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I needed to instantly revamp my reputation to become someone trustworthy who turned over a new leaf. I needed to spin this in a way that would appeal to the romantic singles at home, sort of like a bad boy gone good story.
I grinned as it all formulated in my mind, smiling as I relaxed into the chair. God, I was a fucking genius. This could all work in my favor. But I just needed the right person to make it work.
I already began formulating an image in my mind.
What I needed now was a love interest.
The perfect woman to be the object of my affection.
She couldn’t be too beautiful so as not to inspire jealousy in the viewers, so that ruled out all the supermodels and actresses I’d dated over the years. I’d also prefer if she weren’t someone I had dated before, actually, seeing as how there might still be feelings involved on their end.
It needed to be someone who definitely wouldn’t fall in love with me, someone who wouldn’t expect more from this arrangement. Because eventually, when I had to break her heart, she would go around spilling the beans to everyone she knew, and I couldn’t fucking have that.
That double ruled out every woman I’d ever dated since, at one point or another, they all caught feelings.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing. It was my private phone, not my work phone. Usually, I wouldn’t answer it during the day, but the caller ID showed my aunt’s handle.
She was the only one in the world I would have stopped working to answer.
I took the phone and swiped to answer. “Hi, Aunt Ingrid,” I said.
“What’s this I hear about you slutting around Fairfax?”
Great. Even she’d heard. This was getting truly vexing.
“It’s nothing,” I said. “Just a few people who aren’t very happy with me.”
“I can see that.”
“Most of it is lies, Ingrid,” I said. Ingrid knew about some of my “female problems” over the years and had always encouraged me to give up my flighty ways. Right now, she was silent, a sure sign that she didn’t buy my bullshit. She was the only woman in the world who didn’t.
And yet she loved me anyway.
“I want you to be happy,” she continued, her voice sounding quieter, sadder. “I don’t want you to continue living like this, running from girl to girl and ruining their lives in the process. I want you to settle down and have a family like your parents.”
The mention of my parents set a familiar discomfort in my chest.
“I have a lot of work to do, Aunt Ingrid,” I said, trying to keep the tension out of my voice. I didn’t want to take it out on her. I knew she meant well, but at this exact moment, my good mood was completely and irrevocably ruined.
Ingrid sighed deeply. “Will you be coming for dinner?”
“Not tonight,” I told her. “I have dinner with a few of the stakeholders. But I’ll come over this weekend.”
“Okay,” she said softly. “I’ll make apple pie. Your favorite.”
“I look forward to it. Bye.” I hung up quickly, now fully annoyed. This situation has grown into more than an inconvenience. But luckily, I already figured out the solution. I just needed to find the perfect woman for the job.
* * *
The next day,I came to work, my mind already occupied by all the things I had to do. Hannah came in on clockwork as usual and gave me the entire run down for the day, including letting me know that Lisa was here and had already been shown to her office.
“Perfect,” I said. “Send her in to see me.”
“Yes, sir,” Hannah said as she walked off to do exactly that. I wasn’t sure why I was calling Lisa to my office. I didn’t have anything to say to her. Only that, for some reason, I was curious to see which side of her I would get today. Would I get the mouse again? Or the snarling tigress?
The knock on the door was too tentative to be Hannah, so I knew it must be Lisa. I let it go for three rounds, feeling her anxiety rise as each round of knocks got bolder. She was anxious but not afraid. I liked that.
I was good at reading people and had learned to do it while attending prep school with a bunch of rich assholes who tore each other’s throats out at the slightest hint of weakness. My keen perception was what kept me ahead of all their antics and what kept me smarter than them, better than them.
