“You think that's a good thing?”
Traver's held open his hands.
“I think that if she's willing to do that for her friend that we're dealing with somebody who has some kind of emotional compass. Feelings I can appease, but if it were greed, we’d have to cut a deal with an army of lawyers in tow. Come on, let’s lean against the car like we were the original Miami Vice.”
Liam winced. “Nobody knows that show anymore.”
Travers nudged him over so he could lean on the car.
“Never say nobody. You knew it,” Travers said with a laugh.
Chapter Five
“It's a shame that time has been so good to that man,” Colleen said. “Why is it that it's always the bad guys who always seem to look the best and get the best toys? And as far as sidekicks go that Travers isn't bad at all.”
Elissa could always count on Colleen being true to form. If there wasn't so much riding on this, she might even have sat down and indulged Colleen and asked her some more questions about what she thought about Liam's sidekick.
“Gorgeous guys are assigned to everyone that there's something wrong. That's why they're so good looking.
”Elissa heard her words, and for a moment, she had to think if she was really that bitter over the whole event.”
“Hey, don't take that tone. Remember, like calls to like. So if he is gorgeous, know that you are down-right beautiful.”
“That may be true, but right now, I'm just feeling down and out,” Elissa moaned. Elissa took a seat in the kitchen. Colleen followed her peeking around the corner.
“Aunt Becky is doing the backyard. You can come in safely,” Elissa said with a smile. Colleen liked to shock people. But one of the things that she would never do would be to offend Aunt Becky. While her outfit said that she was into fitness. Aunt Becky would look at this outfit and tell her the reason she’s having a problem getting a man is because she’s not wearing man staying clothing, just man visiting clothing.
Elissa reached across the kitchen table and placed her hands on Colleen's.
“I'm so happy that you came out.”
“Well, I had to because my roommate was talking about how she needed to throw on some clothing to try to catch the eye of some random eligible bachelors that were on the block. Let's face it that could only be but so many men in this town,” Colleen said.
“Thank you so much for coming.”
“ I don't know, maybe I should be insulted? Do you think a little thing like a billionaire is going to stop me from coming to my best friend’s aid? Besides, I can tell by looking at his sidekick that you were going to need some help.”
“It seems like you could tell a whole lot by that sidekick Colleen.”
“Don't try and change the issue,” Colleen sniffed.
“Colleen, what am I going to do?”
“Well, let's make sure we understand what all of our options are.”
Elissa nodded and waited expectantly for Colleen to outline the situation. Colleen held up one perfectly manicured nail and began to count off the options.
“One, outside there is a billionaire who wants to marry you. Two, he wants to give you money so you can save your business. Three, the only thing you have to do is to lie to everybody you know in town and order to get one and two. Well, I think that about sums it up. We'll have to go out there and tell them thank you, but no thank you.”
“Colleen, I thought you were trying to help me. Why am I going to go and tell them, no?” Elissa asked distraughtly.
Colleen reached out and placed her hands on Elissa's cheeks. She smiled indulgently into Elissa’s eyes.
“You're going to have to tell them no because you can't lie. Every time you get ready to lie, you have a tell, you tuck your hair behind your ear. Everybody knows the tell, and when we were younger, it was just cute. Now that we’re adults you don’t usually lie, so it’s no problem but when you think you need to lie and I see the tell I know there’s a problem. So you getting married and trying to convince someone that it's a love match is not going to happen.”
Elissa sat back and looked at Colleen, blinking away the tears she could feel burning behind her eyes.
“Becky invested almost all of her retirement into green Magic. I've got to find a way to make this business work if for no other reason to give her back her money. I don't want to be the reason she goes back to work,” Elissa confessed to Colleen.
Colleen sat back. Elissa could see the shock on Colleen’s face and waited for the look of disappointment. Colleen was motionless for all of ten seconds. Then she let out a large sigh, smiled, and looked Elissa in the eye.
“Well, that just means we are about to go outside that door and get married to Mr. billionaire.”
“What about my tells?” Elissa asked.
“Don't worry, I'm a lawyer. I have gone through years of school to learn how to lie efficiently and effectively. I'm going to get you through this. We're just going to work on some other things you can do instead of tucking your hair behind your ear,” Colleen said confidently.
“Other things?” Elissa asked skeptically.
“Yes, like ... I strongly suggest you take up the habit of chewing gum. It may be the only thing that helps us right away.”
“Do you really think that's going to work?” Elissa asked.
“Do you remember when I asked you if you thought I could make it to law school?”
Elissa sat back and nodded, knowing where Colleen was going with this question.
“You told me, of course, and that you would be with me every step of the way. You told me that's what best friends do for each other. Do I think we're going to be able to get through this? Of course, the both of us will get you married, get your debt paid off, get Aunt Becky her money back, and then get your divorce. With the money left over, we can just start over. You know why?” Colleen asked.
Elissa smiled. “Yeah, I do know why because that's what best friends do.”
“Great, now that all of the mushy stuff is done. I need you to tell me if there's anything else I should know about this before we go back out.”
“I don’t think so,” Elissa said as she tucked a hair around her ear. As soon as her hand was on its way to her lap, she let out a frustrated sigh. “Oh my goodness, it’s true.”
“Now, can we stop with the stalling there is something, so spill it.”
“Do you remember why I was going to New York this past week?” Elissa asked Colleen.
“Yeah, you said you were going to look into a job at a hotel for some catering. Oh no! tell me it wasn't his hotel -” Colleen said in shock
Elissa nodded her head. “It was not only his hotel the job I thought I had because it was a second interview. It turned out it wasn't mine, after all. The rules had changed when I arrived.”
“Ouch!”
Elissa nodded, letting the disappointment settle on her shoulders once again.
“I was so sure I had this job. The last time I came for the interview, the guy who was interviewing me said it was just a formality for me to get the job. Then when I walked into the room, it wasn't to go into a kitchen and cook like I had been told. Instead, in the room was a statuesque woman who looked beautiful; her name was Flora.”