A Billionaire BWWM Romance 5: The Other Man (3 page)

“
We’re
not even married yet,” he answered.

“
Yes,
and already we rarely see each other. If you ask me that’s a
red light alert. We need to make more time for each other,” she
said. Steven shrugged and nodded.

“
Whatever
you want,” he said. She looked at him and shook her head.

“
You
have to want it too. It’s not all about me, remember?”
she asked. He looked at her and smiled.

“
Of
course, sugar,” he grinned. She bit into her bagel again and
then looked at her phone.

“
Damn
it,” she cursed. “I’m going to be late.”

“
What
time is your client meet?” Steven asked.

“
Noon.
I have to pass by the gallery and pick something for the new client.
She has a thing for abstract art,” she said.

“
What
did you get her?” Steven asked.

“
A
painting by this college girl…she’s going places. I
didn’t get it, but the guy at the gallery said it was divine,”
she said. Steven smiled. “And for three thousand dollars it had
better be,” she added. Steven raised an eyebrow and gave her a
long low whistle.

“
Three
grand for something you don’t even understand?” he asked.
She looked at him and shook her head.

“
Your
family home has a piece of quote unquote art that cost more than my
house,” she said. Steven smiled.

“
Actually…”
he started before she put her hand up.

“
Actually
you have like a million paintings each worth tens of thousands of
dollars,” she argued smiling. “And there’s this,”
she said as she raised her hand at him showing him the ring on her
finger.

“
You
don’t have to show me that. I know exactly what it’s
worth,” Steven said.

“
My
case exactly,” she winked as she took one last sip and got off
the high school. She looked at him as he laughed.

“
Do
I hear someone complaining that her rock is too big?” he asked.
She looked at him and shook her head and then leaned over to kiss him
softly.

“
I
was simply making a point,” she stated. “And the day I
make that complaint heard, shoot me between the eyes, but keep the
ring and give it to my dad,” she added as she walked into the
living room and grabbed her bag. Steven walked out of the kitchen and
looked at her.

“
So,
what time is our movie date?” he asked.

“
How’s
seven? We can do the classic dinner and a movie,” she
suggested. He walked over to where she was and slipped an arm around
her waist and pulled her close to him.

“
Look
at you being so romantic,” he said before he kissed her long
and deep. When he pulled away, her toes were tingling. She looked
into his eyes and smiled.

“
Wow,”
she said in a low voice.

“
I
know,” he replied as he slid a hand down to cup her ass. She
smiled and shook her head.

“
No,”
she argued as she pulled away. She kissed his cheek and grabbed her
keys. “Got to run.”

“
Babe,
come on,” he pleaded. She looked at him and shook her head.

“
No,
you have suddenly become a nympho,” she said with a smile.

“
Is
that such a bad thing?” he asked. She looked at him and
shrugged.

“
So,
what? I just walk over and you bend me over the couch because I don’t
want to take off this dress,” she said matter of factly. She
noticed his face light up.

“
That
works…totally works with me,” he laughed nodding. She
laughed back and shook her head and then began heading for the door.
“Really? Babe! Why?” he asked as she got out. He shook
his head and sat back and then looked at his already growing hard on.
“What
am I supposed to do with this now?”
he
wondered as he sat there. He didn’t have to leave for work for
another hour. Well, maybe he could take things into his own hands…

***********************************************************

When
Julie got to the gallery, she walked to the attendant with a smile.

“
Please
tell me the…thing…is still here,” she cried. The
man smiled at her and shook his head.

“
Are
you still calling it a thing? I thought you would have gotten used to
the fact that this is actually a rare piece of
art
,”
he said as he got behind the counter and walked into the store room.
He came back carrying what Julie would have classified as a pointless
piece of junk. “Here you are,” the attendant said as he
packaged it. “I’m guessing you have no kind of art at
your place, yeah?” he asked as he sealed up the box. Julie
shrugged and shook her head.

“
If
I want to see something beautiful, I can always Google,” she
said. The attendant faked a dramatic sigh.

“
If
Monet was here, you’d get a smacking,” he teased. Julie
laughed.

“
Okay,
I’m not all that bad, I have a few paintings,” she said.
The attendant looked up at her and smiled.

“
If
I was to guess, they were picked out for you by someone who obviously
has an appreciation for the arts,” he said. Julie shrugged and
nodded. “Some people are so predictable,” he muttered
under his breath. Julie wagged a warning finger at him.

“
I
heard that,” she said. She looked at the box and shrugged. “I
see the beauty in it, but I just don’t get why it has to be so
damn expensive.”

“
Good
and perfect is sometimes a little more pricey than alright,” he
commented.

“
And
how do I know this isn’t just alright? I mean how can I tell
that this is more than the simple perky piece of wood…or
ceramic…what the hell is this?” she asked looking at the
photo of the sculpture.

“
Black
marble,” he corrected.

“
Okay,
how do I know that this black marble is actually good and perfect and
not just alright?” she asked. The attendant smiled.

