Knock knock.
The banging on my front door was getting louder and louder, and I groaned as I rolled off the couch and walked toward the front door. I’d been too tired to turn my couch into a bed the night before and had just snuggled into the cushions.
“I’m coming,” I mumbled as I made my way over to the front door, wiping the sleep out of eyes. For a few seconds before I opened the door I froze as it struck me that I didn’t know who was on the other side. What if it was Max Parker or a police officer coming to serve me with papers for a lawsuit or something? I opened the door with trepidation and let out a huge breath when I recognized the faces on the other side.
“There you are.” Anabel looked annoyed. She and Emily stood at my front door, frazzled looks on their faces.
“What’s going on? I was sleeping.” I yawned then and motioned for them to come inside.
“We’ve been texting you all night and morning,” Emily said, looking more concerned than I’d ever seen her. “Your phone keeps going to voicemail.”
“We were worried.” Anabel closed the door behind her.
“I turned my phone off, and I’ve been sleeping. Why? What’s happened now?” I groaned wondering if there had been more stories that had been published about Max Parker and me.
“Nothing that we know of,” Anabel said. “We were just worried about you.”
“We took off work to make sure you were okay,” Emily said with a small smile. “I know you like to pretend everything is okay, but we all know how stressed out you get.”
“Oh, guys.” I blinked back tears. It was too early to be this emotional. “I’m okay. I’ll find a job soon, and I’m sure this Max Parker thing will go away. It was my bad, but he kinda deserved it. He’s really a huge asshole. I wouldn’t have done this if he wasn’t an asshole.”
“What do opinions and assholes have in common?” Emily said suddenly.
“I dunno?” I shrugged.
“Everyone’s got one.” She started giggling and I smiled at her. “Okay, I might have messed the joke up a bit, but you know what I mean.”
“Ha ha, I know,” I said, and then frowned at Anabel who was opening up my laptop. “What are you doing?”
“I’m checking your emails.” She raised an eyebrow at me. “I want to know what you sent to Max.”
“That’s really invasive! You can’t just check my emails without asking me.”
“You wanna bet?” she said and then entered my password to get into my laptop. “The three of us have no secrets from each other.”
“Well, that’s not exactly true,” I mumbled under my breath, but I didn’t say anything else. Anabel had some sort of secret from us. She’d never told us the true story about her first love, and I knew that she wasn’t telling us because it was something crazy as opposed to just hurting. She hadn’t dated the guy since she was eighteen, and yet she still never said anything about him. I wanted to know more, but now was not the time to bring it up.
“Oh, Charlotte,” she groaned as she looked up from my laptop. “How could you?”
“How could I what?”
“What did she do?” Emily asked eagerly. “Tell me! Tell me!”
“She sent Max Parker the most inappropriate emails possible.” Anabel just shook her head and sighed. “How could you?”
“How could I? Did you read his emails? He was so bloody rude. He called me a charlatan!” My voice rose.
“But Charlotte . . . ” Anabel’s voice drifted off. “Let’s go and get coffee. I need a coffee.”
“Did he send me another email?” I asked her, curiosity getting the better of me.
“No.” Anabel shook her head. “And hopefully, he doesn’t send any more.” She pursed her lips. “He’s a powerful man, Charlotte. You can’t just go around pissing off powerful men.”
“What’s he going to do? Get me fired?” I gave her a look and then rolled my eyes. “Oh, yeah, he already did that. Oops.” Emily laughed but Anabel just shook her head at me. I gave them both a small shrug and sighed. “Look, I know I messed up. I was just so taken aback by his emails and I’m still upset that I have no job.”
“You can’t blame him for that for the rest of your life.” Anabel looked at me with a stern expression. “Unfortunately, he doesn’t owe you anything.”
“I know he doesn’t owe me anything,” I shot back, defensively. “But you have to admit he did treat me horribly!”
“Yes, he did,” Emily spoke up for me. “Now hurry up and get dressed. I’m starving. Breakfast is on me.”
“You can’t afford that, Em!” I looked at her through narrow eyes. Emily wasn’t generally any better with money than I was.
“I have a Chase Freedom credit card, don’t I?” She giggled. “Today I can afford anything.”
“You guys are so irresponsible,” Anabel tutted. “I will pay for breakfast, and if push comes to shove, I’ll help you with your rent.”
“But you have millions in student debt.”
“I have two hundred thousand dollars in debt.” She grimaced. “So, not quite millions.”
“But you can’t afford to pay my rent. You wouldn’t be living with Emily if you could.”
“Friends help friends.” She gave me such a sweet and loving smile that I immediately felt ashamed of myself. “Now hurry up. I need coffee and some pancakes.”
“Oh, I love Sarabeth’s.” I relaxed back into the seat and looked at the menu. “Should I get the lemon and ricotta pancakes or the crab cakes egg benedict?” I pondered aloud. I wanted both.
“Whatever you want.” Anabel shrugged. “I’m going to get the braised short rib hash.”
“Oh, that sounds yummy. Can I try it?” I asked her.
“Of course.” She nodded.
“I have an idea,” Emily said. “Let’s get three separate dishes, so we can each try all of them.”
