Page 125 of Forbidden Billionaires, Vol. 9

Friday

I balanced my mini-golf putter between my legs so I could put my hair up.

August was sweltering and every piece of me was sticky.

I could feel the sweat at the base of my neck as I pulled my hair into a ponytail.

Gross. I was going to need to start carrying a roll of paper towels around in my purse.

And I was going to need a bigger purse to accommodate my paper towel needs.

“You’re up!” Kristen called. She and Reggie had challenged J.J. and me to a game of mini golf. Which was a terrible mistake on their part. Between eating too much ice cream, nighttime runs on the beach, and dancing, mini-golf was one of our go-to activities. And we were freaking beasts.

J.J. smiled at me as I walked down to where my ball had landed.

We had found our new normal in the past few weeks.

Normal as in, we were dating and not in love.

Well, J.J. wasn’t in love. I was falling harder and harder and he was…

most certainly not. Our new normal felt like slow torture to me.

It was like Kristen’s big reveal had never happened.

Which would have been fine if it wasn’t all I could think about.

I lined my putter up, trying not to focus on the nearby mini waterfall that was waiting to steal my ball, and took a swing.

Shit. The ball hopped over the hole in the most annoying way possible and ended up farther away from it than it had been a second ago.

J.J. and I both groaned. I stepped to the side so Reggie could take his shot, hoping that he’d miss too.

At least I hadn’t put it into the waterfall.

That would have been embarrassing since I was a pro at this.

“Gotta get your head in the game, Jellyfish Girl,” J.J. said and wrapped his arms around me. “What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing.” The end of summer. What will happen to us?

“I know you too well to accept that lie.” He kissed the side of my forehead as Reggie sunk his shot perfectly.

Damn it. J.J. and I were still winning, but I suddenly wanted to take my putter and throw it into the fake mini lake next to hole 16.

Or the windmill that made it nearly impossible to get a hole in one at hole 17.

Or just whack the fake grass beneath my feet because it was too hot to move.

I was raging on the inside and trying to remain cool, calm, and collected on the outside.

And failing miserably. Especially at the cool part since it was 1,000 bajillions degrees out.

I pulled on the neckline of my tank top, but there was no breeze up here to help.

“Really, is there something bothering you?” he asked.

“I just really want to win.”

“It’s supposed to be a fun game.” He leaned in a little closer to whisper in my ear. “But I agree, let's annihilate them.”

I was relieved to hear a laugh come out of my mouth.

A little exasperated, but a laugh just the same.

And that should have counted for something when my heart felt like it was crumbling into bits.

I was leaving in two weeks. J.J. was standing there saying he knew me too well to know when I was lying.

So couldn’t he tell that the conversation from a few weeks ago had killed me?

I knew that he had issues with long distance relationships, but I’d be less than 3 hours away.

We could see each other every weekend if we wanted to.

And I most certainly did want that. But as summer drew to a close, it felt like we were ending.

Like there was a clock ticking down to the end of our relationship.

And I was pretty sure I was seconds away from having a heart attack.

“My turn again.” I ducked out of his arms and stared at the stupid little ball that I could usually sink so easily.

You are my bitch, ball. You will bend to my will.

I took a deep breath. Go in the hole where you belong.

I squinted at the circular demon and then took my shot.

“Yes!” I raised both of my hands in the air, Rocky statue-esque.

“You’re acting like you two already won,” Reggie said. “We still have two holes left.”

Kristen laughed. “They always do this. They’re both so cocky. A match made in heaven.” She winked at me.

I glanced at J.J. He was staring at the next hole like he was assessing it.

But I was pretty sure he was tuning out Kristen’s analysis of our relationship.

Yet again. I knew I was over analyzing every move he made the past few weeks.

How could I not though? I wanted to believe we’d make it past the end of summer. I needed to believe it.

My phone started buzzing in my pocket. I was grateful for the distraction. The number on the screen wasn’t one of my contacts. But that made sense given that most of my contacts were standing with me right now. I ran my finger across the screen. “Hello?” I said.

