Billionaire On Fire: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) (42 page)

Stacey was already seated and waiting for
us at a booth when Nick and I entered. She was still in her exercise-wear and
looked very energized. Maybe I needed to start joining her in these morning
runs. I sure could use the pick-me-up.

“Had a nice workout?” I asked Stacey
sitting across from her as Nick found his way next to her.

“It was incredible! Did you know there is
a hiking trail behind the lake? And clearly not many people have discovered it
because I have been going every morning and it is just me and beautiful birds
and swans by the lake. It’
s
mesmerizing.
”

“Will it be as mesmerizing if you had
company?” I asked tentatively.

Stacey’s whole face lit up, as Nick banged
his on to the table, as though unable to understand why not one but two people
in his life suddenly wanted to run in the morning.

“Aria, I’ve wanted you to join me this
whole time!” She sounded very excited. “But you’ve been, you know, having a
rough week, and I didn’t want to make it seem like I was pushing – but I mean –
I did think it would help you work through some of the stress from–”

“Calm down, Stace,” I said giggling. “You
don’t have to be nervous about asking me to do anything with you. You know
that! So how about tomorrow morning?”

“Yep, get ready by five.”

“No way! How long do you run?” I checked
the time; it was eight in the morning. One hour until I had to be at the bank.

“
Well
,
I only run for probably an hour total. But I sit by the lake and think and write
on my blog and it’
s so wonderful.
It
’s
like–”

Stacey’s voice was interrupted by Nick’s
hysterical laughter. “You take your laptop on your runs?”

She gave him a really confused and
affronted look. “Of course. I take my car to the hiking trail, leave my laptop
in it, run for an hour, and then sit down and write while I enjoy nature.”

“Sure, enjoy ‘nature’,” he said making air
quotes with his hands.

Stacey raised her voice. “At least I’m
outdoors and not spending all my time locked in a room playing video games.”

Nick opened his mouth but before he could
say anything, Stacey added, “I will put a dollar in the jar, whatever.”

“
The jar?
” I asked the both of them, slightly amused.

“We have devised a system,” Nick answered
pleasantly. “Every time Stacey gives me a hard time about my video games, or I
give her a hard time about her blogs, we have to put a dollar in an individual
jar. At the end of each year, we are going to count both jars, and whoever has
less gets to pick a present that the collected money will buy.”

“You guys are so perfect,” I said, yet
again amazed by their relationship. “How do you do it?” I asked and then
laughed.

“Lots and lots of dollars in the jar,”
Stacey sighed and we all laughed.

Would I ever have what they had… with
Zayden? Was he even capable of this kind of comfortable affection? Everything
was grand in his life, everything was upscale and elaborate– fancy cars,
expensive restaurants, personal chefs. Did he ever just have a day to pursue
the little things in life, in a non-calculated manner? I knew the answers to
all these questions, which gave me one more reason to keep my cool when I met
him later today. We were never going to be right for each other like Nick and
Stacey were. And who was I even kidding? He didn’t want to be right for me now,
did he? He just wanted me to obediently finish his contract so he could feed
his ego; there was never any deception there, never a grey-area about his
motives. He wasn’t exactly asking me – nor had he ever asked me– to be his
girlfriend— just his subordinate who did his bidding and entertained him from
time to time, who he could control, and tell her who she can or cannot talk to.
As a fresh surge of anger started
boiling deep inside of me
, I tried to distract myself with the
menu.

“What are you guys having?” I asked,
forcing a smile.

I got bacon and eggs over-easy, Nick got
two omelets, and Stacey, to both of our surprise, got a garden salad, making me
suspect that there was more to why she was running. She was obviously hiding
something from us. Stacey loved food more than anything and always mocked
people on diets. Early morning runs to be “healthier” I could buy, but this,
this was not the Stacey I knew. Wondering about what she was hiding momentarily
took my mind completely off all my other worries. A glance at Nick told me he
was thinking the same things, but we made eye contact and silently decided not
to pick at her for the moment. Instead, I decided to bring up my own woes.

“So guys, I am finally seeing him today,”
I said, looking at Nick because watching Stacey nibble at the carrots was bound
to make me laugh.

“Womp womp,” Nick said. He was also not
looking at her. “So this is it then? You are going to break it off?”

“I think so…” I thought of what I wanted
to communicate to them exactly, but then realized I didn’t know. They had yet
to hear about my phone conversation with Zayden. “He called me the other night.
And apologized for being so controlling.”

“He did?” Stacey sounded genuinely
surprised. “Are you sure?”

“
I don
’t think he could mean much else by the words ‘I’m
sorry’,” I said, snappier than intended.

“No, I mean like, did he say he was
apologizing for being controlling? Not just like a general ‘I’m sorry we’ve
been having a fight and I want you to come back,
so I
’m backing down kind of a thing?”

Hmm. What had he apologized for exactly? I
couldn’t be entirely sure. But I did remember he said… “He said he would not do
it anymore.”

“Very interesting,” Stacey said, clearly
weighing the implications of that rapidly in her head. “So you’re still going
to break it off?”

“I think so… I mean… that is why I brought
it up. What do you guys think?”

Nick got suddenly very preoccupied with
his omelet, which was fine. I was used to him making humorous quips, but he was
never one to volunteer serious advice, probably for good reason.

Stacey on the other hand was always full
of perfect advice, so I was curious to see what she had to say – considering
she was the one who had put the idea of breaking it off in my head to begin
with.

“There is a good chance he is going to
hurt you,” she said matter-of-factly. “He has already done it once. That said,
I am not going to tell you what the right thing to do is here. I have an
opinion based on very little second-hand information. I don’t know him like you
know him. I don’t know what was between the two of you like you do. The only
person who can realistically decide what the right thing to do here is you.”

