My Ex is a Billionaire

None of my Business

Myles Eight years ago

I show up to the apartment and slowly open the door. The smell of alcohol instantly fills me. I wanted to throw up, but I was so tired, I also just wanted to go to sleep. I can see Carol on our bed in the left corner of the room. Alex, and his girlfriend Meg are in their bed on the right corner. There are beer bottles everywhere. I didn’t expect anything else, it’s been like this for weeks. Still, I wanted to come home at least once to something nice. Even when Bea used to get drunk, her and I would clean up the next day, but Carol was different. Carol didn’t care about anyone but herself. I sighed thinking about Bea. It had been 6 months since I left her, but she didn’t leave my mind. I’d think about Bea at least three times a day, sometimes more. 

I mostly thought about her when I was with Carol. I tried to forget her, by being with Carol, but it was no use. Bea was everything to me, so making her leave my thoughts was not going to be easy. I stepped into the apartment fully, quietly closing the door behind me. I used the light from my phone to help light my way to the bed. Before I could reach Carol I heard Alex speak from his bed, softly to not wake the girls.

“Any luck?”

I shook my head not sure if he could see in the dark, “Nope. Nobody seems to know anything about him here. I know I can find him if I just ask the right people though.” 

“Don’t worry bro, you’ve got this. Just give it time.” Alex whispers back. I hope he was right. I couldn’t deal with how long I’d been searching. It was all a long shot. I knew that, but it was the only way I could get myself out of this mess, without having to look over my shoulder constantly.

“Yeah, thanks. Good night.” 

“Good night”

I heard him settle back to sleep, so I finished making my way to Carol. I lie down in the bed and she feels me, so she moves over and wraps her arms around me. Carol smells like beer, and cigarettes. Bea smelled like candy, like a sweet lollipop, like a whole damn candy shop. Just laying next to Bea was enough to help me fall asleep into a wonderful slumber. With Carol though, it took me another hour before I could knock out.

The last thought on my mind was that I hoped Bea forgot about me. I hoped she wasn’t hurting like I was right now. Even if I pained me, I hoped she found a guy who could give her all the things I couldn’t, and could take her out on a Saturday night and show her off the way she deserved. 

Myles Present Time

I settle down in the apartment I am going to be in for the next month. It’s bigger than I thought, but it’s also not as big as my apartment back home. Not that I mind. I used to live in a studio apartment with four people, so at this point anything is better than that. I shudder at the thought. I do miss Alex, he was a great friend, and I know he and Meg ended up getting married, but the thought of Carol and all the things we used to do, left a sour taste in my mouth. 

I tell myself to forget those memories, they were memories after all. Instead I walk further into the apartment and head over to the kitchen. I drop the bag that’s in my hand on the counter that is in the middle of the kitchen, more like a bar since it has barstools by it. I didn’t have time to stock the kitchen or anything so I just stopped by the store to buy a couple of necessities.

I open the bag and pull out a cup and fill it with water from the fridge. Before I drink it though I pull out my phone and text Bea the address. After hitting send, I find myself staring at my phone. I was staring at her name in my contacts list. After all these years her name was back on my phone. Hell, after all these years everything that I’ve done, in a sense, was for her. And she’ll never know.

She responded quickly, “okay I’ll be there in 30 minutes or so.”

I hope the “or so” meant sooner rather than later. This whole big apartment felt so empty. I didn’t feel that way back at home, maybe I was just homesick. No that wasn’t it I was never homesick. It was just Bea, that was it. I wanted to talk to her more. It was crazy and almost obsessive, but how could I not? I loved her with everything that I had, so much so, I had to hurt her. 

I drink the water I poured and sigh, as I make my way to the living room. Grabbing my laptop I slump down on the couch. I start googling his name, curious if anything else will pop up in the media, but nothing new from two days ago. I start opening old articles and checking my notes, making sure that I have everything updated. I end up spending more time on that than I thought I would, and soon my phone lights up with a text.

