“Thanks.” Hilary wiped her tears, then suddenly pounded a fist on her thigh. “Ah, I should’ve
known!
I should’ve been more
careful!
All my life, I’ve seen how men weasel into relationships. I saw how my mom and aunt ruined their lives over a worthless man, and I’ve had my share of jerks. There should be an asshole profile in the computer here.” She tapped her temple hard enough to make herself wince. “But somehow
I still pick them
. What are the odds of selecting a scumbag out of all the sweet baby-saving pediatric surgeons in the city?”
Jo patted Hilary’s hand. “Not every doctor’s noble, even if he’s a baby doctor.”
“You mean they aren’t noble when I pick them.” Hilary blew her nose. “I thought Walt was the one. He has everything—a good job, good education, an even temper…”
“A fiancée…”
“Yeah,” Hilary said, sadness replacing her anger. “And a fiancée.”
Jo squeezed Hilary’s hand. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s not your fault. He’s the bad guy here.”
Was he truly? Hilary tried to swallow through the hot lump stuck in her throat. She made a fist around the tissue, her hand shaky. What if this was his first time cheating on his fiancée? Maybe it was Hilary who had somehow inspired him to stray. Maybe he just knew… He could tell Hilary was the kind of woman men screwed on the side and had fun with, but wouldn’t marry or do any of the respectable things that men did with undamaged goods.
At the next red light, Jo pulled out her phone and started typing rapidly.
“Who are you texting?” Hilary asked.
“Kim, so she knows we aren’t going to be at Z.”
“We’re not?”
“We’re going to my place. You’re going to spend the night, vent all you want and get some sleep. Tomorrow, I’ll help you get dressed. I’m going to make sure you look awesome.”
“Does it matter?” Hilary worked for one of the richest and influential men in the world and dressed like a perfect administrative assistant. None of it made any difference. Her true nature might be too strong to cover up.
“Looking like a million bucks is the first step. You don’t want to look pathetic over something like this. Don’t worry, I’m not going to put you in anything sexy. Something tastefully gorgeous should do the trick.”
“I don’t know.” All Hilary really wanted to do was crawl under a rock and play dead.
“You work for Gavin frickin’ Lloyd. So you’re going to dress like the woman who deserves to be the guardian of his inner sanctum. And trust me, nobody’s going to feel anything except contempt for Walt. You just wait and see.”
Hilary walked into the office the next day in the outfit Jo had helped her select. Jo was right. Hilary still had to work there and face people. She’d rather not look like some pathetic loser right after the spectacle.
A
fat
pathetic loser
, the voice of the blonde whispered.
Hilary’s steps gained speed. At least her girls were real. That had to count for something, she thought, desperate to cling to anything even remotely positive about herself.
The security guards in their navy uniforms nodded as she walked past, scanning her security badge at the entrance. One of them was a substitute for the old-timer, Billy. She was sure Billy would hear about it the moment he returned.
Sally Smith was already at the main receptionist’s desk, the ever-present sleek bluetooth headset in her left ear. In her mid-twenties, she was short and pert, with Betty Page bangs and a small nose that made Hilary want to push it like a button. She was wearing a pale green and white dress that looked great on her stylishly toned body. Hilary had never seen Sally look less than fashionable.
“Good morning, Hilary.” She gave Hilary a big grin and a broad wink. Huh. What was that about? Sally had no doubt heard about the incident from the day before, and she was too sweet to do anything except commiserate and offer support…except the grin and wink didn’t. Hilary was certain there wasn’t anything special going on that day, and she didn’t know what could be making Sally react like that at the sight of her.
“Way to go, Hilary,” said another administrative assistant, carrying a couple mugs of coffee to her station. Both of them were emblazoned with the unofficial company motto: a bright red “Short or Long—Who cares? I Win!”
Ooookay. This was just weird. What was going on? Was she getting some kind of secret bonus? A corner office? What was the deal?
Finally she reached her desk, which barred people from entering her boss’s inner sanctum…and stopped short at the sight of a giant basket of pure ivory orchids and towering boxes of gourmet European chocolates.
