Escorting the Billionaire - Part 2

Maybe my mother would see that I was happy for the first time. Maybe she would soften toward Audrey.

Maybe… but probably not.

Hope is a four-letter word, I thought, but I pulled Audrey close to me anyway.

* * *

Cole dragged me to the bar after dinner. The girls had gone to the ladies’ room. “Dude,” Cole said. He ordered two bourbons.

“Yes, dude?” I asked. “Actually—aren’t we too old for that now? We used to say that at Wharton. It makes me sad to hear it come out of my mouth now. It’s like I’m an old-timer.”

“An old-timer who’s ready to settle down?” Cole asked.

“Do you have to go there tonight, Coley?”

“Fuck you,” he said good-naturedly and had some of his drink. “You know you’ve got an emotional boner for that girl on your forehead though, right?”

“An emotional boner? I didn’t know they existed.”

“It’s like a heart on your sleeve, but bigger and more obnoxious,” he said, laughing at me. “And you totally have one.”

“She offered me a crab cake today, and I didn’t eat it.”

“You’ve f**ked her, though. I can tell. Like, fifty times this week I bet.”

I shrugged. “Not fifty.”

“Then Jenny and I are winning.”

“Haven’t you been to work?” I asked him, simultaneously disgusted and impressed. He was probably exaggerating. Probably.

Cole shrugged. “Nah. I did a conference call. But this girl is like a drug for me. I can’t keep my di**ck out of her.”

“Does that qualify as an emotional boner? Or are you two just sort of disgusting?”

“I don’t know,” he said and rubbed his eyes. For once, my friend actually looked perplexed. “I seriously can’t keep my hands off her.” He looked back at me. “Is that love?”

“It sounds sort of like it… but it could just be lust,” I said.

“There’s definitely lust.”

“Do you like her?”

“I’m f**king crazy about her,” Cole said. He had that baffled look again, and I patted him on the shoulder. I watched as Audrey and Jenny came back toward us, both of them laughing. Audrey looked happy and almost relaxed.

“Dude,” he said. “Put your emotional boner away. It’s embarrassing.”

Audrey

Jenny told me that she’d had sex with Cole earlier today while they were out shopping, and it almost made me forget about the awful scene with my mother. And the story about Danielle. And Celia Preston’s offer to pay me to go away.

Which was saying something.

She wanted to tell me about how her as**signment was going. We’d gone to a bathroom at the other end of the restaurant to avoid James’s family and anyone else connected to the wedding. “He’s frickin’ crazy,” she said, applying blush to her face with a pouffy brush. She added lip gloss and fluffed her hair. “I swear to God, I’ve never been with someone who wants to have this much sex. He can’t keep his hands off me.”

“Even in the dressing room at a fancy store?” I asked.

“Yeah. He totally thinks he’s above the law, right? It’s a billionaire thing—he thinks the rules don’t apply to him.

“He just followed me when I was trying this dress on. We weren’t in there for two seconds, and he pinned me up against the wall. With the sales clerk right outside! He had to lift me up so they couldn’t see our feet together. And he f**ked me like crazy. I had to slap my hand over his mouth though ’cause he’s a yeller when he comes. Real loud, Dre. Real loud. And he likes me to do this thing with his balls—”

“Jenny—I don’t need to know the thing about his balls!”

Jenny fanned herself. “Fine. But I’m gettin’ hot just thinking about it. I should be exhausted, but I’m not. Jesus. He’s worse than Loospy and Fat Vinnie put together.”

“Do you like him?”

“Are you kidding me? This is the best time I’ve had with a John, ever. It’s like we’re the same person. Except he’s rich, and he’s a guy. And that thing with his balls.”

“Huh,” I said.

“Huh is right.” She turned to me and inspected my face. “Mr. Sex in a Suit is a little romance-y tonight, Dre. He’s got it real bad. I almost feel sorry for him. Did you bat him around like a cat toy last night?”

I decided to spare Jenny the actual ugly details of the past twenty-four hours. “I might have…a little.”

She nodded at me, a knowing look on her face. “It worked. You better watch it. I know that look he’s got.”