Page 10 of Trainer

“I promise,” I repeated. “As a matter of fact, you’re the only girl I’ve ever brought here.”

“Promise?” she asked again.

I nodded and brushed a strand of hair from her face.

“Promise.”

The elevator came to a halt and I heard the sound of heavy bass thumping and wondered for a second if I’d left the music on when I left this morning, but when the elevator doors dinged open and I turned around, I realized that it was something far worse.

A horde of topless girls cheered and leapt into the air when they saw me. Three blondes with huge fake boobs blew kazoos and two brunettes tossed confetti all over me. Cady got hit with the collateral damage and recoiled against the back wall.

“There he is!”

I heard the voice and knew before I saw her; it was Melinda, my COO. She trotted out from between the throng of cheering, half-naked girls, wearing a huge party hat on her head and waving her arms in the air like a sorority girl.

My heart sank and I quickly turned around to face Cady, who looked like someone had just told her her mom had died.

“Cady—”

“I—I have to go,” she said, quickly thumbing the button for the lobby.

“No, wait!” I protested. “This wasn’t my idea!”

I tried to go to her but Melinda snatched me by the wrist and pulled me out of the elevator and into the arms of countless half-naked women.

“It’s fine,” Cady replied as the doors began to close. “You don’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not just for me.”

“Cady!” I shouted, trying to make my voice heard over the girls’ chatter. “Cady, wait!”

But it was too late. The last thing I saw before the elevator doors closed was a single tear falling from Cady’s eye.

Chapter Five

Cady

You’re so stupid…

My stomach sank and it wasn’t from the elevator going down. I wiped the tear from my cheek, feeling like the most gullible girl in the whole world.

What were you thinking?

Of course Chase Brenton, New York City’s most eligible bachelor, wasn’t interested in me, some random college girl from a non-wealthy family who was just trying to work her way through school giving tennis lessons.

Of course he’d have a whole harem of women waiting for him at his apartment. Had he just forgotten all about them or something? Or had he meant to bring me to his other apartment and gotten mixed up?

Or his other-other apartment?

It didn’t matter. All that mattered now was me getting the hell out of here and back home. I had an Uber ordered before the elevator even made it to the garage.

The doors dinged and I made my way up the exit ramp, but the door was closed and I didn’t see a side door for pedestrians. I waved my hand at the little car sensor but nothing happened.

I was trapped.

“Oh, come on!” I shouted as I spun around and looked for another exit. Of course this had to be some insanely expensive building with wild security. There was a booth with glass at the far end of the garage, and I made my way towards it hoping to find someone who could let me out, but as I did, I saw the elevator was back on its way down.

Chase…

“No, no, no, no,” I hissed as I hurried to the booth to find a bored-looking security guard on his phone. “Can you let me out please!”

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