Page 74 of River
CHAPTER 20
Wine Snob
River
If I had to pick a favorite time of year, it would be Christmas. This year, however, my excitement wasn’t the same as usual.
London was always pretty in December when it turned into a fairytale setting with lights and decorations. My friends and I loved Christmas shopping, but this year I’d chosen online shopping and kept mostly to myself. Not even hearing my favorite songs or decorating my house in Mayfair gave me much satisfaction. I tried canceling my annual Christmas party, but my friends pushed back, and so I ended up going through with it. With so many of my friends being flamboyant and festive by nature, the party was a hit and brought me back to feeling like myself for a night.
But the next day, I was zapped for energy and stayed in bed watching cheesy Christmas romance movies that reminded me of what I could never have. In the movies, characters struggled with issues of money, status, or initial dislike, but not a single one of them talked about potentially being molested as a child or growing up in a cult with a crazy person to raise them. I watched another film with a hot young widower who hadn’t dated since he was sixteen and needed help getting back in the game. His best friend set him up with a dance instructor who was great at flirting and who had agreed to teach him. Surprise, surprise, they ended up falling in love with each other.
I’d cried, like I always do to those types of movies, and wondered if I could find the opposite. To me, flirting was as natural as breathing, but finding love had so far been out of my reach. Recognizing that I was a lost cause, I felt sorry for myself.
It was in that fragile state of mind that Jack Von Dorner caught me when he called to ask me on a date. Jack had come to my party with one of my friends. I felt no attraction to Jack, but as a lover of fashion and style, I’d appreciated that he’d been dressed impeccably and that his perfume had been spot on. The fact that Jack was a bit feminine only made him safe in my book. He wasn’t the type to push me against a wall and kiss me.
I arrived ten minutes late to our dinner date. The restaurant had two Michelin stars and was as expensive as it was classy.
“Hello, gorgeous, you look exquisite again tonight,” Jack said and stood up from his seat at the table to greet me with a kiss on each cheek.
“Thank you. What a beautiful suit you have on.” With a nod of approval, I moved to my chair.
“I get them tailored from Ede and Ravenscroft. It’s the oldest tailor shop in London and dates back to sixteen hundred eighty-nine.”
“Wow, how do you know that?”
“It says so on the sign above the door.”
A waiter pulled out my chair, and Jack kept standing until I was seated, and then he gave a dismissive hand to the waiter when he came to hold out Jack’s chair.
“It’s fine.”
Then, “Thank you for accepting my invitation,” Jack said with a smile. “Kylie, my friend who brought me to your party, gave me your number, but she told me not to get my hopes up. The rumor is that you’ve taken up celibacy.”
I chuckled and touched the single rose that stood in a slim vase on the table covered in white damask and fine silverware. “Yes. There’s some truth to that.”
“Well, in that case, I’m truly honored that you’re here. Christmas is such a stressful time.”
“You find Christmas stressful?”
“I dread it. The same five songs in every shop, the ugly sweaters, and my employees hanging Christmas decorations around their offices, making the place turn into a circus.” Jack shivered.
“Hmm. I love Christmas,” I said and added a soft afterthought, “Although this year, I haven’t been in the spirit as much.”
Jack ordered wine and a five-course menu for both of us before throwing himself into a long talk about his work as a CEO at an IT company. He also made sure to mention that he went to Eton as a boy and shamelessly name-dropped to let me know he was well connected.
I tried to seem interested and ask questions, but the conversation still seemed stiff and forced.
“What’s your five-year plan?” he asked me after the waiter had poured us glasses of wine.
“I’m not sure. I enjoy art, and my family just had a small baby boom, so I’d like to spend time with my niece and nephews.”
Jack frowned. “No, I meant with your brand. You have more than thirty-seven million followers on Instagram and twenty-eight million followers on YouTube. How do you plan to grow that?”
I hadn’t signed up for a business dinner and already regretted coming on this date.
“What’syourfive-year plan?” I asked to shift the conversation from me to him, but I wasn’t prepared for his long spiel about his plans for his future.
“Now that I’ve finally made the billionaire club, I’m ready to focus on finding the right woman to share my future with. I’d like that woman to be someone successful and driven herself. I’d like two children or three if the two first are of the same gender.”
