Crown's Chance at Love (21 page)

We are going to her friends’ Emmi & Dan’s house for a BBQ.  Meeting her friends and family makes me nervous but I’m looking forward to it. My office phone rings snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Crown,” I say as I stare out to the city.

“Hey bro!” a familiar deep voice says and I can’t help but smile.

“JOHN!” Hearing from my best friend, who had been in London since the beginning of the year was rare. Due to the time differences and our busy schedules we’d only been able to email. But if I was being honest I had been avoiding him.

“How’s London?”

“I’m back! Not that you would have noticed, missing all my calls.”

“Sorry dude just been busy.”

“The Maxwell deal?” he asked.

“Yeah.” I hated lying to him but I couldn’t risk it.

“Interesting… so it had nothing to do with a cute little party planner?” he asked laughing and I groaned. I should have known better. John was worse than a girl with gossip. He somehow always knew everything about everyone.

“John…”

“Hey I get it. I’ve seen her. I’m on the committee remember?” SHIT. I had forgotten. Now I remembered her mentioning something last weekend about video chatting with a committee member.

“She has a sweet ass,”

“John” I start to warn but John keeps talking.

“Great rack. Real and definitely more than a handful.”

“Enough.” I growled and I can hear him laughing.

“So it is true! I didn’t believe Holly, but shit man. You got it bad.”

“Holly?”

“She told me you have been very distracted lately. She’s hopeful you have somehow found your match.”

Holly, my ex. Many would find it weird to stay friends with someone you were engaged to, but to be honest we had always been friends. Right after we split up, she married Robert, her movie producing Irish husband, and we had somehow been able to stay friends. Not as close as we once had been, but close enough. My mind being in a haze since I had met Sabrina, had completely forgotten she was also in the planning committee working with Sabrina for the Breast Cancer Gala.

“So what you doing for your birthday?”John asked, changing subjects. He usually tended to skip from one subject to another like a kid with ADD in need of Ritalin.

“My birthday? “ I ask distracted.

Shit so many more people, my people were meeting her. The more people the greater the chances of her finding out about Patrick.
Why hadn’t this dawned on me before?

“Man, seriously? It’s today. I can get us a table at Shine, have some of Belle’s girls join us. What do you think?”

Shit. I had forgot it was my birthday.

I was now forty.

How could I have forgotten it?
You’ve
been
busy
asshole
, I think to myself. Usually I was busy with work, and I had been. But now it was about talking with Sabrina until one of us fell asleep, and catching a couple of little league games to cheer on Mark when my schedule coincided with Sabrina.

“Hello Mike? You fucking there?” John asks, sounding irritated.

“Yeah man sorry. Look I don’t think I can do anything tonight.”

“What the fuck dude? Look I’m almost at your office. Tell your uptight assistant to let me in,” he barked before hanging up. Shit. John was back. He would know something was up with me with one glance. He would know about Sabrina and warn me off.

I had met John in college, and we had been best friends since. John was an extremely hard working businessman, and extremely smart. Scary fucking smart. Those smarts had made both of us extremely wealthy. He had insisted I invest in his different ventures, and needless to say there was a reason I never questioned him. Business wise he always knew what he was doing. John worked hard but he also liked to play hard.

Belle’s was short for Belle’s Beauties. A member’s only gentlemen’s club. It was also an underground escort service for the rich and famous in California. John loved women. Having the ridiculous wealth he had, John didn’t mind paying for what he wanted. He always said he didn’t have the time to date, and I knew that to be true. He worked extremely hard. Traveling back and forth all around the world, his hands in multiple different business ventures and industries, in each one he is disgustingly successful. But on the same token he always made time to play hard as well.

With John having been away, it had been easy to forget the many ways I wasn’t a saint. I had been single since Holly and I had split. Women had come and gone; there certainly hadn’t been a shortage of women. I hadn’t been commited to anyone or anything. Having been single for the first time in ten years, plus adding on the guilt I felt for what had happened that morning with Patrick and Sean, you could say that I had drowned my sorrows in women. I had indulged and made up for lost time.

Running my fingers through my hair I call Robin, my assistant, and give her a heads up that John was coming in. I could almost hear Robin rolling her eyes at the idea of John stopping by. Robin did not like John.

Thirty minutes later, I’m still in my office, but now I am laughing my ass off with John. Hearing him tell me about his adventures in London. Each story reminds me of why John is my best friend, and how different we are.

“Come on dude, we need to go out tonight,” he pleads with me starting to look annoyed.

“I don’t know…” I start to say but I can see John start to frown at me. Right at that moment my phone rings. John knows the routine, so I answer without having to explain anything to him.

“Crown speaking.”

“Hi.” With one word, just like that my day brightens. Sabrina.

“Hey,” I say smiling as I take in the funny glance John is giving me.

“How’s your day going?” she asks. From the sound of her voice I can tell she is smiling.

“Good, yours?” I ask. Stupidly I look at John, who is smirking at me. I glare back at him.

“It’s not bad. You want to come over tonight?”John sneaks up on me, pushing speaker, and I give him a pleading look for him to keep his mouth shut.

“Couldn’t keep me away sweetheart,” I say not looking at John.

“Okay. I’ll see you tonight then.” As her sweet voice fills my office, I look at John, who has a raised eyebrow.

“Okay, I have a meeting coming up, I better go okay? Umm do you need me to bring anything?” I ask. I know I’m lying about having to go, but I don’t want John to know shit about Sabrina. I’m worried about him opening his mouth and saying something completely inappropriate.

