Page 33 of French Martini

Lowen: You don’t owe me any explanation of how you spend your time.

I stare at the text for a second before another pops in.

Lowen: But thank you. I appreciate your effort.

“He appreciates my effort.”

“Poor guy’s got his heart in a cage, doesn’t he? If you ever get it out, it’s gonna be magical.”

“Yeah.”

My phone buzzes again.

Lowen: I’ll come over tomorrow.

My shoulders drop as the tension releases. “He said he’ll come over tomorrow.”

“Good. Now say something sweet.”

Me: I’ll look forward to it, kitten.

The dots pop up again and I hold my breath waiting to see if he’ll scold or praise me.

Lowen: Meow

He adds a cat emoji and I smile. “I think it’s okay. Thanks, Sam.”

“My pleasure. I admit I’m a little melancholy that someone finally won your heart.”

“Oh come on. It’s been over a year since we’ve spent time together.”

He giggles, kicking his legs a little. “My charms never fully work on you. I can wrap every woman and man in the world around my little finger, but not you.”

“I’m not entirely immune. At least I wasn’t before I met Lowen.”

“It’s cute. I hope he knows what a catch you are. If I was the settling down type, I’d look for someone like you.”

“Someone like me?” I ask, finally pulling into traffic.

“Steady, capable, strong. It doesn’t hurt that you look like sex on a stick.”

Snorting a laugh, I shake my head. “Thanks. To be honest, I was afraid Lowen couldn’t see himself with a regular guy like me, even though he doesn’t come across as stuck up. He has high standards though.”

“And? You’re extremely successful, got your shit together, and you’re nice on top of it all. What kind of standards wouldn’t be met?”

“He runs in high society circles. Well, he used to before coming back to Willow Bay.”

“This Lowen obviously likes you. He asked you to be his date, so that should be enough proof that he doesn’t think he’s better than you.”

“No, I’ve never had that vibe. It’s just leftover bullshit.”

“What do you mean?”

“Years ago, back in my early thirties, I dated a guy who came from good stock, as my mom called it. He even had an uncle who was a senator. His mom won beauty contests back in the day and his dad was this famous neurosurgeon. We dated for almost two years before I realized he was keeping me away from his real life. I never met his friends or was invited to his many family events. He told me it was because he didn’t want to bore me with that life, and I believed him for a while.”

“Uh oh. I sense trouble was brewing?”

I nod, turning onto the freeway. “Yep. One night after he’d been acting weird all day, I tried to look at his socials, but I couldn’t. He’d blocked me. So I used a friend’s phone and I saw that he had plenty of dates for these events. All these posh looking guys who were going to law school or doing their medical residencies. He wasn’t saving me, he was hiding me.”

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