“Hello, is this Mila Wilson?”

“Yes, that’s me. Mila. Mila Wilson.” What am I saying?

She already knows my name. I never knew what to say on the phone.

It was like my brain always switched off and made me as awkward as possible.

Normally phone calls made me sweat profusely too but I was already doing that. I wasn’t sure if that was a pro or con.

“Hi, Mila. This is Cindy and I’m calling from the admissions office of the University of New Castle about your tuition.

We’re still waiting on payment. And we can’t hold your seat in the classes you signed up for much longer.

Is there any way you can send payment through by Tuesday?

We can only guarantee to hold your seats until then. ”

I stepped away from my friends. “There must be some mistake. My tuition should have come through the day I got my acceptance letter, or maybe a few days after. Can you check again?”

“Oh that’s great news. Let me look into that for you.”

The silence stretched on too long. I walked to the edge of the miniature golf course. It was on the roof of one of the buildings on the boardwalk. But even the beautiful view of the water didn’t calm my rapid heartbeat. My dad did send in tuition…right?

“I’m sorry,” Cindy said. “We have no record of payment. Do you know if it was sent through our online portal or by mail? It’s possible that the check got lost in the mail.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “That must be it. It must have gotten lost in the mail. Could you give me a few minutes to look into it? I’ll sort everything out and give you a call back.”

“Of course. And you have until Tuesday evening, so no rush. But our office closes at 6:30 tonight.”

“Okay, great, thank you.” I wasn’t really thankful though. They’d probably messed something up on their end. People these days.

“Have a nice evening,” she said, and the line went dead.

Kristen jogged over to me. “We’re holding people up.” She gestured to the agitated family that had been behind us the whole time. They didn’t understand the art of mini-golf. “What’s going on?”

“There’s some issue with my tuition.” I pressed on my dad’s cell number and pulled the phone to my ear. “Tell J.J. to take my shot for me, okay?”

She nodded and left me alone.

My dad’s phone went straight to voicemail.

Son of a bitch. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to Nancy.

But I didn’t really see a way around it.

I wasn’t waiting to figure this out on his time, especially if this was somehow his fault.

The knot in my stomach was leaning toward him being the problem, not the admissions office.

I hung up the phone and dialed their house number.

After a few rings Nancy answered. “Hello? Wilson residence,” she said.

“Hi, Nancy. It’s Mila. Is my dad there? I really need to speak to him.”

“Oh.” She sighed like my existence tired her. “Dale asked you not to use this number, Mila. Call his cell. Bye.”

“Nancy! Wait! He didn’t answer. I tried to call his cell phone first.”

“That’s because we’re on our way out. We were just heading to dinner with our girls. Can’t this wait?”

Our girls. Fuck you too. “I just need to talk to him for a minute. I won’t keep him.” I never do.

“Fine. You can talk to him for exactly one minute. But we have reservations. So don’t dawdle.”

I never dawdled on the phone with my dad. These conversations were as painful for me as they were for her. Regardless, I could picture her pulling out some fancy gold pocket watch and timing the conversation.

“He’s a very busy man,” she added.

“Can you please just put him on the phone?” I didn’t mean to snap, but God she had a way of crawling under my skin. Like she was my father’s keeper. And her perfect new family couldn’t mingle with scum like me.

“I will not have you speak to me like that. Dale!” she called.

Her words were muffled as she held the phone away from her mouth, but I could still make out what she was saying.

“Dale! It’s your other child. And you should have heard how she spoke to me.

I won’t tolerate this for another second.

You need to figure out a way to make this stop. ”

Tears bit the corners of my eyes. I knew they were trying to punt me out of their lives. That was very clear from my last conversation with my father. But hearing it out loud? It still stung. I wasn’t a menace that needed to be stopped. They were in the wrong here, not me.

“Mila, what did you say to Nancy?” My father sounded madder than I’d ever heard him.

“Nothing. Dad, I…”

“You will not disrespect my wife. Do you understand me? You have no business speaking ill words to my family.”