The Boyfriend Experience (The Boyfriend Experience 1)

CHAPTER FOUR

Evie stood in front of her designated cupboard in the storeroom of Beauty and Bliss, trying to focus on updating her weekly inventory list of hair products—mainly to keep her mind off of the fact that she hadn’t heard back from Eric. Granted, it had only been twenty-four hours since she’d propositioned him at the Espresso Cup, but she’d thought, or rather hoped, that she would have heard his answer by the end of the day. Instead, she’d heard nothing but crickets.

Yesterday, she’d obsessively checked her phone between clients and after work, right up to the point that she finally forced herself to silence the device and get some sleep. But, pathetically, the first thing she’d done when she’d woken up was check for any messages . . . only to find none.

So, her day had started with a nice dose of disappointment, along with the realization that she might have only imagined the attraction between them. It was certainly a possibility that she’d read more into the way he’d looked at her, or even his flirty text about her ass. It was even a bigger likelihood that she’d misjudged the entire situation, considering how she’d completely let her most recent ex pull the wool over her eyes for four months. Hell, he obviously didn’t even want to be her fake boyfriend.

When had she become so naive when it came to trusting men? she thought in frustration. Oh, yeah, that first lesson had been taught by Graham, who’d broken up with her and was now engaged to Evie’s cousin, Raquel. It had taken Evie a long time to let her guard down with a man again, and what did she get for her efforts? Another huge kick in the heart courtesy of Eric number one.

Eric number two hadn’t seemed like a guy who’d blow her off, especially since he was on an app to service women and build a side business, and as a beta tester, she was encouraged to rate her experience with him. A review stating that he “leaves a woman hanging” wouldn’t be great for his reputation, but that’s how she was beginning to feel . . . like she’d been stood up. That maybe he hadn’t liked what he saw and changed his mind about spending four days with her. Thank you very much for that, insecurities.

She shook her head of those thoughts and refocused on her inventory. She only had a half hour before her next client arrived for highlights, and she needed to get her supplies ordered so she didn’t run out before Monday, which was the last Monday of the month and a day she, Scarlett, and Jessica opened the shop exclusively for the Beautiful You program Evie had created a year ago as a way to give back to the community.

Normally, every Sunday and Monday the shop was closed, with the exception of the once-a-month Beautiful You day, when women from the local domestic assault shelters came in for a free haircut, manicure, or facial at no charge to them. Evie saw it as a fun day of pampering, building self-confidence, and empowering those less fortunate women to embrace their beauty, inside and out. It was also a long, extremely exhausting day, with appointments booked back to back, but witnessing each woman’s transformation and being the recipient of their gratitude and radiant smiles as they walked out of the salon was the best feeling ever.

Fifteen minutes later, just as Evie finished her online purchase of inventory and was walking out of the storeroom, she nearly collided with Scarlett in the hallway, who had a gleeful look on her face.

“Oh my God, Evie,” she said in a hushed whisper that was threaded with excitement. “There is an insanely hot guy out at the front desk asking for you. I’m pretty sure it’s your fake boyfriend. And if it’s not, I call first dibs on him over Jessica.”

Evie’s stomach flipped at the thought that Eric might be here. Still, she couldn’t help but laugh, even knowing Scarlett was completely serious. When Evie had arrived at work yesterday morning after her coffee date with Eric, both of her business partners had grilled her about him, and they’d waited just as anxiously throughout the day for her to hear back from him.

This morning, when she’d walked through the doors and had to confess that he still hadn’t contacted her, she’d been treated to those sympathetic looks she hated so much—even though she knew her best friends meant well—along with man-bashing comments meant to make her feel better that had only made the whole situation worse. She’d been glad to have getting her inventory done as a legit reason to escape to the storeroom and their attempts to soothe her bruised female ego.

But clearly, now Scarlett was singing a very different tune about men after laying eyes on a gorgeous guy. Evie didn’t want to get her hopes up that it was Eric, because the truth was, it could be a male client who had been referred to her, but she straightened her shoulders and put on a smile as she walked out into the reception area to meet Hot Guy.