Bought: A Billionaire Romance (12 page)

I’m on my way back to my apartment and looking forward to getting some rest when my phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out and read the message.

I’m ready. Come to my hotel room now. Amy X

I’m surprised she’s ready so fast, but I can’t wait. The fact that we’re doing this without Clara having a clue gives me a bit of a thrill. I just hope she doesn’t find out until I’m ready for her to. I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she does. I reply to the message:

I’ll be right over. X

I tell my driver to take me straight to her hotel. I didn’t realize how much I’ve been looking forward to this day until it actually happened.

My stomach rumbles. I’m starving. Maybe we can get room service afterward to celebrate.

I stare out of the window at the city and think about the future. I don’t know if I’ll even be living here anymore in six months’ time.

My phone starts ringing. I look at it expecting to seem Amalia calling me to confirm that I’m really coming. I think she’s as excited about this as I am. When I look at the screen the caller I.D. says ‘Clara’ against the background of the soft, pretty face of my girlfriend. I better answer.

“Hey,”

“Hey! Are you on your way home?” asks Clara.

“Yeah,” I reply, “What’s up?”

“Nothing. Just wondering if you wanted to go see that movie you were talking about, you know, that action one with the aliens.”

I need to think of something fast. Something believable.

“Sorry, no can do tonight. Playing squash with the guys.”

“I thought squash was tomorrow?”

“Nope, the guys couldn’t make tomorrow, had to move it to tonight.”

Damn, now I’m going to have to cancel my squash game tomorrow night. Oh well, it’s going to be worth it.

“Oh, ok then,” says Clara, her voice tinged with disappointment, “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. See you tomorrow.”

I hang up. Wow, I’ve spent half my life lying but I’ve never really felt bad doing it until now.

It’s for her own good. Better that she doesn’t find out like this, right?
I try to convince myself. Hopefully, in a week or two, this whole mess will be sorted out.

I stare at the menu in silence. There isn’t a single dish that costs less than thirty dollars and I don’t think I could afford anything on the wine list, but I know Kyan will pay. It’s only fair, he’s had years of being a billionaire to develop expensive tastes but I would probably be just as happy at cheap taco place. I can tell he’s getting impatient.

The restaurant is dimly lit with shiny, black surfaces everywhere and blue, neon lights. It looks more like a nightclub than a restaurant. I’m not sure what ‘Asian fusion’ is but apparently this is one of the hottest places to eat right now. The waiting time on a reservation for most people is months but Kyan managed to call in some favors to get us a table on a Friday night.

“Have you decided yet?” he asks.

“No, I’m still looking. Everything here is so expensive.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m treating you,” he says.

“It just makes me feel kind of uncomfortable. It seems…wrong to me to be spending hundreds of dollars on food when we could get something a lot cheaper.”

“There’s nothing wrong with a treat once in a while. The China project is going well so why not celebrate?”

“I guess,” I reply.             

Things have been weird since last week. It all started that morning when Kyan left me to meet Amalia. Since then he’s been distant like he’s thinking about other things. At the same time, I can sense he’s got all this nervous energy built up. I know something is going on and I can’t help but think the worst.

Stop worrying, Clara. He’s serious about you. There’s nothing going on
, I tell myself this again and again but it doesn’t stop me. I feel like some crazy jealous girlfriend but the thought that he could be cheating is eating away at me.

Why would he tell you he wanted to be exclusive if he was just going to cheat on you a couple of weeks later? Things have been going too well. It can’t be true.

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom,” says Kyan, “hopefully you’ll have decided by the time I get back.”

Kyan walks away and I put the menu down. I’ll just have a salad. I don’t really feel much like eating.

I look across to Kyan’s side of the table. There, next to his empty wine glass, is his phone.

No, Clara. Don’t do it. You have to trust him. You can’t be one of those girlfriends that looks through their boyfriend’s phone all the time because they’re paranoid they might be cheating.

It would be so easy. I’ve seen him put his code in a hundred times so I know it. I could just look at his messages so that I’m completely sure he isn’t cheating and then everything can go back to normal. There’s no way he’ll know I looked at his phone and it will set my mind at ease.

If I’m going to do it, I have to do it fast before he comes back from the bathroom.

Yes,
I think, my hand reaching across the table for the phone,
if he’s got nothing to hide, then why would he have a problem with me looking at his messages? He can read mine anytime.

Deep down I know it’s wrong, that I’m only trying to justify my actions. The paranoia is eating me up inside. I have to do it.

I unlock his phone and go to his messages. Most of the conversations are work related, a couple about with his friends about meeting up for squash or basketball games. Then I find what I’m looking for: Amalia.

I look at the conversation and see a message from a week ago, from the night he told me he was playing squash with his friends:

I’m ready. Come to my hotel room now. Amy X

And his response:

I’ll be right over. X

I feel like my world is falling apart. My stomach is in knots. I drop the phone back to the table, stand up and walk out of the restaurant. It’s like I’m on autopilot. I have to get out of there, away from him. The cool night air feels good and I catch my breath as I walk robotically towards home.

The tears don’t start coming until I’m on the subway, my head in my hands. He lied to me. He lied to me and went to her hotel room instead of seeing me. There’s no doubt in my mind anymore that he’s been cheating.

Why did you let yourself fall for him, Clara? You knew he was a liar and a cheat, it was obvious from the start. But you still let him get inside your head.

I just can’t understand it. Everything seemed to be going so great between us, so why would he do this to me? Kelly thought I had tamed him, but a leopard never changes its spots.

