Page 158 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

“Hey!” He looked alarmed. “I was only joking with you. I’m sorry. I pushed your buttons.”

The brief flare of anger died out and I flopped back in my chair again. “No, I’m the one who should be sorry. This is why we work so well together, since our minds are so different. I do value your thoughts, Brian. I think I’m just having a midlife crisis.” I rubbed my eyes hard with the heels of my hands. “I just wish that I had someone to go home to every evening. Maybe you’re okay with being alone and that’s fine for you, but the more time I spend alone, the more I get tired of it.”

Brian listened, his head tilted, his dark eyes locked on me, his boss, his employer, his friend.

I opened my eyes, my vision blurry from pushing my hands so hard against them. “I’m happy that I can do what I can for entire communities. I only wish I had someone to share my life with. Someone I could talk to and spoil with my money, and laugh and cry with.”

“So, you want… me?” Brian said.

I knew he was teasing me and rolled my eyes. “A woman, Brian.”

“But if I was a woman?”

I had to laugh. “Not even if you were a woman. You wouldn’t be my type.”

He chuckled. “Somewhere, in an alternate universe…”

I put down my cup of coffee, which had gone lukewarm at this point. I turned to him and frowned with as much severity as I could manage. “Is this what you do in your spare time? Write AU fanfiction about us?”

“The fact that you know what AU fanfiction is tells me you need to get out more.”

“I agree.” I grimaced. “It’s difficult, though. Making a name for myself means that too many people know me. It would be way too difficult to figure out what someone’s intentions are.”

“Hmm. If only there was a way for you to meet someone while not being yourself.”

“I don’t think committing identity theft is a viable option here.”

“Snap.” Brian snapped his fingers.

I picked up my laptop and tapped the screen to wake it up, and typed in my password. My email account jumped onto the screen, flooded with messages I needed to read and reply to. The sheer volume of the work filled me with a sort of dread, even though I really did love my job.

“Hold on,” Brian muttered. He got up and went back inside.

I figured he had just gotten a call and turned back to my computer. I opened up the most recent email and started reading, though it proved difficult. The words fluttered around in my vision like the seagulls out there riding the ocean winds, bobbing and spiraling in a messy swarm.

Brian returned a few seconds later, slamming the door shut.

“I think I’m onto something,” he announced.

“What?” Frowning, I swiveled around in my chair just in time for him to shove a very colorful piece of paper in my face. I leaned back and swatted at the page, trying to knock it out of his hand. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Careful,” he scolded, clutching the paper tighter, denting the surface with his fingers. “I picked this up earlier and now I’m glad I did. Look at it.”

I took the piece of paper and scanned it, recognizing it for what it was right away. It was a flyer announcing a Halloween party at a community center next weekend. I looked up at stared blankly at Brian. “So?”

“So, this is a Halloween party! Costumes! Geez, don’t you get it?” Brian gestured emphatically at the flyer in my hand, smacking the paper, which made little snapping sounds, like a miniature boat sail. “At a Halloween party, you and everyone else can be in costume. You won’t be strictly you. No one will be able to instantly judge you, or try to suck up to you.”

“Someone would still recognize me,” I pointed out, trying to ignore the treacherous niggling of hope in the pit of my gut.

“Would they?” Brian grinned and started pacing. “No one would be expecting you! No one would be looking out for you, thinking they might spot Carter Bryant at this random party. And if someone did eventually recognize you, maybe by that point you would have already gotten what you came for.”

I hesitated.

“I know it’s not a perfect plan, but it’s better than anything else you’ve got right now.”

“Not hard, when I don’t have any other plans.”

“Well then?”

---