“Yes!” I said. “That sounds great.” I picked up my glass of water and took a quick sip before continuing. “I wanted to thank you both for taking today off. It means a lot to me. I know I’ve been a bit of a mess recently and . . .” My voice trailed off as I looked around the restaurant. I had the distinct feeling that someone was watching me.
I turned all the way to the left then froze as I saw the reporter sitting at a table with two other men. All of them were wearing suits. Were they stalking me?
Before I could think about what I was doing, I jumped up and hurried across the restaurant to the man’s table. I tried to avoid looking at his pink lips and his strong hands and instead looked at his face. Mistake. By the light of the day, he looked even more handsome than he had in the evening. I didn’t know how it was possible, but his eyes looked even bluer than they had before. They were so dazzling and breathtaking that I found it hard to look away. But then he gave me his signature derogatory smile.
I glared at him. “You!” I said loudly, pointing at him. “Are you following me?”
“Excuse me?” He smirked. He didn’t even have the decency to look guilty or embarrassed.
“Look, I know you want the story on me and my relationship.” I didn’t speak as loudly this time. “But you’re not going to get it. I should report you to the newspaper reporters board of ethics.”
“There’s no such board,” he said with a superior smile. “And I have no interest in your nonexistent relationship.”
“My nonexistent relationship?” My voice rose and my jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”
“You’re excused,” he said and then turned back to his two companions. “Sorry about that. I think they must have let some nutters back into the wild recently.”
“Nutters.” I nudged him on the shoulder, surprised at how warm and hard it felt. “I am not a nutter!”
“What do you want, lady?” He turned again to look at me.
“You’re following me. You were at my apartment last night, and now you’re here. This is not a coincidence.” I glared at him. “And I am not crazy, thank you very much.”
“Taking bets?” He chuckled, and I glared at him even harder.
“You kissed me last night,” I said. “Or did you forget that as well? Hmm, did you?”
“Oh, is that why you’re here?” He stood up, his eyes sparkling. “Why didn’t you say?”
“Say what?”
My heart skipped a beat as he leaned toward me. What was he doing? It didn’t take me long to find out as his lips were pressing down on mine once again, and once again, I found myself melting into him.
Before I could blink he was pulling away from me.
“There you go, my love, that should keep you warm for the next couple of years.” He grinned at me. “Now go back and tell your friends all about it.”
“How dare you?” I glared at him. “You cannot just go around kissing strangers!”
“You didn’t say no.”
“You didn’t ask.” I glared at him. “Rude.”
“Did you not enjoy it?”
“I did not,” I lied, my cheeks burning. “You owe me an apology.”
“Do I?”
“Yes, you do.” I stared at him for a few seconds and then added under my breath, “loser.”
“What did you just say?” His eyes narrowed at me.
“Nothing.”
“I don’t believe that you’re capable of saying nothing, Charlotte Johnson.”
“How do you know my name? And how did you know where I lived?”
“It would be weird if I didn’t know your name . . .” He traced a finger across my lips.
“Why?” I said, resisting the urge to bite his finger.
“Because we’re so intimate.”
“We’re not intimate. You’re a stalker.”
“You think I’m a stalker, charlatan?”
“What did you just say?”
“Nothing.” He licked his lips.
“Look, I understand that as a reporter you feel the need to get the story, but there is no story here.”
“I see.” He pursed his lips. “Did you see the headline in the New York Times today?”
“What headline?” My breath caught and my heart started racing. “Not on the front page?”
“No, dear, not on the front page.” He grabbed a newspaper from the table and pulled it open to what appeared to be the fifth page. He pointed to a section on the lower right.
Multi-billionaire Max Parker on the path to wedded bliss
“Oh, no,” I mumbled, my mind racing. I was in big trouble.
“I take it congratulations are in order?”
“Well . . .” I looked away from him. I had no idea what to say.
“Can I see the ring?”
“The ring?” I blinked. “Well, you know, it’s being resized.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes,” I snapped, and then my eyes narrowed. “Are you the one that wrote that article?”
“No, I source all of my articles first.” He shook his head. “I didn’t write anything.”
I looked over my shoulder. Emily and Anabel were staring at me with dazed expressions, and I knew they were dying to know who this man was and why he was kissing me. “Well, let’s just say I hope not to see you again, or I might have to press charges.”
“You might have to press charges?” He looked amused. “Well, we can’t have that then, can we?”
“No, we can’t.” I leaned toward him. “I’m going to let you off this one time, but if I see you again, I’m going to have to tell my fiancé, Max Parker.” I gave him a look. “And you don’t want to get on his bad side.”
“No, I suppose I don’t.” He nodded. “Well, you tell him I said hello.”
I turned away and was starting back to my friends when I heard him calling me.
“Oh, and Charlotte?”
“Yes?” I said as I looked back at him.
“You’re going to want my name, aren’t you? If you’re going to tell your fiancé I said hello?”
“I suppose so.” I tried to look disinterested. “What is it?”
“It’s Max.”
My heart stopped. “Max?” I said, my voice a whisper.
He stepped toward me. “Yes, it’s me, Max. Max Parker. Your fake fiancé.”
He whispered the last words into my ear, and I couldn’t stop my knees from buckling and my body falling into him in shock. I’d really gone and made an idiot of myself, and I had no one else to blame.