Page 185 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

But all anyone would ever see was their coffee.

I would give her the tips I thought she deserved. I had that ability and I would use it.

Brian met me in my office when I finally arrived, fuming, his face red. “Did you go to Italy to get that coffee?”

“There was a long line,” I lied. I handed him his drink. I held up the bag of pretzels. “I got these.”

“Those are definitely going to make this delay okay.”

I shook my head. “Brian, I am in way too good of a mood to let you ruin it. I’m the boss. I can be as late as I want. You know I’ll get it all worked out in the end.”

Brian nibbled on his lower lip and then sighed. “Yeah, sure. I know. You’ve just never been so damn late before. What happened?”

“I told you what happened.”

“Try again, this time with the truth.”

I sighed. “You’re pretty pushy. Okay. I went very far out of my way to get to Effervesce and spent some time talking to that girl behind the counter. The cute one. The line was not long at all.”

“Yeah, I thought that was it.” Brian sipped at his mocha and sighed back at me, in a mock dramatic fashion. “But there’s more.”

“I tipped her a $20 and had to convince her to keep it.”

“Damn! Just handing out money, huh?”

“She deserved it,” I said, defensive. “And then I drove slow coming here. Too busy thinking to focus on the road.”

“Thinking about what?”

I drank some of my coffee, fiddling with the papers on my desk. Something had been nagging at me for quite a bit, ever since I started talking to the coffee girl. “I have this suspicion,” I said. “I don’t know how to phrase it other than that.”

Brian raised his eyebrows at me and motioned for me to continue.

“Her laugh.” I swallowed, hearing it again in my mind. “It reminds me so much of the laugh of the girl at the Halloween party. The princess I was with before she was chased away. Their hair looks pretty similar. And if I imagine the princess without makeup… But the coffee shop girl had glasses on.”

“So she wore contacts for the party.”

I could have slapped myself. I’d forgotten about contacts.

Brian grabbed my shoulder. “You really, really think it’s her?”

“The more I think about it…” I felt dizzy. “The more I really think they’re the same person. And that annoying Suzie girl who works at the coffee shop? She was the one who interrupted me and the princess at the party. And the princess knew her.”

“It’s all circumstantial evidence,” Brian noted. “We need to investigate deeper. We’ll have to keep going to Effervesce to see if we can figure it out.”

I wish I could just ask her.

If only she wasn’t so shy. I didn’t want to scare her away.

Brian cleared his throat. “As much as I’d love to continue talking about this, we do have a meeting that’s long overdue.”

“You’re right. Let’s go.”

With some difficulty, I pushed the girl, my potential Cinderella, to the back of my mind, though she was reluctant to stay there and kept intruding. The meeting adjourned quickly, too quickly. I was too distracted to get anything done.

I couldn’t blame myself, though. I had never felt like this before.

CHAPTER10

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