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  “No thanks Nicole, I think I'm good on that.”

  She looked at me like I was talking to her in Greek and she didn't know the language. I don’t know if Nicole had ever heard the answer no before, especially not in the intimate context that we were in now. She would have been impossible to say no to before, but I met Betty, and everything changed.

  “No?”

  “I don't think it's a good idea. It is just going to confuse things.”

  “I am here because I want to fix things with you. There is no confusion.”

  It was all I had at the moment. I knew that if we got together in that way, it would just make everything worse. I wasn’t under the assumption that it would all work itself out. I knew better than that. I had tried too many times with Nicole, to ever think that anything was ever going to be different between the two of us.

  “I don’t want my dick to make the decision. I remember well how good that mouth of yours works when you want to use it for good. Very well I remember, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to take you up on that. You’re not messing with my head anymore, Nicole. You’re here for Ophelia and nothing more. I will still be here to pick up the mess you leave behind when you go. We both know that you’re going to, so I don’t need to confuse this with anything else.”

  I could tell that my refusal was not well received. You would think that I had hit her, the way she was acting about it. I was trying to keep everything in perspective and it looked to me like she wasn’t going to be able to do the same. There really wasn’t anything all that surprising about it.

  “I thought you wanted us together.”

  “I did, a long time ago.”

  “What has changed?”

  I sighed out loudly and blew breath from between my lips. She wasn’t dense, so she was just trying to act like she didn’t know why I was upset.

  “Everything has changed Nicole. I’ve made myself clear about why you’re here. No other reason as far as I’m concerned.”

  Her lip went out and she was pouting. Before, that would have made me want to please her, just to take the frown away. Now, it didn’t bother me all that much.

  “It’s that nanny, isn’t it? She’s the one you’ve been calling. She is so young. Is that what turns you on nowadays?”

  I just shook my head. “No, it’s not the nanny. It has nothing to do with another woman. It has to do with me and you, this.”

  I didn’t understand why she couldn’t see how toxic we were together. It took me a while to figure it out, but now that I had, I knew that there was no way that I could see her any other way. After being around Betty for months, even at its most awkward, it was always so much nicer than my time with Nicole.

  “I know the truth. You’ve moved on with some teenager.”

  “She isn’t that young, and I told you before, I’ve done nothing with her.”

  Nicole told me that I was lying and most likely because she was right, I didn’t argue with her about it. She pressed one more time about getting intimate, but I made it clear that it was the last thing on my mind. Again.

  Betty

  “Betty, it’s good to see you.”

  I smiled at my old boss Ronald and told him that it was good to see him as well. It felt like I hadn’t seen him in years, even though I knew that it had only been a couple of months. How different life was when I was working for him. I’m not going to say that it was better or worse, just that it was so different.

  “Good to see you Ronald. How have you been?”

  “Okay, I guess. I miss my old assistant. Are you still working with Alex?”

  He was being nosy, but I didn’t think that his asking was for the sake of asking. I knew that he had to have a reason to do it and I had to wonder what it was.

  “No, I don’t work with him anymore.”

  Ronald noticed then that I had resumes in my hands and he asked me if I was looking for a job. I was, but did I really want to go back into assisting? It was the job that I was applying for, but now that it was in my face and I had a real chance to do it, I don’t know how I was supposed to feel about it. It was a job, a good one and I already knew the boss. He was really no worse than all of the rest of them.

  “I’m putting my lure out to see what I get.”

  “So, are you going to come back to work for me? I will pay you more, if that was the problem.”

  I should have said yes. My mind was telling my mouth to do so, but I just couldn’t get it out. I don’t know what was stopping me, but it was impossible for me to fight it.

  “I will think about its Sir and I appreciate the offer.”

  He frowned at me and then sighed. “It’s not about the money, is it? It’s about Alex.”

  The last part wasn’t poised as a question because he knew that he was right. It was Alex that had messed with my head.

  “I don’t know if I would say that it was Alex, but I did fall for the kid. I wasn’t sure that being a nanny was going to be something that I wanted, but there is extra rewards there that is hard to imagine.”

  Ronald looked skeptical, but I was thankful that he didn’t rat me out about how I was talking out of my ass. It was Alex in the end. What I said was true, but it had been Alex. It was still Alex that left me unsure of my next move. I didn’t realize that it would end and now I couldn’t think of a world that he wasn’t constantly in.

  “That's funny. I really thought that it was going to be Alex. Considering the fact that I saw him yesterday and talked to him about you. He was curious if I had seen you around. Seems like he’s having a hard time getting ahold of you.”

  It took a minute for me to realize what he was saying, and I couldn't believe it. What was Alex doing asking about me? I was sure that he was back with his wife. His wife. That was the part that I needed to remember, and I smiled at my old boss and thanked him for the offer.

