bang Theory.

The next morning I felt like road kill.

I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

When I woke up again at noon I wasn’t feeling much better. Ugh.

Today I had a date.

With Tevin.

The thought of seeing him made my insides ache.

Would he cancel? God, I hoped so. At my current state, that would be a good thing. A heavy beat pounded in my skull if I moved too fast, and my stomach did a flip every time I even thought about eating.

I stumbled into the kitchen, dug out a bottle of water, grabbed a few aspirins and, after swallowing the pills, dragged myself to the bathroom to take a shower. God help me if Tevin decided we needed to fly somewhere for this date, too.

I felt a tiny bit more human after steaming and soaping and shaving and lathering myself until the hot water ran out. I toweled off and pulled on a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt and hazarded a trip to the kitchen for the first meal of the day.

I stared into my refrigerator for a while before deciding on toast and soup. Carbs and fluids. Those would hopefully do the trick. Once I’d consumed all my rumbly, irritable stomach would allow, I grabbed my purse to hunt down my phone to check for messages.

I dug to the bottom of my bag. No phone. Had I lost it? Did I leave it in my car?

Risking my head exploding upon being subjected to bright sunlight, I donned sunglasses and barefooted out to the car. I found my phone on the floor, along with an envelope. The envelope was pink, like a greeting card envelope.

Weird.

I scanned my phone for new messages as I headed back inside. I didn’t open the envelope until I was sitting down.

It was a greeting card. On the outside was an old man holding a fishing pole. Inside it said, “People tell me there's plenty of fish in the sea. But who wants to date a fish?”

It was signed, Tevin.

Below his signature, he’d written, “Looking forward to tomorrow. Get plenty of sleep. You’ll need it.”

My insides got all warm and mushy.

A silly card. He’d given me a silly card. After having spent the evening being chased by over ten beautiful, perfect women.

He still wanted to go out with me. Me! I was ready to shout it out to the whole world.

I reread his message again and again.

Then again, there was nothing overly romantic about what he’d written. But it was the thought that he’d put into buying the card, and putting it in my car that made it so special. But, clearly, he’d purchased the card before last night’s mixer. Had he put it in my car before or after his mini date with Alexis? Now that he had at least three very attractive women waiting for him to call them, was he still interested in me?