Page 33 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Friday

“So you’re really divorced?” Rob asked.

I nodded. “It’s official. She finally signed the papers.”

“Here’s to the troll going back into her cave where she belongs.” He tapped his beer against mine.

“Here’s to that.” I took a sip of my beer.

“So why exactly aren’t we in that bar that we passed on Main Street?”

“I’m trying to keep a low profile.” I wasn’t happy about the way Joe had handled everything. But it didn’t mean I wanted to give him more hell than he’d already gotten over this.

“Why? You’ve already been sacked.”

“Technically I resigned. But you saw all the news vans. Everyone wants some salacious story, and I don’t want to give it to them.”

“Then you probably shouldn’t have slept with a student,” Rob said with a laugh. “But this bar is lame. There’s literally a student reading in the corner.”

I looked over to where he was pointing. There was a girl with brown hair staring at a textbook on the table.

She was surrounded by her friends that were talking and laughing.

I couldn’t see her face, but she was completely immersed in whatever she was reading.

I actually don’t think I’d ever seen a student look that into a textbook before.

Another girl had just run over to her table, sliding into the booth next to the girl with brown hair. “Daphne!” she yelled and slammed the girl’s book shut.

“Ah, shit,” I said under my breath.

“What?” Rob asked.

“That girl that just sat down. She’s the one I almost had to get a restraining order against.” What were the odds that Kristen would come to this bar?

Part of the reason I’d skipped the one on Main Street was to avoid her.

“We have to go, unless you want to meet my stalker.” I drained the rest of my beer.

“The one with the book?” Rob asked.

“No, the one that just sat down next to her.”

Rob didn’t say anything, but he stayed seated as I stood up.

“Come on, there’s another bar down the street.” Yes, I knew where every bar was in a five-mile radius from apartment. Because I had fucking issues. But my biggest issue right now was Kristen being at this bar. I didn’t want her to see me. I really shouldn’t have left the apartment.

Still Rob didn’t move.

“Rob.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him off the stool.

“Sorry,” he said and looked over his shoulder once more at the table.

“Don’t tell me you have the hots for my stalker,” I said as I led him out of the bar.

“No.” He didn’t offer anything else. And he suddenly seemed…quiet. Which was something I wasn’t used to him being.

“Well you could have fooled me,” I said as we walked back outside.

“Did you see that girl reading?” he asked.

“The one you were just making fun of?”

“What? I wasn’t making fun of her.”

I just stared at him. “You said the bar was lame because she was reading.”

“That was before I got a good look at her. She was fucking gorgeous.”

I’d never seen him look more serious.

“I think we should go back and you can wingman…”

“Definitely not. She’s clearly friends with my stalker. I can’t wingman in that mess.”

“Yeah. Right.” He looked over his shoulder again.

“You’re acting weird.”

He tried to laugh it off. “Sorry. It’s just been a while since I’ve gotten laid by an American girl.” But he looked over his shoulder again like he only wanted one American girl in particular.

At least he’d gotten his mind off of hitting on Penny. I opened the door to the next bar. We sat down and ordered some stronger drinks.

“So tell me everything I need to know about your new girlfriend,” Rob said. “You said you met before classes started?”

A few girls started whispering down the bar from us, but I ignored them. I figured some people would recognize me. At least none of them were my stalker.

“We bumped into each other at a coffee shop on Main Street. Literally. I hit her with the door as I was walking in and she spilled her coffee all down the front of her shirt and then she fell into my arms.” I smiled, remembering the feeling of touching her for the first time.

“And then you fucked?”

“What?” I laughed. “No. Nothing happened. I noticed she had a backpack. There were tons of students in the coffee shop. I just tried to forget I ever met her.” A miserable attempt.

“Okay…”

“But then she showed up in my class the next day.”

Rob smiled.

“We tiptoed around the line. Subtly flirting in class. And the way she looked at me...” I shook my head. “I couldn’t get her out of my head.”

“Yeah, I know how you get.”

I finished my drink. He didn’t need to elaborate. We both knew what he was talking about. “I really like her, man.”

“I can tell.”

“No, I mean…I really like her. I love her. I think I’m going to propose to her.”

Rob laughed.