  “I hope to see you around Ronald. It was always good working with you. I learned a lot.”

  We said our final goodbyes and went our separate ways. The conversation that I had with him really did make me think. What was I doing? If I didn't want to work for him, then who was I going to work for? Did I really want to be an assistant to powerful businessmen that were usually jerks? Now I was questioning everything and instead of looking for a job like I should have been doing, instead I was trying to figure out what to do next.

  When I got back home, I tried to get my mind right, but it was a hard feat. There was a lot going on that I couldn't get my head around, like the fact that Alex had been asking about me. It didn't make sense because he had lie to me about everything. If his wife was back now, why did he keep calling me and why was he asking my old boss where I was? None of it made any sense to me.

  * * *

  The phone rang and woke me up. I had been keeping it off most of the time because I hadn’t wanted to see Alex’s number on the screen but finally, I just got a new phone.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi Betty, I’ve have been trying to get ahold of you.”

  I didn't have to ask who it was, because the voice was very particular. I knew that it was Alex, but I had no idea how he got this number. I had just changed it for the very reason of him calling.

  “Alex. Why are you calling me?”

  “You know why I am calling you. I am calling you because of how everything turned out between us. You took off and we were supposed to talk. I wanted to explain what was going on.”

  “I don't need an explanation Alex. You don't need a nanny anymore and that is that. There is nothing to talk about.”

  “That is not the way it is at all. I would really like to explain what happened that day. I did not know that Nicole was going to come back. She showed up out of the blue. I woke up and she was standing on my porch, knocking on the door.”

  “You certainly do not have to explain why your wife is home Alex. I just wish I would've gotten a heads up about it all. It has been hard to find something since leaving your employment.”
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br />   I was sort of dying inside because I was sitting there talking about the job and I didn't really care about it. I cared about the fact that I didn't get to see Ophelia again or the fact that the man I thought I’d loved was actually married. I never thought I'd be the type of woman I knew that I wasn't going to be able to be. There was no way that was going to be the other woman.

  “Ronald said he would hire you back in a heartbeat.”

  I knew that to be true, but I just made it like it was nothing. It wasn't what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about the fact that he was married and that he had touched me the way he had. He had no right. Alex had no right at all to make me feel all of those things and then take it all away. It just wasn't fair.

  “Well I don't think that I will be going back to any previous employers. It is time for me to move on to something else. I really need a change of pace.”

  “I want you to come back and take care of Ophelia. She always does better with you around. You get through to her, like no one else can.”

  “Why would I come back, when your wife is home? Your wife.”

  I wasn't going to say that she was his daughters’ mother. Now it was his wife. That was only thing that kept running through my head. His wife. I needed to remind myself to be strong. He wasn’t available, so he couldn’t be mine.

  “Nicole is not going to stay long. She never does. She has done this several times throughout the years and it is going to crush Ophelia. It always does. We're not together and the reason is because I am not stupid. Not to mention that I have feelings for you and I want to see where they go.”

  I didn't understand what he was actually saying. What did he expect? It looked like he wanted me, but he also expected me to wait for her to leave. Not to mention that fact that she would just pop up whenever she wanted to. It felt like I would just be dancing with drama all the time.

  “You have to seriously think about what you are asking of me Alex. If you are still going to stand by it, you don’t really know me all that well.”

  Alex

  She hung up and I was left staring at the phone. I threw it and heard it break. I was going to go through a lot of them if I didn’t get it together. I was elated to talk to her and to hear her voice, but the tone was different. I had never heard her talk like that before and I knew that I deserved it. I should have told her about Nicole, the whole sordid mess but I didn’t want to.

  “Not going as planned, dear husband?”

  “We won’t be married much longer Nicole. You know that and then you will be on your way out. I know that you won’t make it until the ink is dry anyways. I can see it in your face. You’re already getting ready to go.”

  She tried to deny it. Her blonde hair shook back and forth as she tried to make up an excuse to why she had been acting so differently. I knew what it was though. She didn’t want to stay in one place for too long and didn’t realize it until she had to. We had traveled a lot before she had our daughter, but then something in her changed. Nicole saw motherhood as a prison and she always got this look about her when she realized that she was there too long.

  “No, it is not like that at all.”

  “All that I ask Nicole, is that you don’t promise Ophelia a bunch of things on your way out.”

  Her face twisted, and I knew that I was going to get the truth now. Now that she was exposed, Nicole would show herself for what she really was.

  “I have already gotten a lawyer for this divorce. You really think you’re going to walk away with everything, don’t you?”

  “Not really. I don’t want everything. You can have half, even though you broke the pre-nup. All I want is custody of Ophelia. If you were going to be a good mother, you would have been by now. Let me have her and I will do my best for her.”

  “It’s not all about money Alex. You always think you can pay everyone off. You can’t buy my daughter.”

