Page 92 of Forbidden Billionaires, Vol. 9

Friday

My alarm went off and I groaned. It couldn’t possibly be time to wake up.

I touched my forehead where I had a pounding headache.

People who just got hit by a ton of bricks in the face shouldn’t have to wake up in the morning.

It was only fair. But the beeping was relentless despite how unfair it was.

I reached out to silence my phone. When the alarm stopped, I was about to let go of my phone when everything came back to me in a rush.

I would have thrown my phone across the room, but my screen was already cracked.

I was lucky it even worked. Instead, I slammed it against my pillow and tried not to start crying all over again.

Why of all people did I call the devil himself?

Being embarrassed and drunk shouldn’t have made me need to hear his voice.

But it was hard being so close to him for years and then getting cut out of his life.

I was used to going to him when I was upset.

It was a normal reaction, even if it was an accident.

I never needed to hear his stupid voice again. Ever.

I closed my eyes and pulled the covers over my head.

Luckily Aiden hadn't answered. But I remembered leaving a long, awkward message. I’d asked him why he called things off.

I’d told him I was across the country and no matter how far away I was, it still hurt.

I was pathetic. It would have been better if I’d stayed at the bar and gotten made fun of to my face for the rest of the evening.

At least then I wouldn’t have called my ex in a fit of despair.

My alarm started going off again. I’d hit the snooze button by mistake. Because there was no way in hell I was going to work today. Elephants were stampeding in my head and my soul hurt. I turned off the annoying beeping again.

“What are you doing?” Kristen asked with a yawn. “You’re going to be late for work.”

“I’m not going.” At first I thought she didn’t hear me because I was hiding underneath my blankets.

“You have to go to work.”

“No.” I felt the bed sag beside me.

“Did something happen last night?” she asked.

“No.”

“Mila.”

“Kristen.”

She laughed and pulled my sheet down from my face. Her smile disappeared, probably because I looked like I’d been crying half the night and was about to burst into tears again.

“Jesus, what happened to you?”

If she kept looking at me with so much sympathy I really would cry. “Nothing.”

“Clearly it’s not nothing. What did the hot lifeguard do to you? Was it the anal thing we talked about? Because you’re really supposed to work up to that slowly…”

I tried to pull the blankets back over my head but she grabbed them and held them down.

“So…not that. You have to tell me what happened. I know what he looks like now. Want me to go kill him?”

“No. He’s just a stupid boy, if you kill him you might as well kill the rest of them too. And I don’t want you to go to prison for killing half the population. I need you.”

She smiled. “Will you at least tell me what happened?”

I sat up, wiping beneath my eyes. I was pretty sure I’d collapsed in bed right after sitting on the beach last night.

My sheets felt sandy. And my hands were blackened by running mascara.

“It was stupid. I thought that maybe it was a date, but I’m pretty sure he just brought me there to make fun of me with his friends. They called me Stalker Girl.”

“Mila, I hate to break it to you, but you were stalking him.”

“I was not stalking him!”

“You go to the beach the exact same time on Tuesdays and Thursdays specifically to watch him. That’s what stalking is.”

“Stalking is when you sit in a tree outside someone’s window with binoculars and watch them change.”

“No…that’s a peeping Tom. Please tell me you don’t do that too.”

“Of course I don’t! Because I’m not stalking him.”

Kristen shrugged. “So the date was a bust. You gotta shake it off.” She pushed my shoulder like she could shake it out of me. “There are plenty of lifeguards in the sea.”

It wasn’t really the date or lack thereof that I was upset about.

It was the fact that I’d foolishly thought for a second that maybe I’d be able to put the pieces of my heart back together and then bam .

I felt na?ve and stupid. This summer was supposed to be about me figuring out what I wanted to do with my life.

Not falling for the first guy who looked my way.

Not that I was falling for my lifeguard.

He was a dick. And on top of being beaten back down to my self-pitying ways? I made a horrible, awful mistake.

“It’s not just the date I’m upset about,” I mumbled. That would have been bad enough. But I had to go and put a cherry on top.

“Did he do something else?”

I shook my head and looked down at my phone. “I called Aiden.”

“ The Aiden? The one that never stopped saying he loved you, yet his dick was probably in some chick for months before you broke up?”

Vulgar. But I nodded my agreement.

“What did he say?”

“He didn’t answer. He hasn’t spoken to me since he kicked me out of his place. There’s no reason for him to suddenly answer his phone now.”

“Phew. Well, good. No harm no foul then.” She patted my leg.

I wish. “I left a message.”

“Oh, no.” So much freaking sympathy on her face. “What did you say?”

“The usual…that I missed him, how could he do this to us, had I caused the breakup in some way. I just looked at my phone and I left him a five minute message. Five minutes! Who knows what other shit I said. So…I’m not going to work today.” I lay back down, pulling the blankets up to my chin.

“None of that changes the fact that you have to go to work.”

“I’m going to call in sick.”

She looked at me. “Heartache isn’t an illness.”

“It is too.”

“It’s not.” She pulled my blankets back down again. “And even if it was…I don’t think you’re actually upset about the stupid voicemail you left Aiden.”

Of course I’m upset about that. I just glared at her.

“You put yourself out there and got hurt again. That really freaking sucks, Mila. And if I ever see that lifeguard’s beautiful face again, I’ll punch him for you. But two tools doesn’t mean everything in the toolbox is rotten.”

“That’s a weird saying.”

“But it’s true. I met a great guy last night. And I’m sure he has cute friends. How about you do call in sick and we go down to the beach with two sexy, single guys and shove it in hot lifeguard’s face?”

I stared at her. She was already wearing a bikini. I guess she had heard my alarm being ignored before she went on her beach date.

“I have a date with Ben and Jerry.”

“Stop.”

“And Tim Gunn and Swatch.”

“Tim Gunn is gay and Swatch is a dog. Get out of bed.”

“My heart hurts.”

She pressed her lips together.

“I just need one day in bed. Tomorrow I’ll be back to normal, you’ll see.”

“Are you sure? I feel like some fresh air would be really good for you.”

I pictured myself sitting in the sand crying last night.

I’d called Aiden for a reason. I felt completely and utterly alone.

When would that feeling go away? Fresh tears were starting to form in the corners of my eyes.

Besides, my lifeguard knew my work schedule.

He might show up to apologize. Fat chance.

I’d never see him again. The thought of never seeing him again made the pain in my chest worse. “Just one day in bed,” I said again.

“Okay. But don’t you dare watch Project Runway without me. And I’ll pick up some more Ben and Jerry’s on the way home.”

Thank you, bestie. I curled into a ball in my bed, holding my knees against my chest. She even closed the blinds for me before she left our apartment.

As soon as she was gone, I closed my eyes again.

I pictured the hue of my lifeguard’s irises.

Exactly the same color as the ocean. I thought I could get lost in them. Instead, I felt like I was drowning.

I was never going to let my guard down again. My heart couldn’t take it anymore. I hugged my knees closer to my chest. When would it stop hurting?