Chapter 1
Corrine
“What do you mean, he broke up with you on the news?” my best friend, Gabby Wagner, screeches.
Heads turn all along the bar to see what she’s so worked up about, and I can feel my face turning red.
She’s been dating her boyfriend since college, and they’re very serious. He even moved to San Francisco to be with her.
I look down and feel tears forming in my eyes. “I got home late last night from work. I was watching a rerun of NCIS and eating popcorn for dinner. A news teaser about him came on, so I stayed up to see it. The segment was at the end of the news, so it was almost eleven-thirty when it played. The interviewer stuck a microphone in his face and said, ‘I heard there’s a new lady in your life. Are you allowed to date a cheerleader?’ His response was that it was nobody’s business but his own if he chose to date a cheerleader.”
“But I thought you two were serious,” she implores.
I look at her as if she’s grown horns and a forked tongue. “I’m not sure he understands that concept, and now it doesn’t really matter. Apparently, he’s moved on without telling me.”
“Have you heard from him?”
I shake my head.
“Have you tried to call him?” she pushes.
I shake my head. “He never liked that I gave so much to my job, so I knew one day this was coming. I just thought he’d have the balls to tell me—not announce it on the news to the world.”
“Bartender? Tom?” Gabby waves to the man. “Another cosmo for my friend.” She turns to me and reaches for my arm. “I’m sorry he was such a shit.”
“I fucking hate this city. Commitment phobia must come from something in the water, and the rest of the guys don’t have the social skills to date. I’m almost thirty years old, and I have two roommates. I rent a room that only fits a twin-size bed and a small storage unit for my off-season clothes. If I didn’t live in this ridiculously expensive city, I’d make a decent living. I need a raise.”
My drink arrives, and it goes down quickly. I’m going to be feeling this tomorrow.
“It’s his loss,” Gabby stresses. “Jeez, you’re beautiful, smart—the whole package.”
“You’re my best friend. You’re required to say that,” I mumble through the waterworks.
She giggles. “I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”
I look up at the bottles surrounding the bar and push my tears away. “What am I going to do?”
“You’re going to get up and not let this dickhead affect you. You can’t let him take a minute more of your energy. I bet there are at least a dozen hot guys here you could take home to fuck their brains out tonight. Forget all about ‘Bobby Sanders, Quarterback for the San Francisco Goldminers.’” She air-quotes and rolls her eyes.
I shake my head. “You’re too much. You’re right, but I’m not going home with anyone tonight.” Something flashes in my periphery, and I see him staring at me. “Oh, shit.”
“What?” Gabby looks around frantically.
“It’s my boss and one of his Barbies,” I say through clenched teeth.
“Barbie? Where?” She looks around again.
Not so subtle, that one.
“Stop! He’s over there with the woman you could use as a flotation device.” I point with my eyes. “Shit, do I need to go over and say something? Knowing my luck, he’ll ask me to get them drinks.”
“She’s beautiful, in an artificial way,” Gabby notes as she studies her hourglass figure, tiny waist, perfectly coiffed long blond hair, and big blue eyes.
“She definitely looks good, but the elevator doesn’t go to the top on that one. It seems to get stuck at her chin.”
Gabby snort-laughs.
“Try not to draw attention to us,” I plead.
“He’s looking over,” she says under her breath.
“Fuck! Try to ignore him.”
I made reservations for him elsewhere. Why is he here? I feel my grip on work-life barriers slipping. And, I’ve had plenty to drink. I’m probably a little too honest for my boss right now.
Tom, the bartender, appears with two drinks. “These are from the couple over there.” He hooks his thumb toward my boss.
My heart drops to the floor. I’m a blubbering mess. I glance across the bar, paste a plastic smile on my face, and raise my glass. “Oh my goodness, it’s my boss, Jackson.” I mouth, “Thank you.”
He smiles and nods.
“What a smug asshole,” Gabby says under her breath.
Through clenched teeth, I say, “He’s doing good in the world. Just be thankful for the drink and that he’s not making me talk to him right now.”
“Well… He’s coming over with two of his friends.”
“Fuck. Those aren’t his friends. They’re his bodyguards.”
Next thing I know, his deep voice rolls through me. “Corrine, nice to see you here.”
Jackson Graham is a girl’s version of a wet dream. He’s a Chris Hemsworth lookalike with Daniel Craig’s piercing blue eyes. He’s also the founder of an alternative energy company that has made him a billionaire. I’m his assistant, which I’m proud of, but in that role, I must get a dozen calls a day from women he’s never met asking him out. That I’m less thrilled about.
“Nice to see you, too,” I tell him. “I didn’t know you’d be here tonight. I thought I made a reservation for you at Bix?”
I only make a point of asking because, with his entourage, they reserve three tables in a prime location. If he stands them up, I’ll have a problem the next time he wants to go there.
“You did, but Valerie tells me she’s getting bored with Bix. I called and canceled.”
He can make his own calls? That’s new. “Oh, I think I called her Jennifer today. Sorry about that.”
He looks back at her with his brows furrowed. “She didn’t mention you calling her the wrong name. Enjoy your drinks. I hope your night gets better.” He smiles and walks back to his table.
Every woman’s eyes in the packed bar are glued to him.
Gabby leans in with a bit of a drunken slur. “Your boss is positively hot.”
I shake my head. “That might be true, but he likes the surgically enhanced, and he seems to have no interest in women with brains.”
Her phone pings with a text, and she gets this funny look on her face. Love. I know exactly who she’s talking to, her boyfriend, Damien.
I haven’t had my phone on all day. While Gabby sexts with her boyfriend, I reluctantly turn mine on. I’ve got to do it at some point, and it might as well be while I’m partially drunk. It lights up and buzzes with multiple texts. My stomach ties in knots as I stare at the messages rolling over on the locked screen.
What happened with Bobby?
When I find out, Elly, my supposed best friend from high school, I might let you know.
I knew it would never last.
Thanks, Stepmom. In her mind, to get a man, you need to give up everything. I’d take her advice if she hadn’t been married five times.