There was a card at the bottom of the display. “You gotta be kidding,” she muttered. The extravagant present had to be Walt’s attempt to get Hilary to return the bracelet he’d given her on their first anniversary a few weeks before. Encrusted with diamonds and pearls, it had no doubt cost him a fortune. She ripped the card from the package. Her anger subsided as she skimmed the message:
Remember
—
you said yes
.
–
Mark
She tucked the note back into the envelope and bit her lower lip. This was not what she’d expected when she’d walked out on him. Regardless, she hadn’t been kidding when she’d said no in the lobby. Everything had changed when Walt turned out to be a two-timing bastard.
A few moments later, Gavin came in. Dark complexioned from his Italian heritage, he wasn’t handsome the way Mark was, but his dynamic personality and intelligence made him stand out. He was in another of his crisp European suits, setting the standard for what everyone else at the firm wore. Outside of law firms, OWM was probably the only company in L.A. that had its workers routinely show up in suits.
A grin lit up his face. She’d noticed that he was smiling more often these days. “Good morning. Wow.” He whistled. “Walt must’ve missed something big.”
“It’s from somebody else. Walt and I are through.”
“Oh? Well, sorry to hear that.” Gavin tilted his head, studying the gorgeous boxes of gourmet chocolate. “So who are these from?”
“A friend of yours, as a matter of fact. Mark Pryce.”
His brow creased briefly. “Hmm.”
“What?”
“Well. I’m just wondering… Are you two dating or something?”
She narrowed her eyes. What had Mark told her boss? “Why? Do you find it unbelievable that we might be dating?” Could her boss tell too that she wasn’t the kind of woman men dated for real?
Gavin’s gaze snapped to hers. “Unbelievable? No, it’s just…”
“Yes?”
You’re too fat and come from a totally fucked up family
.
The kind you see on trashy shows like Jerry Springer
.
“You know what his girlfriends are called, right?”
She folded her arms. “As a matter of fact, I don’t.”
Gavin pressed his lips together. Hilary frowned. This dithering wasn’t like him. Finally he said, “Quarterly Girls.”
“Quarterly Girls? What does that even mean?”
“He’s never dated anyone for more than three months.” Gavin shrugged uncomfortably. “And three months out of a year is…”
“Ah. The epithet fits.”
“Yes.” Gavin rubbed the back of his neck. “Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great guy. So it’ll be fun while it lasts. But don’t expect anything more. You understand what I’m saying?”
“Of course.” She flashed him a quick smile, relieved he hadn’t noticed what an enormous screw-up she was. “Don’t worry. We aren’t dating. I’m not even sure why he sent the stuff in the first place.” He’d probably deluded himself into thinking that he could change her mind.
“Okay, I’ll butt out.” Gavin said, a frown still creasing his forehead. “You’re smart, so I’m sure you know what you’re doing.”
* * *
Mark pulled out his vibrating phone as he got out of his car in front of OWM. This was call number three from his mother, and he could put her off for only so long.
“Yes, Mother,” he answered.
“What is the meaning of this?” came her low and furious voice.
“Uh… Can you be a bit more specific?”
“It’s all over YouTube!”
“What is?”
“You and two women fighting like trailer trash at Gavin’s company!”
Oh. That… Crap. “We weren’t really fighting. I was trying to stop the woman from attacking Hilary.”
“Hilary who?”
“Gavin’s executive administrative assistant.” Somebody should really come up with a cooler and shorter job title for Hilary. It was getting to be a mouthful.
She let out a soft gasp. “You got into a public brawl over some glorified donut fetcher?”
“Gavin doesn’t eat donuts.”
“Mark, I don’t know the people who put the video up on YouTube. I can’t ask them to pull it down without involving lawyers, which would only bring more attention to this…travesty.”
“Then let it stay up there. Who cares?”
“If Katarina sees it—”
“Let her see it. She deserves to know what kind of person I am.”
“But that’s not you, Mark.”
“Yeah, it is. No false advertising, Mom,” he said, trying to leave the annoyance out of his tone. “Anyway I gotta go. Bye, love you.” He hung up and shoved the phone into his pocket with a long, shuddering sigh. His mother had changed so much in the last twenty years or so, and it left a bitter taste in his mouth. The mother from his childhood wouldn’t have been so set on playing matchmaker, or disapproved of all his ventures. Still, it was hard to be angry at her for being different now. She probably couldn’t help how she was. She was the product of her marriage.