“I’m serious.” I already had. But I’d made a mess of it. Penny deserved more than me just begging her in her dorm room while I was pissed off about another man touching her.

He finally stopped laughing. “James, you just got out of one marriage.”

“A sham of a marriage. I could barely tolerate Isabella. It’s been a really long time since I’ve felt like this about someone.

” For just a second I thought about high school, but I shook the thought away.

“No, it’s the only time I’ve ever felt this way.

I know Penny’s young. But I’ve never been more sure about something.

I need everyone to know that she’s mine. ”

A smile slowly spread across Rob’s face as he stared at me. “Okay. How are we gonna do it?” He waved the bartender over for another round.

“You’re not going to do anything. All you’re going to do is stop flirting with her.”

“Well that doesn’t sound fun. How about this. I keep flirting with her. And I carve a hole in the ceiling of your bedroom and put…”

“No.”

“But you didn’t let me finish. We could put rose petals…”

“Absolutely not.” I’d tried my best to stay out of Rob’s pranks since high school.

He tended to go way too far. And this sounded more like a prank than a proposal.

Penny wanted something romantic, but that didn’t mean over the top.

I smiled to myself. I actually couldn’t believe I was sitting here thinking about this right now.

When a year ago I’d been thinking about ending my life.

“Well, what’s your idea?” Rob asked.

“I haven’t decided yet. But maybe I should propose where we first met. Because my life changed the moment I met her.”

“That is the sappiest thing I’ve ever heard. I love it. Tell her exactly that. And I’ll cut a hole in the floor and…”

“No. Definitely not.”

“Boo.” He finished his drink. “We need a picture. To remember this day. When we planned your proposal.”

“When I planned my proposal which you’re not a part of.”

“Nah, what I said.” He grabbed my phone from me and took a selfie of us. At the last second, he flipped the middle finger at the camera, and then he texted the picture to Penny.

“What the hell was that?” I asked with a laugh. “Why did you send her that?”

“To keep her on her toes. I gave her the finger so she won’t expect what we’re planning. It’s the perfect plan within the plan.”

“The plan within the plan.” I nodded. “Oh, before I forget, we’re invited to New York to catch up with Matt and Mason. Mason sent a fancy invitation and everything.”

“To his sex club?”

“No, not to a sex club. It’s just a bar.”

“Boo,” Rob said again as we finished our next round of drinks. “But yeah, I’m in. It’s been forever since I’ve seen either of them.”

“I know. It’ll be good to catch up. Speaking of which…how was Costa Rica?”

“The prison part wasn’t my favorite. But the rest was great. We gotta go there together sometime. Oh! Maybe for your bachelor party. Dude, we need to be celebrating right now!” Rob ordered another round of drinks and this time we cheered to proposals.

Shit, how many drinks was that? I’d been so good recently. I smiled to myself. But tonight wasn’t about being good. And I felt in total control of what I was doing right now. “Wait. We need another plan.”

“A second plan?”

“I need to beat the shit out of someone.”

“Tell me more.” He put his elbow on the bar top and placed his chin in his hand.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “This sick professor made a pass at Penny today.”

“What’s he sick with? Is he dying or something?”

“No,” I said with a laugh. He wasn’t dead. Yet. “I just meant he’s gross. He’s all old and shit and a total perve. I can’t believe he touched her.”

“Oh, well if he’s not sick, let’s beat the shit out of him. I just would have felt weird about it if he was really sick, you know?”

“Yeah.” I probably wouldn’t have wanted to beat his face in if he was dying either. Even if he did deserve it.

“Here’s to pervy professors,” Rob said.

I tapped my glass against his.

He laughed. “We basically toasted to you there. Because you slept with one of your students.”

“Penny’s only seven years younger than me.”

“So when you were seventeen she was ten, bro. That’s sick.”

“But I’m not seventeen and she’s not ten, bro,” I said back.

He laughed. “Shall we?”

“Shall we what?”

“Aren’t we going to go beat up that ill professor?”

“He’s not ill. But yes. Let’s go do that.

” I wasn’t sure what Dr. Clark would think of what I was about to do tonight.

He probably wouldn’t approve. And I knew for sure that Penny wouldn’t approve because she’d told me explicitly not to do this.