“
Oh,
that’s easy. This is one hundred percent marble sitting on a
perfect silver base. Not silver coated, I mean pure silver,” he
explained. Julie was still confused. According to the limited
information she had concerning art, every artist was out to show
something in their work. It was some kind of out. Some people had
their writing, others had their journals and others had their marbles
on silver. She smiled to herself when the words ‘marbles on
silver’ crossed her mind. It sounded more dirty than genuine.

“
It’s
all in the message really,” the attendant continued, snapping
Julie back to reality. He had been talking all this time and she was
simply too lost in her own world to notice.

“
What
is the artist looking to show here anyway?” she asked.

“
Well,
how do I explain this?” the attendant said as he scratched his
chin artistically, or so Julie thought. “The work is a unique
representation of the impeccable poise between positive and negative,
the whole point being to seek out the blur between nature and
structure,” he described. Julie raised an eyebrow at him and
shook her head. Basically, everything he had just said had simply
flown over her head. He was not making any sense. At least not to
her. She shook her head. “What I mean to say is that the
artist is blending the very emotion he feels in the form and allowing
the work to evolve seeking its capacity to change.”

“
Change?
Change what? Some poor guy’s bank account?”
Julie
thought as she looked at the attendant hoping to God that he was not
seeing through her feigned interest. “Wow,” she murmured
when the attendant finally stopped talking. “That’s
really something.”

“
I
know, right?” he said with a smile. “Especially the way
he follows a post-minimal synthesis of expressionist gesture…it
is actually just beautiful,” he added. He looked up and smiled.
“I would love to be the one getting this…honestly, I’m
jealous,” he admitted as he handed the box to Julie who smiled.

“
Well,
I hope she gets half as excited as you are,” she laughed.

“
Tell
me how it goes,” he said as Julie handed him her card.

“
The
company had better refund this,”
she
thought as she watched the attendant charge twelve thousand dollars
to her card. “I most definitely will,” she muttered
before she walked out to her car with the box. She took a long deep
breath as she put it in the back seat. She was glad to get away from
all the artsy talk, God knows she didn’t need it.
“I
hope I remember all the artsy talk,”
she
thought as she started the car. When she got to the office building,
she closed her eyes and looked at the box through her rear view
mirror.
“The
things I do for clients….it’s a good thing all the
commissions are worth it,”
she thought as she got out of the car. She carried the box into the
elevator and then took another long deep breath. She would have given
anything at that moment to be back in bed with Steven. The quickie he
had wanted didn’t look so bad at this moment, of course,
compared to all the weird fake ass artistic talk that was waiting for
her.

As
she walked out of the elevator, she was trying to recall what the
gallery attendant had said about the sculpture. Something about poise
feeling the balance between good and bad and feeling the form in the
change…wait, what? That didn’t even sound right.

“
Great.
I should have recorded all that crap,”
she
thought as she walked into the hallway. She stopped in her tracks
when she saw the entire office was empty.
“What
the hell? Did I come
to
work on a weekend or a public holiday or something?” S
he
slowly made her way to the office main area where she caught a whiff
of what was going on. She walked on and heard a loud ‘SURPRISE!’
from so many voices she almost dropped the sculpture. She stood
rooted to the spot as balloons fell over her head and confetti flew
all around her. She looked around and locked eyes with Meg and Dana.
They must have been behind this whole thing.

“
What
is going on here?” she asked as Dana walked towards her.

“
This
is your engagement party since it is so obvious that you were not
going to have it,” she shrieked as she hugged Julie.

“
I
would hug you back, but…” she stammered as the box
between them stood as a barrier. “And I am not big on
engagement parties. Why have them if you’re going to have the
wedding anyway?” she asked. This time, Meg had her arms around
her. The music was already on and it was almost like this was some
club and not a realty. “So, the meeting…” Julie
started saying as she looked around.

“
Oh,
that was a ruse just to get you here on time. The real meeting is
tomorrow morning,” Dana said. Julie raised an eyebrow.

“
Are
you telling me that I had to sit through some guy talk about some art
being balanced yet I could have sent Andy? Really, Dana?” Julie
asked. Meg put an arm around her shoulders and smiled.

“
Come
on, it’s your party. Go ahead and have some cake,” she
ordered as she led Julie to the refreshments table. She poured Julie
some punch and she was just serving her cake when Julie felt the
color drain from her face. “Here, we got red velvet. Your
favorite,” Meg said as she handed her the cake.

“
Tell
me you didn’t do that,” Julie groaned in a low voice. Meg
looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

“
Do
what?” she asked.

“
Invite
him,” Julie hissed, still whispering but even in the party’s
noise she was audible.

“
Invite
who?” Meg asked, looking at Julie.

“
Evan,”
Julie replied, looking at her ex-boyfriend freely mingling in the
crowd.

Julie’s
heart was beating hard in her chest as she looked at Evan Lockwood.
He had once made her feel like she was on top of the world, but
seeing him here, now, she was not sure that she wanted anything to do
with him. She looked at Meg, who had a confused look in her eyes.

“
Who
the hell is Evan?” she questioned. Julie looked at her.