  I could tell that Nicole was upset that I had called her a bad mother, but I wasn’t going to back down from my statement. I knew how she was, and I knew that I couldn’t. I had to keep going, double down.

  “You don’t want her, and it is not about the money. It’s about who is going to be there for her. Hard to travel the world and spend my money with a child tagging along.”

  “You know that it’s not true.”

  We both knew that it was.

  “Come back and see her when you want, in the guest house, but sign the papers, so that we can both move on and get closure on this mistake of a marriage.”

  “Settle before we go to court huh? Red told me that you would say that.”

  Red was a man that had the same caliper of money as I did, and I couldn’t imagine how he had hooked up to help my wife. I was going to have to talk to him and I was trying to think of if I had met him before. I don’t remember if I had or not, but he would be easier to make sense of then Nicole. She never made any sense.

  I walked out after telling Nicole that I would be back in a while.

  “What about Ophelia?”

  “You want to spend time with your daughter, so do so while you’re here. We both know that it won’t be for much longer.”

  I didn’t wait for her weak ass excuses because I didn’t want to hear them. I had to go see a man and tell him to stop helping Nicole make my life more complicated.

  “He will see you now Sir.”

  I tried to smile at the receptionist, because she had been nothing but nice to me. The fact of the matter was that Red had left me waiting for almost two hours and I was sick of it. I didn't want to sit around all day, I had a lot on my own plate, but I was here for peace of mind, which was exactly what a divorce with Nicole was going to be. But certainly, I did want to waste my time.

  When I walked into the office, it reminded me of my own and the man behind the desk looked rather familiar. It was actually someone that I had went to business school with.

  “So, you must be Alex Smith? I will admit I had to do an internet search on you. Why does your name sound familiar?”

  “We were in the same college. I remember going to couple parties that you were at.”

  “That makes sense. You seem to be doing well for yourself and considering what you do to make your money, I am curious why you were here.”

  He most likely thought that I was there to do a business deal, but that wasn't the case at all.

  “I am here for a situation that is of the heart.”

  “Oh?”

  “You are helping my wife in our divorce and I'm curious why. Are you seeing her?”

  “Who is was your wife?”

  “Nicole.”

  “Oh. I did not know. She didn't tell me who she was getting divorced, just that she needed some advice. I have quite a bit of experiences in those matters, and I just gave her the one of the generic answers that I would give anyone else. Get her money. That sort of thing.”

  “Now you can see my problem. She is going to get more than enough, but with your advice, she's going to complicate things and ask for far more than she deserves. There is a child involved and I don’t want to complicate it any more than it already is.”

  Red was looking at me and I knew that he was wondering what I was going to ask of him. We knew each other in passing, but the truth was that we were a lot alike. I know that he was putting himself in the same position and thinking about what would happen to him, if a woman like Nicole got ahold of his money.

  “So, what do you want me to do Alex? And I have to say that Nicole is my wife's friend and I was helping her as a favor. Can’t piss the wife off because I have to live with her.”

  “I can understand that. Just maybe you could relay a message that she should take a reasonable offer. If she goes to court, she will lose, and she will get far less than I am willing to give her now.”

  “I don’t know if that is true. Gene is a damn good lawyer.”

  “Well your friend that has never lost before, will. I just came here to see who was helping her. I wante
d to meet them and see who was causing me so much trouble.”

  “It will all work out Alex. I have a feeling that one day soon, we will do business together. I have a couple of deals that are right up your alley and I would love to partner up. Imagine what we could do with all that capital?”

  That was about the best answer that I was going to get, and I wasn't sure what to think of it. I was hopeful that his idea of it working out would pan out. I had to get this divorce underway because I knew that there was no way I was going to get close to Betty again until I took care of it. Then she would know that I wasn't just playing around. I was very serious about her.

  Betty

  “You are a way out of your league Betty. I can picture you as many things, but never could I picture you working at a preschool.”

  That voice. Even after all these months I still recognized that immediately. What was he doing here?

  “I find that children are a lot easier to work with. They haven't perfected lies yet.”

  I turned around to see Alex standing in front of me. I didn't understand why he was here and all I could do was take him in. He was so tall and handsome. He was just like I remembered, even though I was afraid that he would be something else.

  His expressive eyes were burning into mine and I had to look away. The smile on his lips. Those lips…

  “You look beautiful Betty. I have missed you something fierce. Have you missed me at all?”

  I wanted to tell him no, but at the same time, I didn’t want to lie. It was hard for me to say anything to him, my brain freezing up in his presence. On the phone was bad enough, but in person was far worse. It was harder to fight the urges inside of me when he was standing so close and I was sidetracked with the way his mouth formed words all of a sudden.

  “Why are you here Alex? I heard that you were asking about me to former employers, had to change my number three times. Why are you still hounding me?”