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“Good to see you Joanie,” drawled Nick. “It’s been a long time.”
I swallowed heavily.
“Good to see you too,” was my stammering reply. “How did you find me?”
Aaron threw his head back and laughed, like this was truly funny.
“Sweetheart, we’ve known where you were since the day you disappeared. In a city with billions of cameras, you think a person can stay hidden? No honey. We’ve known for months you were here. Why’d you pick this place, anyways?” he asked, looking around. “It’s positively tiny.”
I gulped. The room was packed to the rafters with Karen’s stuff. She had a narrow twin, and my sleeping mat with an extra blanket was rolled up tidily at the foot of the bed. I’d been making my home on her floor, which wasn’t ideal for a pregnant lady.
But I pretended nonchalance.
“My friend’s a student at Hudson,” I said casually. “When she offered me a place, I said why not? It’s as good as any.”
The alphas’ eyes surveyed the cramped room, but they didn’t judge.
“Sure,” was Tom’s slow drawl. “Okay.”
That made me gulp again, nerves in a flurry.
“So what’s going on?” was my careless voice. “What brings you here?”
Six sets of blue eyes gleamed.
“Well honey,” began Charlie slowly. “This seems like a tough position to be in. Sleeping on the floor of your friend’s dorm room, eating mess hall provisions. What if I offered you a job? Or do you have a job right now?” he asked, eyeing the scraps of notepaper on the desk.
Embarrassed, I dropped my hand over the scribblings. Because I was writing a romance novel, one that loosely followed my experience working for Elite Air. Of course, there weren’t six guys in the book, but there was an innocent virgin who meets a billionaire. So it wasn’t a hundred percent made up.
But my spine stiffened. Why was I embarrassed? I was dead set on making a living for me and my child, without taking a dime from anyone. Writing was honest and true. Writing was noble, which was more than I could say about working for them.
So my chin lifted.
“In fact, yes. I’m beginning a new career as an author. Chemistry isn’t all that you know,” was my light fib. “I decided this fit me better.”
Charlie’s brows raised.
“Really?” he rumbled. “That’s too bad to hear because I was about to offer you a position as a junior scientist with my company. You know we do cosmetics, sweetheart, so we’ve got an R&D team that’s always puttering around in the lab.”
My cheeks flushed. That would be amazing! A job in a lab without having to get a degree first? It was like winning the lotto or finding a golden ticket under a rock somewhere.
But my mind hesitated. I didn’t want anything from the alphas, not after everything that had happened. They had another girl already. The men had moved on just like that, ruthless and opportunistic.
Don’t forget, the voice in my head warned. They replaced you the minute you didn’t show.
So instead, I nodded stiffly.
“Thank you,” were my curt words. “But like I said, I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going to be a chemist anymore. I’m going to be a writer. Maybe I’ll write about chemistry,” was my confident statement.
But there was a waver in my voice because chemistry’s been my dream for so long. To see it presented on a silver platter with no way to accept broke my heart. But I couldn’t risk everything, not without losing myself all over again.
So trying to seem lighthearted even while blinking tears back, my lips turned up in a smile.
“So what brings you here?” was my merry question. “I take it you have a new flight attendant for the airline. Is she doing a good job?”
Oh god, the words tasted like poison in my mouth, choking me with the noxious fumes. But it was what it was. I’d seen the blonde with my own eyes, coming into the elevator. And if it wasn’t her, then it was some other trashy whore.
But who was I calling a trashy whore? That’d been me one a upon a time, and I’d loved every second of it. So instead, I smiled lightly once more, even though my heart was shattering into a million pieces.
