The French Billionaire(37)

Xander gave her a playful little shove. “See, I told you,” he said. “And I have a surprise for you.” He pulled two bottles of top-notch white wine and a picnic basket from the back of the car. “I thought this might be more fun than going out to lunch. I had my personal chef at home make us some sandwiches, and I think there are fresh strawberries in there as well.”

“Do you do this for all the girls, or is it just me?” Mia asked jokingly. Xander’s face fell.

“I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I actually just broke up with my girlfriend,” he said.

Mia tried to force her face into a surprised expression. “I’m so sorry to hear that,” she said, keeping her voice high and girlish in hopes that it would sound sympathetic. “I had no idea.”

“Yeah,” he said. “It was a long time coming, I guess. I was pretty horrible to her, always flirting with other girls and stuff. But we fell out of love a while ago. There was no spark there anymore. It just wasn’t worth it.”

“Well,” Mia said, flirtatiously, “Let’s drink to new beginnings, then.” She grabbed the bottles of wine and ran down towards the beach, her long hair streaming behind her in the sea breeze. Xander stood there for a moment, appreciating the view, and then ran after her.

Two hours and several glasses of wine later, Mia and Xander were feeling uninhibited, to say the least. In fact, they had been getting along wonderfully. Xander was surprisingly funny, and he had a sarcastic side that Mia had not anticipated at all. “So, are you enjoying your day out?” he asked her.

“I actually really am,” Mia said, actually meaning it. She was starting to feel bad for what she was going to do to him. But then, she remembered Lillian, and how upset she had been, and decided it was justified.

“I’m so glad you’re here. This may sound strange, but you’re the first person in a long time that I feel like I can truly relax with. When I’m in the city, I feel like I’m always trying, you know? Like I have to live up to what everyone expects me to be,” Xander said.

“But you always seem so confident. That’s what everyone loves about you - it seems like you’re not trying.”

“That couldn’t be farther from the truth. I inherited this company at twenty when my dad passed away - I had no idea what I was doing. I was far too young to be running a business, especially one this big and this important. I didn’t have anyone to guide me at all, and at the time I was actually pretty shy. It was sink or swim, and I decided losing myself was okay if it meant I was still swimming.”

“Wow, I didn’t realize that. It just always seemed like everything came really naturally to you.”

“Not at all. I sacrificed a lot of things that were important to me in order to be successful. I used to have a lot of friends--- real ones, not people that I pretend to be friends with for professional reasons, or girls I just hook up with. Somewhere along the way I lost all that. It’s amazing how you can be surrounded by people all the time and still be lonely, you know?”

“I do. I can actually really relate to that,” Mia said. This was bad. Now she was starting to feel sorry for him. Snap out of it, Mia, she thought. He just wants to sleep with you. There’s no way any of this stuff is true. But she wasn’t sure how much she even believed that.

The sun was starting to set by now, and the beach was starting to clear off. “Hey,” Mia said, putting her hand on Xander’s arm. “Why don’t we go get another drink.”



They found themselves in a dark, smoky pub, full of rowdy townies and college kids dancing and playing pool. “This is totally not a place I would expect you to go,” Mia said as Xander grabbed them some vodka shots from the bartender.

“This is the best kind of bar,” Xander said. “Everyone’s just here to have a good time. Also, no one knows or cares that I’m the CEO of Will Golden, so that’s a plus.”

“Except me, of course,” Mia said with a wink. “I hope you trust me with your secret.”

“You, and no one else,” Xander said.

He sat down at a booth in the corner of the bar, and grabbed her waist and pulled her to him. All of a sudden, Mia was very aware of how close they were, and his arm around her. She wondered what it would be like to kiss him, but shook the thought out of her head. Don’t get too involved with this, she thought. You’re just doing this for Lillian. That’s all.

Xander grabbed his shot and raised it for a toast. “Oh god,” Mia said. “I haven’t done shots since college. What are we drinking to?”