Page 112 of The Grumpy Billionaire

“Don’t be sorry,” Kelsey says. “We are going to makethismotherfucker sorry if he breaks that restraining order. If you see this face anywhere on the premises, you need to call 911. Take a picture of him too. He needs to know he’s not messing with our girl.” She points at me with one of her extra-long bejeweled fingernails. “He shouldn’t be anywhere around your place of employment, either.”

“On it,” I say.

“Lola, tell them what a psycho this guy is,” Sienna urges. Sienna seems to be Lola’s new roommate.

Lola’s clearly reluctant to go into the full story. Stella already told me about how Lola got kicked out of her last home because of this Roger. The way Kelsey and the rest of this group have embraced her, that won’t happen here. I’m happy to see that Stella’s found her way into this fierce group.

After Lola tells ex-boyfriend horror stories, the group falls to discussing imaginative and somewhat frightening ideas for booby traps that I definitely wouldn’t want to be on the wrong end of.

Lola wanders over. “This kind of thing probably wouldn’t come up with you and Wulfric, but I’d rather he not be involved. Not that he’d ever care or want to be involved, but you just never know with Wulfric. In certain moods he’s unpredictable.”

“If not volatile,” I say.

“Right! Involving him feels extreme,” she says.

I nod. Everything with Wulfric is extreme.

“And I am handling it,” she adds. “I have a solid strategy beyond this.” She gets this mysterious expression. “I’m in a secure building and I have a golden strategy.”

“Good,” I say, resisting the urge to ask about this strategy of hers.

The talk spins toThe Bachelor. Lola also has a lot of feelings about the new season.

Stella climbs into my lap. “No opinions? Not even onBachelorversusBachelorette?”

I pull her close. “None whatsoever.”

She grins. “You sure?”

“So sure.”

“I just took the cutest picture of you two,” Lizzie says. “Sorry, but you were looking so cozy. I’m forwarding it to you.”

Stella’s phone pings. She grabs it. “Love!” She shows me the picture. The way we’re looking at each other, we’re in our own world.

“Is that what we look like all the time?” she mumbles at the phone. “Like a bomb could go off and we wouldn’t notice?”

“Well, I’d notice a bomb.”

“So romantic,” Stella says, and then she gets this mischievous look on her face.

“What?”

“Wait.” She’s texting furiously. Then she shows me her phone with an as-yet-unsent text to Charlie. It’s the image of us looking like we’re in love along with a message:

Me: Hugo - best boyfriend ever!!!!!

“I’m sending it,” she says.

“Wait, don’t,” I say.

“No?” she says. “I really, really, really want to.”

“Not until I fix it.” I take the phone and add a line at the end: “Stella Woodward - best girlfriend ever, signed Hugo.”

“Love!” She hits send and turns to me. “Am I having a bad influence on you?”

“Yes,” I say, “you’re taking me down at least five percent a day and I am loving every minute.”

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