Page 56 of Rich Girl
“I thought we deserved a nice dinner together,” she shrugs, a faint smile showing on her perfectly made-up lips.
She walks around me and stops in front of the table set for two. There are two fancy silver domes taking most of the space on the flat surface. I frown in confusion at that because I know for a fact that I don’t own anything like that.
“I had it delivered from the restaurant,” she tells me in a quiet tone. Her eyes search mine, looking for a reaction, worried about what it might be.
I smile in what I hope is reassurance. “This looks impressive, Hayden. Where did the domes come from?”
Suddenly, she looks nervous.
“Oh, they, uh, the restaurant, uh, t-they provided them so that the food would stay at the perfect temperature.”
She picks them up only to reveal the fanciest food arrangement I’ve ever seen. Even with the millions I’ve made over the years, I never wanted to waste my money on going to restaurants like that.
“Wow, the steak looks like a million bucks, Hayden. This is amazing. Where did you order it from?”
She swallows hard and runs her hands over her dress.
“Fleming’s Steak House.”
It takes me a second to process and understand what she just said.
“Fleming’sis over an hour away,” I finally say. “They delivered here?”
Hayden shrugs. “I knew you’d be tired from work. I wanted us to have a nice meal, but I didn’t want you to have to go out again this late at night.”
Her statement makes me laugh only because, from what I read about her online, she loves the nightlife, and she would have no problem going out this late.
“The place is like a hundred dollars a plate, Hayden…”
“Three hundred,” she interrupts me.
I blink at her. “You paid three hundred dollarsa platefor us to eat this?”
“Like I said, I wanted us to have a nice meal together.”
I shake my head at her, worried about how blasé she sounds about it all. Money is obviously no object.
“Evie must be paying you really well,” I tease her. “I didn’t know the flower business was this profitable. I might invest in it.”
Hayden remains standing in front of me, like a statue, her eyes going back and forth in rapid movement.
“Evie hasn’t paid me yet.”
I decide to bait her one last time. “You used your savings to buy us steaks?”
“No savings,” she whispers. “I just paid for it.”
“Just like that?” I press her.
“Yes.”
“How Hayden?”
SEVENTEEN
I feellike I am about to confess to a murder. My hands are clammy and sweat runs down my back. Ray is staring at me, waiting for my answer that doesn’t come.
I want to tell him everything, but I’m scared. I don’t even know why I am scared. As a rule, I’ve always been a very confident person. If one of my friends came to me with a similar situation, I’d laugh and ask them what the big deal was.