“No, Stace! Come on, don’t choose now to
be politically correct. You think I should stick to ending it don’t you?”

“I did before and I told you as much. But
if he is willing to change, it’s a completely different matter. That’s what I
am trying to say – there is no way for me to rightly assess if he is, in fact,
going to change. You’re a much better judge of that, which is why I know
whatever you decide will be the right call.”

That gave me a whole lot to think about,
so for the rest of breakfast I remained almost completely quiet, thinking about
what I was going to do when I got to work later that day. The fact that I was
even considering all this so seriously and having second thoughts was
ridiculous.

I would just have to deal with it when I
saw him – perhaps I would make the right decision when faced with him in
person. Right now my judgment was too clouded by the fact that I missed him,
which I hated myself for.

Quickly finishing the rest of my eggs, I
got up to leave. “I’ll be late for work, got to run. Thanks so much, you guys.
For everything.”

“Of course. Good luck today. You’ll do the
right thing, Aria,” Stacey told me and smiled. “
Just don
’t be too hard on yourself.”

“Have a good one, Aria!”
Nick waved.

I was made up entirely of nerves by the
time I left.

---

When I reached the bank, it was unusually
quiet. Everyone was staring in the direction of Zayden’s office, making
insincere attempts to conceal what they were doing. Mrs. Brian was gasping
visibly. I put my things away in my desk, then looked up to see what the fuss
was about. My heart stopped.

A beautiful blonde woman who looked like a
supermodel was giggling happily at Zayden, who seemed to be slightly
frustrated. It had to be a business partner. Or so I kept trying to convince
myself. The woman looked older – closer to Zayden’s age, and it was a perfectly
reasonable possibility that she was there for something work related. It
couldn’t be anything else, could it? Ignoring the uncomfortable knot that had
been forming in my chest ever since I saw the woman, I tried hard to focus on
work. A good amount of data entry had piled up in the time I had been away from
the office, a fact that Mrs. Brian wasted no time in reminding me.

“I’m on it,” I said, annoyed. Most of the
time I could stand Mrs. Brian and her judgment and nosiness, but right now, in
the midst of worrying about the woman in Zayden’s office and everything else
that was going on, I had no patience for her whatsoever.

“That man has no shame,” she was
muttering.

Why? Perhaps she knew who that woman was;
otherwise she wouldn’t be making these comments. I was tempted to ask her if it
was just a business meeting, but was not interested in the slew of questionable
looks and comments that were sure to follow. So instead I tried hard to
concentrate on typing as fast as I possibly could, occasionally allowing myself
a quick glance, which I couldn’
t
help.

The woman finally got up to leave and to
my utter shock and horror, kissed him romantically on the cheek. I couldn’
t quite make out Zayden
’s expression at
first, but then he noticed I had been looking and his face got pale. That was
it, I couldn’t take this anymore; I would so much rather deal with Mrs. Brian
than let whatever was happening consume me.

“Who is that woman?” I asked, keeping my
eyes firmly on my computer and trying to sound as casual as possible.

Mrs. Brian laughed and when I looked up at
her face she looked completely thrilled to be the person to have this piece of
information. She never passed on any excuse to gossip.

“Want to venture a guess?” she asked
smugly.

“
I don
’t know. A business partner?” I said, trying not to
sound too hopeful.

That made her laugh so hysterically, I
felt the Earth begin to shatter underneath me. “Oh dear, dear. You are so
innocent. Even if that man were ever to do business with someone who looks like
her, do you think it could possibly be just business?” she asked.

I shrugged, trying hard to stop the tears
that were forming in my eyes. Why the hell was this making me emotional? I was
going to stop the contract. Shit. I was actually falling for him. “Who then?
Some woman he’s sleeping with?”

“Not just some woman. The woman.”

“What do you mean?” I was barely able to
keep my voice level at this point. The woman. She couldn’t be–

“His wife, of course!”

“What?” I said, unable to keep the tone of
horror from my voice. Fuck it. I didn’t even care if Mrs. Brian knew what was
going on at this point. I just… I needed to find an empty room… and breathe…
before I crumbled completely.

“Well, okay that’s not quite right. You
could say ex-wife, I guess. But really, that’s just a technicality. They have
been separated for a year now.”

That made me feel infinitesimally better.
Ex-wife was much better than wife. But then what was she doing in his office
kissing him? And the way Mrs. Brian had called her “the woman.” It didn’t add
up at all.

“What is she doing here then?” I looked her
straight in the eye, my disappointment turning into anger.

Her face lit up as though Christmas had
come early. She had figured it out. Well, it was none of her business. “My, my,
Aria. I warned you not to get into this, didn’t I? You young girls just don’
t listen.
You s
ee a good looking
, rich man and he just
has to show an ounce of interest for you to run into his arms. You’re all the
same. What were you expecting? He’s going to sweep you off your feet and marry
you, then cover you in riches?”

“Keep the judgment to yourself, Mrs.
Brian. It is none of your business what I do in my free time,” I snapped.

“Get angry with me all you like, dear. It
doesn’t make a difference. All the girls before you, it’s the same exact story.
They go after him against my best advice, and then fall for him. They all think
it will be different with them, no matter his reputation, because they are all
special little snowflakes. In the end, Gina always returns; she is always his
first choice and always will be. Sure, they have been having some trouble over
the years, but what couple doesn’t? And marriage is a very strong bond, as
Zayden proves over and over again. They filed for divorce, but as far I as I
know, the proceedings were never really finalized. My theory is that they don’t
want it to be. Just look at them. They are a lovely couple. I would say they
are made for each other,” she said beaming, surely enjoying tormenting me.