Page 24 of Must Be Love - Irresistible Bachelors

“Told you I would kick your ass,” Mike brags as the lane resets for the next game. We always play three, which is the normal amount for tournaments or leagues to play.

“I was just warming up.”

“Sure,” he scoffs. “Seems like your head is somewhere else. What’s on your mind? Work stuff?”

“Yeah,” I lie. “I’m just thinking about Blake Cosmeceuticals.”

“I’m jealous. How’s that going? I keep seeing your products when I pick up Mom’s prescriptions, so it must be doing well.”

“It’s going great. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on the stuff we’ve unveiled over the last year.”

“That’s good. I’m glad you’re succeeding. Then again, I knew you would.”

I laugh. For all our competitions, we’re also each other’s biggest supporters. It’s good to have a friend like Mike around when I need an ego boost. Or when I need to be taken down a peg.

“Thanks, Mike.”

“What do you have in the pipeline? Any new products coming out for the holidays?”

“We launched a new cream last month to tide us over for the holidays. We’re going to do a bigger product launch next year, but testing is taking longer than we originally anticipated.”

“What are you putting out?”

“So far, we have a cream, a serum, and a sunblock that I think will be ready to launch in the spring of next year. We have a couple other products in development, but I don’t think they’ll be approved before our next unveiling.”

“That sounds awesome,” Mike says. “The sunblock is a good idea. People in general, but women specifically, are being careful about their skin these days. I bet the sunblock is going to be a best seller, as long as it’s not chalky or thick.”

“We’ve worked hard on the formula to make it imperceptible to human touch. You won’t even know you’re wearing it.”

Mike smiles. “Damn. I need to get me some of that.”

“I’ll get you a bottle. And samples for your practice if you want.”

“You know I never turn down free samples. Get me some of the cream…and the serum, too, if you can. I’ll try to push them on patients when I think it’ll help.”

“Thanks, man. I think the serum is going to be a big hit.”

He scrunches his brow. “Even more than the sunblock?”

I nod. “Yeah, I’ve got a secret ingredient that I think will be a game changer.”

“Really? What is it?”

“Please. As if I’d tell you.”

He picks up his ball to take the first shot in our second game.

“What if I guess?”

“Sure, you can try to guess.”

The game is futile. There’s no way in hell Mike would ever guess the actual secret ingredient.

Mike bowls a strike for his first turn. When he comes back, he guesses, “Rose hips?”

I shake my head. “Not even close.”

I take my turn and get a strike, too. I knew I just needed to warm up a bit. My first game is always my worst.

“Tea tree oil?”

I scoff. “Seriously? You think my secret ingredient would be something everyone is already using?”

He shrugs. “I’m just covering my bases.”

Mike takes his second turn. This time, he ends up with a six spare. His next guess is jojoba, which is clearly wrong as well.

“It’s nothing so mundane,” I tell him. “You can find all that stuff in any drugstore. I needed my product to stand out. This ingredient is unique.”

We keep going like this throughout the entire game. Mike tries to guess my secret ingredient, and I tell him how wrong he is.

After the tenth frame, he makes his final guess. “CBD oil?”

“Not in the serum, but I did use that in the lotion. And it’s just as good as people are saying. I think I’ll be making a whole line of CBD products.”

“But that’s not your secret ingredient.”

“No, it’s not.”

“And you’re not going to tell me what is?”

“Nope.”

Mike laughs. “Whatever, man. I’ll find out when the samples are ready.”

“And not a moment sooner.”

“Fine, I’ll take it. I have to admit, I’m a bit suspicious, though. It’s nothing illegal, right?”

“Not illegal.”

At least, I don’t think it is. To be honest, I didn’t put a lot of thought into the ingredient before I used it. I was frustrated that the first eight iterations of AJB were failures. They worked fine, but they were nothing spectacular. No consumer would have picked my product over any of the others on the market based on the results.

I needed something dynamic. That’s why I created this formula.

So I’m fairly sure it’s legal, but I’ll have to talk to my lawyers to be completely sure. I won’t do that until I’ve finished the trials, though. If the product hits a stand still, legality won’t matter.

Right now, I’m feeling optimistic. My appointment with Amber last week went well, even before I ate her out. Her skin is clearly improving. I only have my own memory of her face from before she started using the serum to go on, but I could see a difference.

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