Page 7 of The Billionaire Mismatch

“And it went great. The food was good, the date was fun. I mean, as fun as it could be, considering he is kind of a grump.”

Grumpy, oh God.

Piece of advice. A little freebie. Forget the romance tropes. They’re fun to read, but they never work out for the benefit of the FMC in real life. Not enemies to lovers, not friends to lovers, never just one bed, and definitely not grumpy to sunshine. Say it with me–opposites do not attract.

“So the waiter asked if we wanted another round,” she goes on. “And he said, no.”

“Okay…”

“I assumed he was just ready to get out of there, you know what I mean?” she asks. “Turns out he was just ready to get out of there period. He walked me to my car, and I told him to call me, and he left. No kiss, no nothing. So I came here.”

“Okay. Well, that’s not the worst-case scenario,” I say. “Maybe he just wasn’t sure how far to let things go. You know, since you work for him.”

“That’s not the end of the story,” she says, and I stop. “He did call me.”

“Already?” I ask. This is a plot twist I was not expecting. “To ask you out again?”

“No. To fire me.”

“What?” I nearly choke.

“He fired me,” she says, and my jaw hits the bar top.

“For what reason?” I demand.

People are staring again, but now it’s at me. But I don’t really care. This is crazy.

“He said I had the wrong idea about our professional relationship, and it was making things messy and inappropriate. And he fired me.”

“He can’t do that,” I say. “Can he?”

“He did,” she says, reaching for her wineglass again.

Meanwhile, I grab the bottle and refill mine nearly to the brim. Fuck it, we’ll take an Uber.

“I can’t believe it,” she sighs shakily, but I just spit out a laugh.

“I can. He’s the CEO of a dating app. If I had to guess, he’s a total fuckboy. Thinks he runs the romance world and meanwhile, he’s the king of ghosts. No. The king of catfish.”

This is my cue to intervene. I am reeling. No pun intended. Because this is what my podcast is all about. People putting themselves out there only to get hurt. Only to not understand what they did wrong. It’s one thing to lead a person on and then ghost them. It’s another to lead them on and fire them. This is a step too far. And considering Sadie has been my friend since high school, it just got personal.

“You know what?” she asks. “Fuck it. Fuck him. I’m over him. I hated that job anyway.”

“You loved that job,” I say, and she shrugs. “But yes. Fuck him. And you know what? You dodged a bullet. Not entirely, I mean it’s a flesh wound for sure. But he showed you his true colors almost immediately. That’s better than finding how he’s an asshole weeks or even months down the line. Leave the hurt feelings in the dust and move onto anger. Anger drives you towards healing, as long as you don’t dwell in it for too long, of course.”

Sadie sighs again. “I am so done with dating apps. And men. And men on dating apps. I can finally see why you hate them so much. It’s such a scam. That all men like him are. Scammers. They deserve to be alone the rest of their lives.”

“They deserve revenge,” I mutter as I take a sip of my wine.

Then I stop, frozen with my glass pressed to my lips.

Slowly, my mouth creeps into a smirk, and at the same time, an idea creeps into my head.

“Catfish…” I say.

“What?” Sadie asks.

“He’s a catfish. Acting like he’s one thing and then it turns out he’s something else entirely.”