Page 144 of The Worst Best Man

Aiden: I should stop by with my money bags. I seem to have an excess of it since my girlfriend won’t let me spend it on her.

Frankie: Funny guy. Gotta go teach people how to geographically target their Facebook ads.

Aiden: See you tonight, beautiful.

She responded with a heart emoji. And Aiden eyed it feeling like a king. She didn’t know it, but she was falling for him. He just had to wait for the right time to bring it to her attention. And possibly come clean that he’d come to the conclusion weeks ago.

He was in love and, for the first time in his life, thinking about next steps in the relationship department.

He sent a glance in Margeaux’s direction. She was reclining on the opposite side of the car, a sly smile on her face as her fingers flew over her phone’s keyboard.

“So, you had a fight with your boyfriend?” Aiden asked, not really caring. But they had fifteen blocks to go, and her change in attitude unnerved him.

“Hmm?” she said, looking up from her screen. “Oh, yes. A fight. And it’s the last one as far as I’m concerned. I deserve better, and I’ll see that I get it.”

“Mmm,” Aiden murmured noncommittally. From his limited experience with Margeaux, she deserved to have lemon juice poured into paper cuts every day for the rest of her miserable life. But who was he to judge?

He had Frankie, and that was all that mattered. There would be no more trading one girlfriend for another, one heiress for another. He had what he wanted. Finally.

Aiden briefly entertained the idea of sending Goffman a thank you card for being an asshole.

He was feeling confident in the future. Franchesca was finishing up her MBA in the next two months, and they’d been discussing what she’d do professionally afterwards. He’d hoped she’d consider a position with his company. She’d laughed in his face when he suggested it. But he was persuasive. He could wear her down. And he could use her. Even if she didn’t want to work with him directly, he had a number of new smaller acquisitions that could use her energy. She liked the small business arena. Maybe he could build something for her to manage?

He’d bring it up again in a week or so and test the waters.

“Here we are,” Morris announced from behind the wheel. Whatever business Margeaux had was in a pricey art deco hotel. Morris hustled around and opened the rear door. Aiden stepped out and offered Margeaux his hand.

“Best of luck to you, Margeaux,” he said.

“I don’t need luck,” she said with a smirk and then raised on her tip toes to press a kiss to the side of his mouth. “See you around.”

She strolled into the hotel. Aiden shook his head.

Morris gave a shiver. “That one there’s an evil one,” he announced.

“You’re not wrong,” Aiden agreed.

Once a bachelor always a bachelor

Aiden Kilbourn caught sneaking into hotel with socialite

Aiden Kilbourn’s girlfriend devastated by affair

Chapter Fifty-Five

Frankie locked the front door of the development center behind her and shouldered her bag. It was cold and dark. A typically depressing March evening. But she had Aiden and takeout to look forward to in a few hours. She’d let that thought keep her warm on the walk home.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, but before she could dig it out, a shadowy figure pushed away from the wall one storefront down.

“Well, if it isn’t my old friend Franchesca,” Elliot Kilbourn said slyly, falling into step with her.

“How’s the schnoz, Elliot?” she asked breezily. There was only one reason Elliot would be waiting for her. Trouble.

“I snore now, thanks to you.”

“Consider it a souvenir that reminds you not to abduct people.”

“Did you know that I’m not the only Kilbourn with dirty secrets?” he asked. His gleeful tone put her on edge.