His parents might have been dubbed The Eternal Couple, but everyone who knew them even slightly knew that their marriage redefined the term
dysfunctional
. He couldn’t remember a time when his father hadn’t had a mistress, or when his mother wasn’t pretending not to know about the woman du jour. Of course, there wasn’t any point to her making a fuss about the situation. Thanks to the Pryce prenup she’d signed, she couldn’t even force her husband to go to couple’s counseling. And the agreement specified she would get nothing in case of divorce, regardless of who was at fault. Without love and respect, or the threat of being able to take her husband to the cleaner’s, she was powerless in her marriage. And the powerlessness had become so overwhelming and toxic, it colored everything she did. He didn’t understand why she hadn’t left his father earlier, while she was still young and beautiful, to start over. He’d seen photos of her in her twenties. She’d been stunning. Hell, she’d been stunning into her thirties and forties as well. She could’ve had a fresh new life and found happiness.
Mark saw Hilary tapping away on her tablet inside the lobby. He glanced at his watch. It was just eleven forty-five.
There were women who could be devoured in one bite, he thought as he opened the door and entered the building, but Hilary wasn’t one of them. She had a zaftig allure that was out of a different era. Tall, with wide shoulders and hips, she had a waistline that somehow pulled everything together and skin so smooth the light shone off it. Today she was gorgeous in another pair of those sexy shoes and a conservative office outfit that consisted of a black sleeveless top and skirt. Her lips pulled together into a lovely pout as she concentrated on the tablet.
His fingers ached with the need to touch, but he sucked in a breath and mastered himself. He was too old and experienced to react like this.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi,” she said without looking up.
“Let’s have lunch.”
“Sorry. I’m waiting for a friend.”
“Forget that. Your friend can’t get you what I can.”
She tilted her head and looked up into his eyes. Her gaze was curiously blank. “You know, pursuing a woman who just broke up is never a good idea.”
“I disagree.”
“I’m really not interested.”
“You said yes, remember?”
She swallowed. “That was before I was attacked in the lobby.”
Was that a flash of panic in her eyes? Huh. “I don’t see how that’s relevant.” When she opened her mouth, he raised a finger. “You owe me. Don’t go back on your word.”
“That was just for the party, not lunch.” She scowled as a text from Jo appeared.
Sorry
,
can’t make it
.
Stuck with a hysterical client on the phone
. “You know what? I’m really not that hungry, so I think I’ll just go back to the office and get some more work done.”
As soon as she said it, her stomach let out a loud growl. A man walking by actually glanced her way. Mark swallowed a laugh as Hilary’s face turned bright red. “At least
part
of you seems to be hungry.”
“Fine,” she said in a clipped voice as she put her tablet away. “You can buy me lunch.”
He chuckled. Ah the ever-gracious Hilary. He couldn’t remember the last time he had this much fun with a woman. “Did you like the flowers and chocolate?”
“Yes. Thank you. They caught me by surprise. I thought they were from Walt.”
“Please.” Mark shook his head, put a hand on the small of her back and gently guided her outside. “I’m pretty sure he’s never given you anything that extravagant.” That cheapskate doctor had never ordered the best wine on dates at Mark’s restaurants. Why? Because the best cost the most. Everything at the restaurants was superb, but if Mark had been dating Hilary? He’d get her only the finest because that was what she deserved.
Until the three-month mark
,
right?
The small muscle in his jaw jerked at the nasty reminder. Hilary walked next to him, and her skin glowed in the bright Los Angeles sun, her hair gleaming fire and her scent making his mouth water. He’d been fantasizing about licking and kissing the amazing slope of her neck since the day before. Beautiful women were a dime a dozen in L.A., but none of them drew him the way she did. She never let him get away with anything, and she was sharp and hard-working. Would he really get tired of her after three months?
Jesus. What the hell was wrong with him?
Thankfully, Hilary distracted him by saying, “I thought he was trying to get me to return his bracelet.”
“Keep it or pawn it,” Mark said roughly. “You shouldn’t have to give it back because he’s a two-timing jerk.”