My Ex is a Billionaire

Saturday Afternoon

Myles

I know she has an opinion on everything. I know she probably already mapped out the entire color themes she wants for my apartment, but she’s too scared to overstep. She doesn’t want to take over the entire project like I know she wants to. That’s the thing about Bea, she’s always been good at whatever task you give her. We were at a home decor shop, and the employee who was helping us was shamelessly flirting with me, which only annoyed me, but Bea didn’t seem to notice. She was too busy building a color palette in her head. 

The girl just kept showing us random things, asking us questions that would end up being more revealing things into my personal life. I was getting tired of whatever game she was playing so I finally said, “Beatrice, what do you think?”

The employee glares at Bea, but she isn’t even looking at her, instead she’s looking straight at me, nervously. “Oh, whatever you think is good. It’s your apartment after all.”

“So it’s not for your guys’ apartment. Just his?” the employee asks, with hope in her eyes. 

Bea turns to her, and raises her hands slightly waving them, “Oh, no, no. It’s just his. I have no say.”

The employee smiles at me and twirls a piece of her hair as she asks me, “Oh that’s nice. So do you see anything you want?”

This particular innuendo Bea does notice, and I see the disgust on her face as she looks away. I can tell she’s expecting me to encourage the girl, but there was no way I was going to do that. Instead, I put my hand on Bea’s shoulder to get her to look at me, which she does, with raised eyebrows. “Actually, all I really want is Bea’s opinion.”

Bea’s eyes widened. I realize I called her Bea, and not Beatrice, but I couldn’t help it. It was the first thing I could think of to do to get the girl off my back, so I play further into the role that I’ve created as I look back at the employee, pulling Bea closer to me. I know it was just a lie that I was telling for the girl to think Bea and I were together, but I couldn’t help but feel comfort in having her so close to me. It seemed like she fit perfectly in my arms. 

I add fire to the fuel, and kiss the top of Bea’s head, and say, “She’s being modest, but I do want her opinion. Sure the apartment is mine right now, but I’d expect my girlfriend would be spending a lot of time in my apartment, so if you don’t mind I think we got it from here.”

The employee turns red as a tomato, and I can tell Bea is also confused, but my ruse works, and the girl nods, “Of course. I’ll be back in the front, if you need anything.” Then she walks away. As soon as she’s gone I step away from Bea, and say, “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I just wanted to get her away. She was getting annoying.”

Bea puts more distance between us, and clears her throat, “That’s okay. I um… I understand she was a bit pushy.”

“I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted your opinion. I’m not good at this stuff, so please help me. I did bring you here for help, you know.”

She smiles and says, “Okay well let me run down my ideas with you, and then you can let me know if you like them.”

Watching Bea go on about something that she’s interested in is the most entertaining thing in the world. She gets so passionate about things, even if she’s just doing it for one day. It’s like watching a kid in a toy store. Her eyes would light up as she would tell me the decor she wanted to buy for the living room, and what else she thought would go well with it, and she’s just run off with all the possibilities. She was more open than she had been yesterday and the beginning of today. She was laughing with me and making jokes. We were at the kitchen supplies, and she found aprons, and was asking if I wanted one. 

I shake my head, “I’m more of an order food type of guy.”

She rolls her eyes, “What happened to cooking spaghetti for me all the time?”

I smile. I can’t believe she brought that up. I used to cook for her all the time, when we were younger I wasn’t exactly rich, so a lot of our dates I would cook for her. Hearing her bring that up now, just made me so happy. I didn’t think she would ever bring up proof of us being together anymore. 

“Oh trust me I haven’t cooked in so long, I don’t think you want me near a stove.”

She shrugs, “It’s like riding a bike. You just gotta get back into it.”

I walk up to the aprons on the rack that she’s looking at and shuffle through them. I pull out one that has a picture of a frog with a guitar on it, and the words ‘rockin chef’ on it. It’s so stupid I almost burst out laughin just lookin at it.  I wrap it around my waist and tie it. I spin around for her to see and ask, “How do I look? Good enough to take up cooking again.”

Bea is giggling to herself, “You look rockin.”

After she says that she starts to laugh louder and I couldn’t help but laugh as well. I take off the apron, and hang it back up. Bea stops laughing and points at it, “Wait you’re not going to get it? It’s like the best thing at this store.”

She picks it back up and hands it to me again, I take it and tell her, “Sure I’ll buy it, but you have to buy one for yourself too. That’s the only way.”

