Page 58 of Billionaire Romance

I sigh. “That doesn’t mean that it’s good.”

“No,” she says with a grim smile, “but easily manageable. I’ll forward everything to you.”

“Thanks.”

My phone buzzes.

Okay. Where am I meeting you?

I don’t respond right away because Bianca is still in my office. Sitting at my desk. “I thought I suggested you go to your own office?”

“But yours has a much better view.”

I roll my eyes and make sure that she sees. “I’d give you an office with a good view if I thought that you would actually come and work every day.”

“Fair enough,” she says, because we both know that that’s not going to happen.

“Do you still own Aurelia’s?”

Bianca frowns. “Yes. Since when do you care about couture?”

I laugh, sitting across from her, and feeling distinctly strange sitting on the wrong side of my office. “Can you make an appointment for noon?”

Her eyes narrow. “Why?”

“I told Sally I would take care of what she was going to wear for the party. She’s free today, and we don’t exactly have a lot of time left.”

A knowing smile creeps across my sister’s face as I glance down at my phone, even though I know she’s not going to send another message yet. “You’re talking to her right now? I think you might be head over heels for her if you’re still texting her. And you went out for drinks. And you’re taking her shopping.”

“I’m not head over heels,” I say, even though there’s a twinge in my chest that tells me that I’m not exactly being honest there. I’m definitely infatuated in a way that I haven’t been since I was a teenager. And I’m not inclined to stop the feeling. I really didn’t think that I would ever think that I would feel this way again. Not after Susan. Not after Dad. “I can’t be. I’m not that kind of guy.”

Not the kind of guy that makes rash decisions and changes the lives of people around him without any regard for their feelings.

“You’re not him, Eric. It’s not even close to being the same thing.”

I hold up a hand. “We’re not talking about that.”

It’s her turn to roll her eyes. “Whatever. But I don’t really care, at least if you like her it’s not like you have to spend time at the party being miserable. Maybe you’ll actually have a good time. Or you’ll be able to pretend like you’re having a good time.”

I stand, pushing aside the discomfort that blooms in my chest. “I have to make some calls and make sure we’re not going to have any more catastrophic delays. You could find something more productive to do than teasing me about a girl you set me up with.”

“My days are always productive,” she says with a grin. “I just think I have a different measure of productivity than you do.” She stops in front of me as I’m going to sit at my desk. “Don’t ignore something that could be good just because you’re afraid of the past, Eric. I want you to take as much time as you need, but there is such a thing as too much time.”

Her voice is soft, sympathetic, and I have to look away. Bianca has always been able to call me out on my shit, and the fact that she’s accusing me of wallowing isn’t something she does lightly. Again, that discomfort rises and I don’t want to think about the fact that she could be right, yet again.

I nod because I’m not sure what else to say.

“I’ll make that appointment for you,” she says.

“Thanks.”

She leaves without fanfare. I’m going to see her tomorrow, and she can probably sense that I’m not in the mood for a long goodbye. Not when she did the equivalent of planting a couple sticks of dynamite in my brain. Because this is true, Sally has been on my mind non-stop, and it’s only been a day. I look over at the window where she looked out of it last night and see a tiny smudge where her nose met the glass.

Everything does feel different, and there’s a part of me that welcomes that relief. The other part of me has seen this before, and isn’t sure that the world turning upside down is a good thing. But what am I going to do? I’m not going to stop. I can’t, because there’s a need to find out where this goes, and it’s running so deep through me that I don’t think I could change course if I tried.

So we’ll see where this leads.

I pick up my phone and text her.

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