It’s Bea. She says she’s here. I go to the door and press the button to open the gate downstairs. I wait by the door, hearing the clacking of her heels as she comes up the stairs. I see her appear and she’s carrying a stack of papers. I rush over and take them from her so she doesn’t drop any.

She makes eye contact with me and smiles. “Thanks.” She says softly.

I smile back. “Yeah no problem. Come on in.” 

She follows me and steps inside. She starts looking around and I hear a small “wow” escape her lips.

She sees that I’m watching her explore the apartment and she stops. “Sorry I just wasn’t expecting this place to be so… grand.”

I put the papers down on the coffee table by the couch I was sitting on early. I move my laptop away from the couch as well, and gesture for Bea to come over, as I say, “Yeah, I know it’s pretty big. Here, sit down so we can go over things.”

She sits on the couch, and I sit down next to her. Our knees touch, and I purposely keep them there to see if she’ll move, and she does, which stings, only for a little. I sit back and look at her. She looks at me, and I can tell she’s nervous. 

“So did you have any problems getting the questions answered?”

She shakes her head, “No. They said they had already talked to you before, so they expected my call. Can I ask you a question?”

I nod. She can always ask me a question. “Yeah, of course.”

“Um… what’s this case about?”

She can always ask me a question, but that doesn’t mean that I’m always going to answer. I couldn’t tell her the full truth about the case. Not yet at least. “I’ll tell you all you need to know, and right now, the answer to that is nothing.”

I see her grit her teeth, I know she hates my answer, because she pesters, “Well, don’t you think it would be beneficial if I did. Maybe I could think of follow up questions to ask the people if I feel like their answer does pertain to the case.”

She isn’t wrong, but I still couldn’t tell her. The one thing I have learned about Bea is that she is still nervous, and easy to fluster. I also know that she is still determined, and always looking for answers to her questions, so I know she won’t drop this easily, especially since she’s not too fond of me right now. I don’t want to make her uncomfortable, but I know the only thing to quickly make her drop it, is to make her nervous and flustered. 

I lean closer to her, and the gap between us gets so small that I see her eyes widen. “Let’s just say it’s a very dangerous case. I don’t think you want to get into any danger, do you Bea? Sorry, I mean Beatrice.”

I make sure to say her full name longer and almost in a whisper. She’s breathing heavily, and I know I got the reaction I want, so I pull away, and put a smile on my face. “I’ll take that as a no.”

She swallows, and looks away from me as she says, “You can tell me if you think it’ll be helpful, but for now um do you have water, or um… something?”

“Parched already Beatrice?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. She doesn’t answer, so I add. “I actually just have one cup right now so we’d have to share.”

That seems to get her to talk, as she asks, “Why do you only have one cup?’

“I only had time to pick up some small stuff for this place. About that actually, I wanted to see if we could go out tomorrow and shop for stuff to make the apartment feel more… livable. We’ll go to dinner afterwards, and I can give you your next assignment,” I explain.

She nods and then she says something that I didn’t expect. “I can go shopping with you, but I don’t know about dinner. I already told Ethan I’d go out with him.”

I was first taken about that she finally called him Ethan. I had a feeling he would bring it up to her since I brought it up to him, but hearing his name from her lips and the words “go out with him” made my skin crawl. It made my heart hurt, and my stomach dropped. I didn’t even know her and Ethan were friends. Everytime he had called me on the phone he always said he never went out, and never had people he wanted to go out with. Why would he not talk about Bea if they were friends? So, the only thing I found myself asking was, “Is this a new thing?”

She c****d her head, “Is what a new thing?”

“You and Ethan?” I can feel myself unintentionally draw out his name annoyed, which Bea catches immediately. 

“I don’t see how that’s relevant. I didn’t think that being your assistant means I have to keep tabs with you on everything I do.”

She was right. I had no claim on her. If Ethan and her were friends or…more. It was none of my business, no matter how much I wanted to know everything. I just nodded and said, “You’re right. So, before that though we’ll go shopping for new things, and I can give you your new assignment then.”

“Yeah. Sounds good.” She says, but I can still feel the awkwardness in the air. I still feel disappointed that she’d be spending her Saturday night with Ethan, and not me.