Page 24 of Faking It with my Billionaire Grump

I could hide out in this barn for the next six months and hope he eventually gives up, but my boss just wouldn’t pay me for that amount of time off. I have savings, but I don’t really want them all eaten up. It’s taken me years to put that money together. New York is not a cheap place to live. In fact, it’s not a cheap place for anything.

For ages, I lie there, just staring at the ceiling. The more I try to think of a solution, the blanker my mind gets, until eventually, I feel so numb that I think I’ve done irreparable brain cell damage.

I need help.

Lifting the phone again—the phone that’s been lying beside me but out of sight all this time, for fear Bryan might text again—I call Mel.

“I heard you caused all sorts of chaos at Maggie’s last night,” she says before even saying hello.

“I might have started it, but it wasn’t all me. You can blame Jimmy Milton’s kids.”

“Oh, yeah,” she says, pretending that she doesn’t believe me. “Well, if you wanted to be the talk of the town, you’ve succeeded.”

“Great,” I sigh.

“You know you didn’t have to start a food fight for that, right? I mean, you went out on a date with Jake. You knew what was going to happen.”

“I know. There were plenty of heads on swivels, I can tell you. Most of them nearly broke their necks to see us. No doubt, I’m the worst person in the world to them all.”

“I wouldn’t worry about them, chick. They’re not worth your time. The question is, did it work?”

I close my eyes and silently curse Bryan Reading. “Nope.”

“What?” Mel cries.

“My phone is full of texts from him telling me he didn’t buy it. So everything I did was a complete waste of time.”

“You want me to get Greg to go and see him?” Mel suggests, though by her tone of voice, I can’t tell if she’s joking or not.

Greg is Mel’s husband. He’s a huge guy who knows how to handle himself. He also happens to be the deputy sheriff.

“I would love to have Greg go and see him, but I know it wouldn’t make any difference. Bryan is not easily intimidated, and besides, he’s not breaking any laws.”

“That won’t make much difference to Greg,” Mel says with a smile in her voice. “You know how protective he always was of you.”

Greg is an only child, like me, and from kindergarten, we became firm friends. All the way through school, he treated me like I was his little sister. In fact, he was so protective that Greg and Jake nearly got into a fight when we first started dating.

“Oh, Mel,” I sigh. “What am I going to do?”

“Well,” she says. Her tone scares me a little because I just know I’m not going to like whatever it is she’s about to say. “You could always go back to Jake.”

“What? No way! It took all I had to convince him to go on a date. And anyway, Bryan didn’t buy it. I don’t think another date is going to suddenly change his mind.”

There was a long pause while Mel thought about that, and then she said, “You could always take it to the next level.”

I’m completely confused as to what she means, and frowning, I say, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Think about it. What’s the next level from dating?”

I’m silent while my mind works on her meaning, and like a flash, I suddenly understand what she’s getting at.

“No. Absolutely not. Jake would never go for that. Neither would I. That’s just… No. I’m not doing it.”

“How badly do you want to get rid of this guy, Tilly?” Mel says. “The way I see it, you’ve got three options. Hide out in the barn until he gives up. Go back to New York and try to avoid him there, or…”

She leaves the final option hanging. The option I don’t even want to consider. The option that I would never have thought of because it’s such a bad idea.

The sound of Thomas crying in the background seeps through the pause between us, and then Mel says, “I’ve got to go. But you should at least consider it, chick. You’ve already got everybody’s tongues wagging. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”

---