****

My phone has been vibrating all the way home. I can’t bear to look at the messages from him right now. All I want right now is to curl up in my bed and cry. I make the mistake of looking at the messages from him as I climb the stairs to my apartment

Clara, please, we need to talk.

It isn’t what you think.

I want to hurl the phone at the wall but I don’t. I keep climbing the stairs until I get to the apartment.

I start rummaging through my bag for my keys but I can’t find them so I bang on the door. Luckily Kelly is still at home.

“Clara? Oh my God, what’s wrong?” says Kelly looking with concern at my smudged makeup and puffy, bloodshot eyes. I must look a complete wreck.

“It’s Kyan,” I say, choking back tears, “He’s cheating on me.”

****

I sit on the sofa sipping at the cup of hot cocoa Kelly handed me a few moments ago. The little marshmallows floating in it are a nice touch.

“I just feel so stupid,” I say.

Kelly nods with understanding. She listened intently while I told her everything, about how weirdly he’s been acting and about how I read the messages on his phone. I’m not proud of snooping on him like that, but it’s best that I did because now I know the truth.

“You couldn’t have known he would do that,” says Kelly, “Everything seemed to be going so great for you. It’s so weird that he would just throw it all away. Some guys just freak out when things start getting serious, Kyan is probably one of them.”

“I know. His secretary even warned me about that aspect of him. I ignored her. I’m such an idiot.”

“I doubt you’re the first woman to be fooled by the charming Kyan Ellis,” says Kelly, “You probably won’t be the last either.”

I know what Kelly is saying is true, but it doesn’t make it any easier to hear. It all makes sense now. Kyan wanted me right from the moment he met me but, unlike most girls, I wasn’t instantly seduced by either his good looks or his bank balance and that just made him want me more. So he set out to get me, he bought me from my dream job, he seduced me by playing the good guy in Beijing and, once he was done with me, he cheated on me. I wonder if he does that often or if I’m the first girl he actually had to make an effort to get into his bed.

We both jump when there is a sudden knocking on the apartment door.

“Clara, please, I need to talk to you,” says a muffled voice beyond the door.

“Kyan,” I whisper.             

“Do you want me to get rid of him for you?” asks Kelly.

I nod my head. In a flash I’m off the sofa and scurrying to my room where I press myself against the back of the door, listening intently to the conversation outside.

“She doesn’t want to speak to you right now,” says Kelly. She’s using her firm voice, the one she uses at the bar when a drunk customer gets a little rowdy. It usually works on them but Kyan is another matter.

“Kelly, please, I need to speak to her, she doesn’t understand—”

“Yeah, well what’s to understand? You’ve been meeting up some slut behind her back?”

“Yes. No. That’s not it…I—”

“Get out of here Kyan, before I call the cops!” I hear the door slam, “Clara doesn’t want to talk to you right now and I wouldn’t blame her if she never wants to talk to you again.”

The door slams shut in my face. For a moment I consider kicking it down before I decide it probably isn’t worth getting dragged down to the police station and having to call my lawyer.

Fuck it. I am so angry right now. I don’t know if I’m angrier at Clara for trusting me so little that she decided to look through my phone, or if I’m just angry at myself for fucking this thing up like I always do.

The thing is, I didn’t even cheat on her. All the other relationships I’ve fucked up, they were my fault but, for some reason, Clara is the first relationship that I actually cared about enough not to ruin. In the end, that still didn’t help.

Yes, I lied to her. I regretted it almost immediately but it was a white lie. I never meant to hurt her. I only want her to be happy.

I kick the wall in the hallway and enjoy the pain in my foot for a moment. It gives me something to focus on other than this anger.

If that bitch hadn’t looked through my phone, this would never have happened!
The angry thought rolls around in my head.

It’s wrong. What else was Clara supposed to think? I have been acting weird and I did lie to her. This is karma. This is because of all those times I fucked up, and lied, and cheated. Everybody knows that I do it. Of course Clara found it hard to trust me. I don’t deserve to be trusted.

I start walking back down the stairs towards the waiting car outside. There’s no point staying here and trying to get Clara to talk to me, I’m only going to make things worse by doing that, emotions are running too high for rational conversations.

I get into the car.             

“Where to?” asks my driver.

I think for a moment. I could go home, that would be the sensible option. If Clara doesn’t trust me, though, what’s the point? Why don’t I just go to a bar and pick up some girl to keep me company for the night, after all, it’s what Clara expects of me, even after I told her I only wanted to be with her.

“My apartment,” I say. I’m pissed off and I want to lash out, but I know how much I would regret it afterward. Clara is the last person in the world I want to hurt.

****

I flick on the light switch and the silent emptiness of my apartment washes over me.

“Just me and you tonight,” I say to the dog statue that guards my door. When Clara bought it for me I hated it at first— it’s kitsch as hell and doesn’t fit in with my décor at all— but once I saw him sitting next my door with that dumb look on his porcelain face I fell in love. The apartment feels just a little bit less empty with Yeller here to keep me company.

I take off my clothes, crawl into bed and turn out the light. I am really fucking tired but I still can’t help looking at my phone one last time before I close my eyes and try to sleep, hoping that she has replied to me or even looked at the messages I’ve sent her. I squint against the bright blue-hued light of the screen in the darkness of my bedroom. No messages. Nothing.

You’ve dealt with tough situations before, Kyan, but you always end up getting what you want in the end. You can handle this,
I think as I close my eyes.

              I’ve dealt with worse than this. I know exactly what I need to do. Never negotiate from a position of weakness. Clara will forgive me, I just need to make sure I can get through to her.