Page 22 of The Billionaire Mismatch

“And how do you plan to do that?” he asks, hanging on my words. “Call her out on her shit? Publicly defame her?”

“No,” I say. My eyes flash up to him and my lips tick in the corners. “I’m going to ask her out on a second date.”

Chapter 7

Olivia

I’min the middle of curling my hair when the front door of my apartment flies open and slams shut. I jump, nearly burning myself.

“Hello?” I call out. Meanwhile, my heart is slamming in my chest hard enough to break my ribcage.

Nothing.

It’s 7am. Who breaks into a house at 7am? The sun is out. The birds are singing. I’m being crazy and hearing things.

A crash comes from down the hallway, followed by someone shouting, “Shit!”

There is someone in my house. Maybe it’s a burglar with bad night vision who prefers to do his work during regular business hours. No buts about it, there is someone in my house.

Armed with only a curling iron (though a very hot one, by the way) I make my way down the hallway.

“I’m armed,” I call out. “And I have a dog.”

Somewhere? Where is my trusty guard dog when I need her?

“Vivien Leigh is asleep on the couch,” the voice calls.

Damnit Vivien. Wait.

It hits me. I know that voice.

“Sadie?” I ask as she comes flying around the corner.

“Of course. Who else would it be? Wait, were you going to hit me with a curling iron?” she asks.

“It’s still hot,” I say as I lower it. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, you’re not answering your phone,” she says. “And you’ve told me nothing about your date.”

“I got in late,” I say and immediately bite my tongue. Sadie’s eyebrows raise and I turn and walk back to the bathroom to plug my curling iron back in.

“That’s it?” she asks, hot on my heels. “You got in late?” Then she grabs the curling iron from me. “Here, let me help.”

“I was going to call you, I promise,” I say. “And tell you everything.”

“Well, I’m here now,” she says, tugging pieces of my hair to curl them. “Now spill it. Did you break his heart?”

I laugh at that. “Not exactly,” I say.

“Why the hell not?” She asks, looking at me in the mirror.

“Because it was a first date. No one is invested enough on a first date to put their heart into it. Kind of makes it hard to break it,” I say.

“But you led him on, right?” she asks. “Come on, Olivia! The man treated me like crap. I need to know everything that happened!”

As Sadie continues to curl my hair for me, I think about that. It’s kind of funny. I can’t imagine Luca being the way Sadie describes. He might be a little cocky. Kind of grumpy, sure. But the date checked all the boxes for a decent first date.

“Olivia?” Sadie begs.