“Oh no, I have everything. I’ll see you tonight,” she says quickly and we hang up. John starts to laugh.

“You sly dog!” he goads and I shake my head at him.

“Don’t!”

“Birthday sex for Mikey! It’s okay after you get it in, leave and we can meet up later,” he suggests. Anyone after Holly I had a
no spending the night
rule, one I had broken with Sabrina not even a week after having met her.

“Dude don’t,” I say seriously. My jaw is twitching as I start to get pissed at the way John insinuates Sabrina being like the rest.

“What? Come on you can’t be serious about this one?” he asks as he stares at me incredulously, but I stay quiet.

“Shit Mike. You really like this one don’t you?” he says looking a little surprised.

“John,” I warn.

“I can’t say I’m not surprised. I’ve seen her. Don’t get me wrong she’s pretty, but she isn’t a Holly or even that sweet little actress you were dating… what was her name?” he says.

“Elle,” I mumble.

“Yeah that one. She was a sweet piece… I mean shit man.” I shake my head hearing him talk. This was my best friend. He was a dog. I had grown accustomed to him talking like this, but when he referred to Sabrina like this, it rubbed me the wrong way. Extremely the wrong way.

“Wait doesn’t Sabrina have kids?” he asks surprising me, taking me a little off guard.

“How do you know this shit?” I ask.

“Holly,” he says simply as if stating the obvious.

“Yeah she does, two boys and a girl.”

“Shit. How old is she?”

“Thirty six.”

“Older than your norm,” he comments and I roll my eyes.
Had I really been that much of a perv dating significantly younger women?

“Why does her name sound so familiar to me?” he asks and my stomach roils.

John knew how I felt about what had happened with Patrick. I had shared everything I had found out about her the first time I had hired a private investigator during Patrick’s trial.

“Sabrina Miller,” he repeats. ”It’s been bugging me. It sounds so familiar…” and I see it. I see when it clicks in John’s head. His eyes wide, surprise etched in his stubble filled face, “Shit Mike. What did you do?”

“Don’t,” I growl looking away from him.

“Mike.”

“John.”

“Mike does she know who the fuck you are?” he asks, sounding worried.

“Yeah. She knows I’m the VP here. John she knows me. Who I am. She knows of all the shit you and I did in college. She knows I hate chocolate, she she even knows I used to DJ… she knows ME,” I start to explain. I see him run his fingers through his hair, which surprises me because he usually has too much product in there.

“She know about Patrick?” he asks, his face serious, and I stay quiet.

“Mike buddy, does she know about Patrick?” he repeats and I look at him.

“No… not yet.”

“Dude…”

“I know.” The office is filled with silence for a long minute.

“How did this even happen? I mean you hadn’t mentioned anything to me. When Holly told me she thought you were interested in this girl, I seriously thought she was full of shit. Then I saw her when I requested a video chat with her. I could see she was cute, but not your usual cup of tea.”

“You requested to video chat her?” I asked almost rolling my eyes, surprised at how much of a gossipy schoolgirl John really was.

“Not the point. So how far has this thing gone?” he asks; whatever easy going vibe he had quickly vanishes as business John appears.

“We have just been hanging out,” I say trying to make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal, and that ate at me. Because she was a big deal, all four of them were a big deal to me.

“Since when?” he persists and I give in.

“April.”

“Shit. Mike…” he says sitting back in his chair, hand resting at his chin.

“I know. Shit dude. Why do you think I haven’t said anything to you? I KNOW. I know I should stay away from her, but I can’t. I like her. I have never met a woman like her. She’s…”

“Dude. Fuck it’s worse than I thought. You are in love with her,” John says as a statement not a question. As if somehow to John it was completely obvious.

“John…”

“You are playing with fire dude.”

“J…”

“You need to tell her the truth, before anyone figures out there is a connection. Shit dude she is working for Edwards Automotive for God’s sakes. Someone might slip up…”

“No one talks about him. Ever. Plus she only comes here for an hour or two a week. Most of her work she does from her own office,” I say glancing to look out the window.

“I don’t know dude. This sounds bad. Like a lot of unnecessary trouble,” John says seriously and I can tell he is worried about how all this is going to explode in my face.

“You don’t know her John. She’s incredible. She’s beautiful and freaking funny. She doesn’t play games. She’s so fucking honest. I never question where I stand with her or what she wants from me…”

“You know who doesn’t question shit either? One of Belle’s girls. You pay upfront and you know exactly where you stand with them. Come on man, didn’t you learn your lesson the first time with Holly?” he asks me, his voice starting to get frustrated with me.

“John,” I say warning him.

“What? You forget I was there? Ten fucking years and the bitch gets married a month after you end your engagement? Then nine months later pops out twin boys. To top it off, you two have to be all fucking civilized and stay friends. Shit Mike, I have been around you and them and their damn kids, I see how you look at them at times.”

“John….”

“I know that’s what you wanted for yourself. I mean shit doesn’t everyone? Now you are telling me the one chick who you really shouldn’t be mixed up with, you are mixed up with? Is it because you want to play hero?” he asks getting loud as he tries to make a point.

“WHAT?”

“You playing hero? Swoop in, help save the poor single mom who you think you hurt? Who got hurt because of your idiot half brother?” he continues to press me.

“Dude seriously.” I’m not sure of what to say.

“Is it Mike? I know you dude. You are a good guy. Out of the two of us I am the asshole and you are the good one. Is this what this is? You playing hero?” he asks looking me in the eye.

“No.” I answer confidently. It wasn’t that at all. All the reasons he said about why I would want to play hero were all the reasons I told myself to stay the hell away from her.