Page 53 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

I didn’t really care about that. I was fixated on the fact that she said enjoy the rest of my terrible life without her. I thought her parting gift was leaking all that fake shit to the news. But if she was telling me goodbye now? I’d take it.

Isabella was officially out of my life.

But she’d sure fucked up a bunch of stuff before leaving.

“I can’t believe that after all these years, Isabella still doesn’t think I’m funny.” Rob shrugged. “What a troll.”

She knew what would hurt Rob’s feelings.

She knew one of my friends saying they were going to bang Penny would make me furious.

She knew Mason was struggling with his parents and feeling insecure.

And Matt…she knew how to rip his heart out.

And pinning it all on each other? Evil genius.

She was definitely off her meds. But she wasn’t my problem anymore.

Hopefully her father would get her the help she needed.

I just wanted to pretend the last few years with her had never happened.

I was done punishing myself. And no one deserved living with Isabella as a punishment.

“Well, at least her retaliation is done,” I said. I’d been a little worried about being back in the same city as Isabella. It was good to get whatever that was out of the way.

“It does seem like that’s the end of it,” Ian said.

Rob nodded. “She’ll surely find someone else to sink her claws into.”

Yeah. Hopefully. I felt bad for whoever her next victim was.

“Well that was another eventful evening,” Ian said. “I think I’m going to cut out early.”

“Good night, Ian.”

As soon as he left, Rob shook his head. “I bet he’s going to go bang our sister.”

“Would you stop it? Ian’s not sleeping with Jen.”

Rob shrugged. “If you say so.”

Penny’s footsteps on the stairs made me look up.

She’d changed out of her sexy red dress and into a tank top and a pair of yoga pants.

She looked great. Especially because she was smiling now.

But I would have rather peeled that red dress off her.

I guess getting into a fight with my friends and not listening to her meant no sexy red dress.

She handed Rob and me our phones back and then plopped down onto the couch between us.

“Why do you look so happy?” I asked.

“No reason.”

I stared at her.

“I get to pick the movie tonight, right? Because you two were both terrible?”

Rob groaned. “Not another rom-com. I’m all rom-commed out, Penny.”

“Then next time don’t punch your friend in the nose when he’s clearly upset about his parents.” She grabbed the remote and selected exactly what Rob didn’t want.

He groaned again.

I spaced out during the beginning of the movie, trying to think of how I could possibly apologize to Matt and Mason.

Yeah, I didn’t send those notes. But we were all upset because clearly we believed we’d say this fucked up shit to each other.

And I wasn’t sure how we were going to move past it when we were all still fucked up from high school.

First I needed to fix things with Penny though. Despite what Rob said about the movie, he was totally engrossed.

“Come with me,” I whispered in Penny’s ear. “I need to show you something real quick.” I grabbed her hand before she could protest, and led her up the stairs to our room.

“I got you something. Well, a few somethings.”

“James. I told you to stop buying me things.”

“These barely cost anything.” I pulled out a box from under the bed and set it on the covers. “And one of them I didn’t even buy.” I opened my wallet and handed her a black Amex card with her name on it.

She stared at the card and then back at me. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

I laughed. “Buy whatever you want.”

“I don’t need anything.”

“Well, we need to decorate our new apartment.”

“Which we’re going to do together.” She tried to hand me the card back.

But I refused to take it.

“James, I don’t want a credit card.”

“But I want you to have it.”

“You know…it is so tempting to go buy like…a big couch from Macy’s or something to teach you a lesson.”

“A couch, huh? From Macy’s? That $1,000 will really set me back.”

She shook her head.

“You can’t even think of something more expensive than a couch, can you?”

“Well luckily for you I’m not an asshole that wants to spend all your money.”

“One of the many reasons why I love you.”

Her cheeks flushed. “I’m not going to use the card.”

“Better to have it just in case. Now open the box.”

She lifted the lid to the box and smiled. “You framed it.” She grabbed the picture of me and Rob from the bar the other night. I had no idea why she wanted a framed photo where Rob was giving her the finger. But she’d asked for it, and she seemed very pleased.

“Penny?”

She looked up at me.

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you tonight when you told me to stop. It won’t happen again. And just for the record…you know me better than anyone else.”

“Thanks, James.” She held the picture to her chest. “That means a lot to me.”

“And I like to think I know you better than anyone else. I know you had a lot of these on your bed back home.” I gestured back to the box. “I know you can snuggle up to me now, but I wanted you to feel at home here too. With me.”

She picked up the stuffed teddy bear. “You bought me a stuffed animal? So I’d feel at home in New York?”

I nodded.

She threw her arms around me.

I laughed and caught her before she knocked us both over.

“That is the sweetest thing, James.” She smiled up at me. “I was worried about being homesick. But honestly? I haven’t been at all. I love it here with you. Really, James. You’re all I need.”

I knew what she meant. She was home to me too.

“One moment you’re hitting your friends and the next minute you’re buying me a stuffed animal? Our life it going to be quite the rollercoaster, isn’t it?”

I had a feeling that everything was going to be okay from here on out.

Isabella was out of our lives. I’d figure out some way to make this all up to my friends.

And most importantly…I had Penny. I pressed my lips against hers.

Now I just needed to convince her to put her red dress back on so I could tear it off her with my teeth.