The Billionaire's Fake Fiancée

Chapter 4- Price Tag of a Broken Heart-02

"It's such a shame, too. You could've met the hotties in the picture. I also recognize one guy here from Forbes magazine!" she exclaimed as she glued her eyes on the screen. I didn't pay any attention to her disturbing ogling.

"How about you stop drooling over the filthy rich and you go back to studying? We have three weeks left before exams and I have this stupid essay due in two days." I shut her laptop down and pointed the scattered books lying flat on the bed.

"You're no fun," my best friend pouted. "Hey, what if a client actually bought your art and pays you a ridiculous amount. What will you do with the money?"

For a second, I hesitated.

I never really thought about it. But now that she mentioned it, one thing came to mind.

"I'll visit the museum dad once painted a mural in," I answered with a grin.

"Oh, you've never seen it before?"

I shook my head. "It's in Toronto. But if I have the money, I'll visit it with mom and Nana."

"That's actually really sweet of you, Em."

"Yeah," was my only reply and grabbed a textbook to hide my blushing cheeks. Maybe one day, I thought to myself.

"Speaking of sweet, want to come to the coffee shop instead? We can take our books and study there," Erin suggested.

My brows furrowed. "But the coffee shop is noisier."

"But the view is better. Plus, we get to drink hot chocolate. They're really good especially in this freezing weather," she winked and I grunted.

A local coffee shop near our apartment was always swarmed with university students. During exam season, the crowd was twice as much because of their student special: free cookies for Northwestern University students.

Before I could even protest to Erin, she already packed up her MacBook in her purse and closely held onto her Accounting and Business Fundamentals textbooks.

"Come on. It wouldn't hurt to study and look at some cute guys at the same time— especially now that you're single," Erin winked and strode towards the door. I didn't have the choice but to go after her.

A few minutes later we were outside the apartment, trekking the winter white snow wearing our thick parka and snow boots. And in about fifteen minutes, we reached the coffee shop. The aroma of coffee in the brewing machine and freshly baked cookies instantly filled my nostrils as soon as I opened the door.

"Wow, it's more crowded than I expected." Erin said in a matter-of-factly.

I scanned the shop and almost every seat were already occupied.

"Oh lucky! An empty seat," Erin pointed at a corner seat for two and practically dragged me there before someone else claimed it.

She instructed me to set up while she lined up for our hot drink. I took out my laptop and to my dismay; it was already down to thirty percent battery life. This crappy old laptop was fully charged two hours ago!

Note to self: save up for a new laptop.

I sighed. That'd be another five hundred dollars to save in the summer. I crouched down in search for an outlet. A minute had passed when I grunted in annoyance. It was no brainer why nobody wanted the corner seats— an outlet was nowhere to be found!

I paced forward, tilting my head down a bit to search for an available outlet. With little luck, I found a vacant one two tables away from ours. Thankfully, the cord length sufficed.

"Excuse me, could you please plug—" I froze the moment I recognized the face in front of me.

"Hey," he spoke up in the most bittersweet way. A month had passed since we had our last conversation; his presence was a living proof that I once fell in love and fell out of love. At the same time, I didn't feel any pain at all.

"Hi, can you plug this in for me?" I smiled. He was with four other friends that I never met before. It seemed like they were working on a group project since they were all sitting in a circle with a PowerPoint presentation pulled up.

"Sure. Anything for you," he grabbed the plug from my hand and did what I requested. I was about to turn around when he caught my arm.

"Hey. I-umm... I-I've been calling you since and never heard from you again. I just want to check that you're alright." He said in a sincere tone. He slid his hands in his pocket and tried his best to keep the eye contact.

"First of all, I'm not obligated to answer any more of your calls. Second, I don't need your mediocre "care" okay? Don't tell me you forgot that someone else needs your "care" more than I do. And lastly, I'm alright. I'm happy now."

Jack's mouth dropped open, unable to say a word. I smirked at him and spun around to go back to our table. I heard Jack cursed at his friends as they chortled and teased him after they witnessed my dramatic monolog.

Erin was already sitting in our table, stirring her hot chocolate while she grinned at me.

"I needed to plug in this computer and the outlet was all the way out there," I told her.

Erin only nodded in agreement and passed me a hot cup of coffee with extra shot of espresso. "Here's your prize for officially becoming Miss Moving On. My treat."

I smiled. "Did you set this up?"

She shrugged. "Of course not. That jackass happens to be here. Anyway, I thought you plan on rotting in bed for the rest of your life, crying like a widowed woman after your break up. You're actually doing pretty good for someone who was in a long-term relationship."

"It's because can do better than that, and my hymen is still intact so... I lost nada." I bragged.

"Amen to that! Hallelujah to keeping your hymen intact 'till marriage!" She even put her hands up in the air and we both laughed.

After rebooting my computer— which seemed like forever— I was able to continue on writing the essay. Despite the background noise, I was able to focus and typed the whole essay.

I decided to send the essay to myself (it had always been a habit) and my eyebrows furrowed when an e-mail from my Art History professor appeared.

Without a second thought, I clicked it and skimmed the message, then read it one more time.

I've never seen so much zeroes in my life. My heart wouldn't stop beating fast and my knees became weak all of a sudden.

I poked Erin's shoulder to ask her to re-read the message for me. Without a doubt, even she had a hard time taking in the message.

After a brief moment, she finally snapped back to reality. "This is serious stuff!? Ten grand!?" Erin inched closer and whispered.

"Well, Miss Monte said it's ten grand, right? I guess it's serious." I replied, acting cool but deep inside, I was just as elated.

Erin paused, looking baffled. "Did I tell you that these people need Jesus?"