Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
“Only one more,” I say.
“You’re going to need them, trust me.” She winks at me and nods towards Natasha, one of our old school friends. She lives in Ohio now but happened to be in town.
“Why am I going to need them?” I ask.
“Because,” Natasha says. She digs around in her bag and pulls out a plastic tiara. “This.” She squeals. Part of me dies inside.
“No,” I groan.
“Yes!” Sophia takes the tiara and places it on my head.
The headpiece has a short veil in front, prickly and stiff. I feel about as comfortable wearing it as I would a real wedding tiara.
“It actually suits you, which spoils the effect a little,” Sophia says.
“You mean it would be better if it made me look terrible?” I ask. Sophia isn’t the kind of friend to set anyone up for a fall, so it’s a weird thing to say.
“More… I think it would be better if it didn’t look like it could have been a deliberate choice.”
I laugh and reach up to pull it off, but both Sophia and Natasha stop me. I don’t know if it’s the booze or the way it’s just good to see my friends again, but I relent and let the wonky tiara be.
“So how did you meet him?” Natasha asks. “I feel so out of it in Ohio. I didn’t even know you were dating.”
“I live with her and I didn’t know,” Sophia says. “I thought you hated your boss.”
“He’s your boss?” Natasha asks.
I’ve been a little vague with Sophia about my change in employment and relationship status. Of course, she knew why I took the assistant job, but I’ve just told her my role at the hotel is temporary.
“What’s with the sudden change of heart?” Sophia asks. “I don’t get it.”
I shrug. “I’ve always thought he was hot,” I say. Again, it’s kind of true.
“Thinking someone is hot is a far cry from marrying them,” Natasha says.
“True. What can I say? I found out he’s… different to how I thought he was.” Now that is one hundred percent true. Yes, Leo is a flirt who’s had more than his fair share of women, but he’s kind and sweet and humble. I like him. I keep replaying the way he guided my dad away from me earlier. I need to talk to him about not employing my father, but he would have known seeing my dad again would be difficult. He made it easier without being asked.
Leo’s a good man. I like chatting with him, I like cooking with him. I like feeling his hand at the small of my back and his tongue between my legs. I press my fingers to my temples. I need to think straight and stop focusing on all the reasons I like Leo. I’m not his real fiancée.
“Do you remember that costume party you dragged me to a few years ago?” I ask Sophia.
“The one that wasn’t a costume party?”
I nod. “And that guy from the party that I got chatting with?”
“The one you really liked who ended up being a dick?” We’d talked about it for weeks afterward. Sophia wanted me to text him, find out where he lived and then send him weird things in the mail. I think we’d both been drinking pretty heavily at that point.
“Right,” I say. “I didn’t tell you because I know you would have thought I was crazy, but that’s Leo. My boss. My fiancé. He’s the guy from the party.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Sophia says, grabbing my shoulders. “Are you serious? Why didn’t you tell me when you realized?”
“I thought you’d tell me to tell him to shove his job up his ass, and I really wanted the job.”
She releases me and slumps back onto the bench. “Yeah, I probably would have told you that.”
“And he didn’t recognize me, being human color and all. I just tried to pretend I hadn’t met him before. That he wasn’t the guy from the party.”
“I’m so confused,” Natasha says. “Can we double back?”
We fill in Natasha about the details of my first encounter with Leo. She listens with rapt attention.
“And kismet wouldn’t be shaken off,” she says, slowly shaking her head.
“You can’t dodge destiny,” Sophia says. “You and him haven’t come out of nowhere at all. You’ve been simmering for two years!”
I try not to groan. It all sounds so cheesy. It was a coincidence.
“If you’re fated to be together, then the sex must be off the charts. Tell us everything!” Sophia says, and my heart leapfrogs into my feet. “I always think sex with rich, powerful, good-looking men must be a complete letdown because they’ve no reason to try.”
I nod, thinking back to last night. In no way was it a letdown. Things had been simmering between us for a while, but the boil? I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t expecting to feel the things he made me feel. I wasn’t expecting to feel so comfortable with him, like I could be every version of myself, bare in every sense, and he’d worship every part of me.