The Billionaire Boss Next Door

“I said, ‘Thanks for the offer, but the chances of me going on a date you set up for me with absolutely no details are about as good as me finding some spare fucks to give. No.’”

“I take it you didn’t know she was trying to set you up.” Trent chortles and sits back in his seat.

“Other than the fact that she’s always trying to set me up? No.”

“I can relate to this dilemma.”

I quirk a surprised brow. “How?”

“My friend Cap. He’s all but strong-arming me into going on a date with a woman named Susie.”

All of a sudden, I’m not a fan of the name Susie. Like, it kind of sounds like the worst name in the world, honestly.

“Are you going to go?”

He raises a brow. “Are you going to go?”

Am I going to go?

But he doesn’t give me a chance to answer.

“You know what,” he says, standing from the couch so suddenly, I don’t even read Emory’s text when it pings. Instead, I follow him with my eyes as he moves toward the door. I’m not sure, but it kind of feels like my face is turned down into a frown.

“You should go on it, Greer.” He opens my door and steps through it, facing me again so I can see his face when he speaks again. “And who knows? Maybe it’s destiny.”

The door shuts behind him, and I’m left reeling.

Destiny?

Something doesn’t feel right about this. Not agreeing to this date. And definitely not Trent telling me to go on this date.

Is he going on a date too?

He said his friend Cap was trying to set him up. Does that mean he has already set Trent up or still trying?

My mind spins with a million different questions and no fucking answers.

And, of course, Emory’s message is waiting for me when I look down at my phone.

Emory: You are a spinster with a sincere dislike for cats. You are going on this date if I have to drag you there by your nipples.

Nothing feels right about this.

But when faced with the possibility of Trent going on a date and me just sitting at home like a spinster while trying to hear him fuck some tramp through our shared wall, I agree.

And it feels like the exact opposite of destiny.

Honestly, it feels like destiny just up and walked right out my front door.

Are you sure you’re still talking about destiny?

Trent

La Previe is bustling with ambiance and busy staff and tables filled with people chattering and flirting and doing whatever it is people do inside a restaurant on a Tuesday night.

I sit at the table I requested, off the beaten path but still facing the center of the dining room, and I wait. For what exactly, I’m not sure, but my eyes are fixated near the door as I sip on the fresh drink I grabbed at the bar before being seated by the hostess.

Okay, full disclosure. I know explicitly threatening not to show up for my date if Cap didn’t make sure it was at the time and location of my choosing—ahem, the same as Greer’s, specifically—was wrong.

But I couldn’t help myself.

I haven’t felt the kind of jealousy I felt when Emory texted her about her date since high school.

I asked Catherine Gibbs to prom, but she turned me down to go with Harrison Phelps. He was a pompous ass, and I’m pretty sure Catherine turned out to be a stripper, but the point is, at the time, I was blind with envy.

And when Greer read that text aloud, I flashed back to the same exact feeling.

Obviously, I could have agreed with her, told her to stick to her guns about declining, but…something about that didn’t feel right either.

So, even though every cell inside my body was opposed, I told her to go.

If I want her to like me—which, for whatever reason, it seems that’s the way my mind and body are leaning—I need her to do it on her own terms and with all the information.

If she wants to go on a date with someone else, she should. If her best friend thinks she found a guy who is good for Greer, then Greer should go on a date with him and see what he has to offer.

But just in case, in the name of chivalry, I’ll be here to keep an eye on her.

It’s a real fucked-up mind-set, but I’m not the most rational guy in NOLA.

Plus, it’s not my place to tell Greer what to do or not to do when it comes to dating. I might have a track record for being a controlling bastard on the job site, but when it comes to women, I don’t control; I respect. Their opinions. Their feelings. Their desires.

Any man who does otherwise is a real insecure fucking prick and doesn’t deserve shit.