The Billionaire Boyfriend Trap

Chapter 11

I was glad Becky wasn't home when the cab dropped me off. I wanted to cry in peace without having to explain that my heart was exploding with pain in my chest because the man I loved had dumped me. The man she hated. She wouldn't understand.

I cried in bed until I didn't have any tears left, then I got up and ate cookies and cream ice cream straight from the tub. Once my head cleared, I dialed Ellen's number.

"Why the hell did you tell him?" I shouted when she answered.

Silence, then: "I take it he didn't calm down overnight?"

"No, Ellen, he didn't. He's furious. He yelled at me and…" I stifled a sob. "And he fired me. He hates the sight of me now."

"Oh, Cleo, I'm sorry. It completely backfired. I thought I was doing the right thing in telling him, but it seems not."

"Do you know him personally?"

"Yes."

"And you took money from a client to spy on him? That's low, Ellen, even for you."

"I don't let my personal affiliations affect my business," she snipped. "If I did, most of Roxburg would be off-limits." She sighed. "Look, Cleo, he'll change his mind. You'll see."

"Why should you be right about that when you've been wrong about so many other things?"

"I was right when I said he'd fall for you, wasn't I?"

"Aside from that. Ellen, this isn't a game. Reece is never going to forgive me for this."

"You and me both, Honey."

The tears rolled down my cheeks and into the empty ice cream tub. "It's all right for you," I sobbed. "I was in love with him. I am in love with him. And now he's gone."

"I'm coming over. We'll commiserate together and form a plan to get you back into his heart."

"No! I don't want to see you. I don't want to speak to you. This is all your fault, Ellen. You should never have told him. You should never have set me up with him. It's all a disaster and I just…I just want you to leave me alone." I hung up and switched the phone off. Then I switched it back on in case Becky tried to call. She didn't know I was home.

My phone rang but it was Ellen. I let it go to voicemail, but it kept ringing so I had to switch it off again.

Becky arrived home later that afternoon, took one look at me and knew something was wrong. For the first time in my life, I cried on her shoulder and she comforted me. She didn't seem overly sympathetic when I told her what happened. Most of her response consisted of: "Bastard" or "I knew this would happen".

"He's a good guy," I told her. "It's me who's the bitch for what I did to him."

"That's bullshit. If he truly knew you then he'd know how you felt. You wear your heart on your sleeve, Cleo, and he's gone and stomped all over it. I hate him."

"Don't hate him." I went to reach for another tissue but the box was empty. I tossed it across the room. "You haven't told me you're shocked at my choice of career."

She leaned back on the sofa and pulled her knees up. She looped her arms around them and rested her chin there. "Did you sleep with all your targets?"

"No!"

She shrugged. "Then why would I be shocked?"

"Because it's deceitful and borderline prostitution."

She snorted. "Don't be so melodramatic. You're not a prostitute. But it is unethical, I'll give you that."

I chewed my lip and regarded her. "Go on then. Give me a lecture about how I shouldn't have taken the job."