But sometimes I was right. And she needed to let me handle something for once.

“Do you know where he lives?”

“No. But Ian can tell us. One sec.” I called Ian. He answered in one ring.

“Where are you right now?” Ian asked. “You forgot to clear your schedule with me again.”

“Sorry, boss,” I said.

Ian laughed. “Are you drunk?”

“No. I’m with Rob.”

“So you are drunk?”

“Maybe?” A little . I’d definitely been drunker. “I need you to find the address of Professor McCarty for me.”

There was a long pause. “Why?”

“He made a pass at Penny. And Rob and I are going to go pay him a visit.”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

“No,” I said. “I think it’s a great idea. Someone needs to teach that asshole a lesson.”

Ian laughed. “How about I come get you? And the three of us can go together.”

Huh. Three was better than two. “Done.” I gave him the name of the bar we were at and hung up. “Ian’s going to help too.”

“Fantastic,” Rob said. “Wait. Or is he just going to try and talk us out of it?”

“Nah, he seemed into it. He likes Penny.”

“But you haven’t let the two of them meet.”

“But he watches. He knows her.”

Rob shook his head. “That’s really fucking weird, man. How do you think Penny’s going to react when she finds out about all that?”

“She’s real kinky. I think she’s going to be into it.”

Rob whistled. “I figured she would be. She had that look, you know? And I mean…she did sleep with her professor.”

“Yeah she did.” I high-fived him.

“Maybe after we go beat up this professor we can go back to that first bar.”

“I don’t think so.”

He groaned. “But I need to talk to that bookworm. All this talk about kinky girls has me all revved up. And you know that girls who read are the kinkiest ones.”

I laughed.

“What? It’s true.”

“I was just thinking about that time in college when you and Matt visited for the weekend. And you made us go to a library to hit on girls instead of the awesome party the Griffin Club was throwing.”

“In my defense, the girl at the library did know about that party. And also in my defense…you didn’t tell me the party would be fun. Or that it was tops optional.”

“It was a fun time.”

Rob smiled. “One of the best.”

Well, until it wasn’t. But it was a lot more fun not to think about the bad times.

“So what exactly are the two of you planning?” Ian asked and slid into the bar stool next to mine.

“There’s this really sick professor we’re going to beat up,” Rob said.

“Wait, he’s sick?” Ian looked at me.

“In the head. He’s not actually ill.”

“Oh. Okay,” Ian said. “So your plan it to go to his house at…” he glanced at his watch “…almost midnight and beat him up?”

“Yup,” Rob said.

“What if he’s sleeping?” Ian asked.

“Then we’ll break through his window and then break his nose.”

“And what if there’s an alarm and the cops show up?”

“We’ll beat them up too,” Rob said.

“Solid plan,” said Ian.

“Right?” Rob smiled.

“No, Rob. I was joking. You’re going to get arrested. You’re both lucky I’m here.” Ian slid back off his stool.

Rob and I both stared at him.

“Aren’t you coming?” he asked. “We have a professor to beat up.”

“You’re not going to talk us out of it?” Rob asked.

“My job is to protect James. That extends to Penny now. And no one messes with her.”

I stood up and clapped him on the back. “Told you he liked her,” I said to Rob.

“Oh I bet he does,” Rob said. “Ian, where exactly can I see this super hot footage that James has been talking about?”

“He deleted it,” I said.

“Yeah.” Ian nodded. “I deleted it.”

Well, that didn’t sound sincere. Now I was a little concerned that Ian hadn’t deleted the footage.

Rob looked back and forth between us. “You’re both so full of shit. Luckily I have the rest of the night to convince Ian to give me whatever hard drive all those video files are on. I wasn’t allowed to flirt with that beautiful bookworm, so you owe me.”

I definitely did not owe him. And especially not that. We were about to go beat someone up for touching Penny. Did he seriously think I was about to let him watch her? That was basically the same thing.

We all climbed into Ian’s new Tesla.

“And you thought my plan was bad?” Rob said and slammed the door closed. “This car is very conspicuous.”

The plan probably was bad. And the car definitely stood out. But there was no way anyone was talking me out of defending Penny.