Page 105 of Arrogant Playboy

Turning around, I can see tears rolling down her cheeks. “Yes.” With that, she rushes into the foyer of her apartment, the door slamming behind her. Her answer hits me like a punch to the gut.

She never felt the same way.

40

ROSIE

Stepping out of the car at the private airport, the driver tells me he will take my bags to the aircraft. I’m greeted by the flight attendant who hands me a glass of champagne. This is the life. I walk up the stairs, and when I look into the luxurious plane, I can see Ivy and all her friends.

“Girls’ trip,” Camryn, Ivy’s sister calls out when she sees me.

“You made it,” Ivy greets me warmly, getting up from her seat and hugging me. “You remember everyone, my sister Camryn, her business partner Kimberly, Lauren, Eloise, and Olivia.”

“Hi,” I say, waving to them, feeling a little awkward.

“Hey, Rosie, how are things going with that hot Frenchie?” Camryn asks. Everything in me stills. Then I turn to where Ivy is standing. I can see she is making gestures to her sister to tell her to cut it out, and the next thing I know, I’m in tears. Georgia was the only person I could talk to about Daniel. Emily is in love with his brother, and she’s team them. Ava is too busy living her life in New York, and the time zones suck, but now Georgia is living in Paris, and I haven’t been able to talk about what happened with Daniel when he surprised me on my doorstep with flowersand his declaration that he’s fallen in love with me. I was so happy when I saw him, and then I remembered the way he left me. He then had the audacity to ask me if I felt the same, and I didn’t want to tell him that I did. I’m moving halfway across the world, the damage had already been done, so I cut the cord.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” she says, rushing toward me. I wave her off.

“Come sit,” Ivy says, directing me to one of the lounges which is apparently a seat as it has a seat belt. This is a whole other level of luxury I’ve never experienced before. “Look, I’m going to be honest, I’ve only heard Daniel’s side.” Shit. I’m fired. She is friends with him and there is no way she is siding with me.

“But we want to hear your side because men are dumbasses,” Lauren adds. I give her a small smile. I look to these amazing women and wonder if I should tell them.

“Let us help,” Ivy says, reaching out and touching my knee, and I can see it on her face that she empathizes with me. And so, I do. I confess to the girls everything that has happened between us. I tell them about him ghosting me and then how the other week he showed up on my doorstep, declaring his feelings, as if he hadn’t hurt me by leaving me and partying with models in Greece. I tell them that I lied to him when I said that I hadn’t fallen in love with him to protect myself. That I am starting anew in Dubai and that it is for the best. By the time I finish my story, we are already in the air.

“Can I just say, I get it, we all do. We have been in your position before with our significant others. You might not know, but my husband owns some of the top sex clubs in the world,” Camryn explains.

Wait, what did she say? Sex clubs? Daniel mentioned something about that. He goes to their sex clubs. My mind is blown. Wait, does Ivy know about this? I turn and look at the other women who don’t register anything at Camryn’s confession.

“My ex assaulted me there, and when I got free, I tried to find Nate and found him in bed with his staff.” I gasp. “I was devastated, but later found out he was drugged thanks to my ex, and the women thought they were doing their job and didn’t realize he was drugged, anyway. I ran. I ran to the other side of the world for months. Nate didn’t give up, when he eventually found me, he told me how in love with me he was, but I couldn’t, I wasn’t ready, and I was scared. Handing your heart over to someone is one of the hardest things you can do, but as much as I pushed him away because we both needed to heal, as soon as I saw him again, I knew. There was no one else for me,” Camryn explains.

“I left Axel to marry someone else, thinking I was saving my family. Then I left the guy I was supposed to marry at the altar because he was sleeping with my sister,” Olivia explains. I gasp which makes her smile. “It was shocking, but I never loved my fiancé. I was only marrying him as I thought it would save my family’s business. I also wasn’t expecting to fall in love with a rock star. Finding out about my fiancé and sister was like a switch flicked. I knew that Axel had my heart, and he was the one, but I had a lot of groveling to do because I left him to marry someone else. That was kind of brutal, but it worked out in the end.” She grins.

“Like you, I left Alistair and moved halfway across the world because my goal of opening the bakery was my main priority. I ghosted him. I thought it was the right thing to do because the feelings I had for that man scared me, and I didn’t want him to derail my plans. You see, my family was rich, they kicked me out of their home when I wouldn’t conform to what they had planned for my life. They cut me off and I had to make it on my own,” Eloise explains.

“That’s how she met me.” Lauren grins.

“Yeah, she saved me, helped make my dreams a reality. Then Alistair came into my life like a freaking bulldozer, and I was scared. I had been working for so long on this dream, and I was so close to getting it, and I didn’t want any distractions, and he was a huge one.”

“That’s how I feel. I’ve been working so hard to be one of the best designers and I got this Dubai opportunity. Then he comes into my life, and I wasn’t expecting to fall for him, but …”

“It’s always the way.” Eloise smiles. “The universe had other plans and put him right in my path again months later after I ghosted him. I thought it was the right thing to do, and when he saw me again, I realized it wasn’t. The feelings I had been stuffing down bubbled to the surface, but I had hurt him so badly that it took a bit of convincing to get him back. But I did and I couldn’t be happier.”

“If you think Daniel wouldn’t cross the world for you, you’d be wrong,” Ivy adds. I turn and look at her. “We’ve all known Daniel for years. And I’m sure you know about his family life, with his father, mother, and Louis.” I nod because he spoke to me about it. “Daniel keeps a wall up when it comes to his heart. His father disappointed him his entire life, and then his mother betrayed him by keeping Louis a secret. So, he’s guarded, that’s not an excuse for what he did, but I get why he freaked out. That man loves you so much, and I think it’s scared him as he never thought he was capable of love. Under those designer suits and hard exterior is a good man. Why do you think us girls want nothing but the best for him? Because he’s a good guy, and we aren’t being biased because I’ve met some of Alex’s friends, and I would not want to set them up with any of my friends.” She giggles.

“You could tell every time you were together thinking you were being sneaky, but you can’t hide chemistry. That man’s face lit up every time you were around,” Lauren adds.

“We aren’t trying to convince you to give Daniel a second chance. If this is truly what you want and you don’t feel the same way about him as he does for you, then we won’t push you on the subject. But if you are only pushing him away because you will be living in Dubai and he will be in London, and you don’t think it will work, then I think that might be a mistake,” Ivy states.

“You know Daniel is rich and owns his own plane, so the commute between Dubai and London is easy.” Camryn smirks. My eyes widen at her comment, and the girls all burst out laughing.

“I’m not from this world. I would never fit in,” I confess.

“We are all successful women. I’m successful enough that I can hire a private plane but not own one,” Ivy states.

“Same for me. My fiancé can, and it is another level of success that comes with negatives as well as positives,” Camryn adds, and all the other girls nod in agreement.

“We do well for ourselves, but it does take a little time getting used to what the boys have,” Ivy adds.

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