“Are you serious?”

“Beatrice why would I lie about something as important as aprons with cartoon animals on them.”

She lets out a small giggle, and nods, “Fine, I’ll take… This one!” She pulls out one that has a cat on it, with a crown, and the words ‘royal chef.’

I laugh at it, and take it in my hand throwing both aprons in the cart. She’s smiling at me with such joy I don’t want it to end. I want to spend the entire day in this store with her, laughing at stupid aprons. I want to forget for one day that I have a job to do, or that I’ve spent so many years tracking down someone that might not even be in the country anymore. I want to forget all the stupid life decisions I’ve made, and just live in the moment with her laughter filling my ears.

But that type of happy life is not the kind that I am meant to live. I am tied forever to this life of solitude and savagery. I am not the type of guy who will end up with a nice family, in a suburban house. I will not be the type of person that Bea deserves, and every time I think that maybe I can change things, life reminds me not to let my mind even think about that. 

Bea’s phone beeps and she looks at it, and her eyes wide with worry. “Oh no, I’m going to be late. I didn’t realize what time it was. I need to go Myles. I'm so sorry.”

“Wait, where do you need to go?”

She starts turning around looking for the quickest exit, “I need to meet Ethan at Mulligan's it’s like 5 minutes from here. I’ll get an uber, you need to buy all the stuff. Um, we didn’t get to talk about the new assignment, you can just text me tomorrow. Okay. Bye. See you.”

She’s walking away, practically running, and I hate that she’s running to Ethan, but then she says something that almost makes it okay, “Thank you for inviting me, this was, this was fun.”

She’s out the door a second later. She thought this was fun though. She admitted she had fun. Even Though I’m upset she left, I couldn’t help but grin at the fact that at least she was still able to say she had fun with me. 

Ethan

I’m sitting at the bar looking toward the door. I see her from the windows rushing out of a car, and coming inside. Her orange sweater reminds me that it’s fall, and my lips pull into a smile seeing how perfect she looks, even when she’s in a hurry. She makes eye contact with me and I wave, she comes over to me. I don’t know if it’s just the etiquette of meeting a friend at the bar, but for the first time ever, Beatrice wraps her arms around me in a hug. I get mad at myself for a second, because I’m so nervous I don’t really hug her back, and I wish I did.

“Hi! Sorry I’m late. I got caught up. But it’s good to see you.” she apologizes.

“No, don’t worry about it. So, what’re you drinking?” I nod to the bartender who’s coming toward us.

Once the bartender is close enough, Beatrice answers him, “I’ll take a long island please.” He nods and turns to the bar to make her drink. 

Bea turns back to me with that smile still on her face.  I can feel the awkwardness start to fill the air, as I don’t know what to say. I feel like she’s waiting on me, after all I am her boss, I can’t imagine what this feels like for her. I know it’s up to me to start the conversation, after all I was the one who invited her as well. 

“So what were you up to today?” I ask.

“Oh, Myles needed help buying stuff for his new apartment.” She answers so casually. Like it’s  normal for an assistant to be going to a*****e on a Saturday with someone she just met. Sure her and I being out right now was not normal as well, but at least I didn’t pounce on her as soon as I met her. I decided not to cross that line right away. 

Yet, she was already hanging out with Myles. He already had a head start. Maybe it was the fact that I knew Myles had his eye on her, or maybe it was because she looked so beautiful sitting next to me. Most likely it was the alcohol that was already coursing through my blood from the drinks I had before Beatrice got here, but I decided that I was going to stop being such a coward. I was going to be open with her, and let her know that I was interested. If she decided to choose Myles then that was fine, but I wouldn’t go down without trying. 

I hadn’t gone out with anyone in such a long time, so I did feel rusty in the romance department, but I was going to pull everything that I had, so I chugged the rest of my drink, as the bartender brought her hers. I ask for another jack and coke, and I turn to her so our knees are touching. 

She doesn’t pull away, that’s a good sign. Instead I see her cheeks turn red, that’s an even better sign. 

I start to wonder if maybe she likes me too. I don’t want to be cocky, but maybe that’s why she was clumsy around me sometimes, or why she would sometimes only be able to talk to me with her eyes down. I had thought it was because she was nervous I was her boss, but now I’m thinking I was wrong. Well, I did say I was going to be open, so might as well just be straight forward. “So, Beatrice, I know I said yesterday this wasn’t a date, but I have to wonder, would that really be a bad thing?”