Page 10 of Rich Girl
I take a few moments to stare at the closed laptop that’s sitting on my table. Temptation is just too much, and I reach for it. I pull my hand back when I hear Janine screaming from my bedroom.
Worried that she is hurt, I rush to check on her. I find her in the doorway to the closet, cell phone in hand, eyes blazing fire.
“Are you okay?”
She looks like smoke is about to come out of her ears.
“I can’t go out,” she pouts. “My father summoned me to the house.”
“Oh.”
Relief and gratitude flood my system in an instant. That is followed by guilt that not only am I hiding something from my friend, but I am grateful for her having to leave.
“How about we tear up the town tomorrow night?”
Jeanine’s suggestion does not leave room for saying no. I smile and nod, and give her what she wants.
“That’d be great! And,” I chuckle, “it feels funny to say, but I am a little tired tonight, so I don’t mind staying in for the night.”
Her eyes widen in surprise. “Tired? Oh my gosh, is it because you’re in your mid-twenties now?”
I almost burst into laughter when I realize that she is serious.
“I’m only twenty-five,” I protest. “And you’re only a year younger.”
She continues staring at me, worry evident on her face.
“Yeah, well, that year might as well be ten if you’re telling me you’re too tired to go party.”
We walk back to the living room where she puts her heels back on and grabs her large purse.
“I’d say that I’ll call you after I’m done talking to my father, and we can go out then. But I don’t want to wake you up, grandma,” she jokes.
By the time we walk over to my front door, I am exhausted from all the smiling and faking that I am doing. I just want her to leave already so I can get to my laptop.
Once the door closes behind her, I slam it shut and close my eyes in gratitude.
“Thank you, God,” I mumble before taking off in a run.
I grab my laptop and get comfortable on the couch. Time to find out more about the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. I am delighted to see that his picture is showing in the browser when I log back in. I most likely would’ve cried had I lost him, because Jeanine never even gave me a chance to see his name.
My fingers tremble as I hover them over the mouse before I finally click on his bio. It takes a second for the page to load, and I can’t stand the tension. I drop my face in my hands, scared to even look. Like a small child, I peek through my fingers when it’s finally up. My face stretches into the widest grin. I am positive that I look like a deranged person right now.
“Ray Parker,” I whisper his name out loud when I am able to focus my eyes on the words.
As I read through his stats, my eyes keep on glancing to his picture, unable to stay away from his perfect features. Whoever came up with the saying that the eyes are the window into one’s soul, they had to have known Ray Parker. They are deep pools of the bluest water. People pay good money for contacts that are this color.
The more I read his description on the app, the more I like him. I want to take him to Adelaide’s wedding, but I also want to get to know him better.
My stomach is a complete mess as I try to come up with a plan. I’m not sure what the deal is. Not like this would be the first time I pursued a guy I liked. But this is the first time I became instantly infatuated with someone just from seeing their picture.
“He could be a psychopath,” I mumble in the empty room in an attempt to calm myself down.
On a whim, I open a new page in my browser and type inRay Parker in New York. The results are overwhelming. There are so many people with that name in that state, I don’t even have the patience to scroll through the first couple of pages, let alone the hundreds that popped up.
“It figures that I want to find a man who has the most common name in history.”
I grab the protein shake off the table and start slurping on it as I mull things over. The fact that he lives in New York and I am in Massachusetts should not be this big of a deal. After all, I do have all the money I want. I can afford to fly there or fly him out here.
