Confessions Of A Billionaire 1
Confessions
Of A
Billionaire
The Lie (Book 1)
Lea Michaels
Write One Publications
Marietta, GA
Copyright © 2015 by Lea Michaels.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
Lea Michaels/Write One Publications, Inc.
Marietta, GA
www.writeonepublications.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Ordering Information:
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales Department” at the address above.
Confessions Of A Billionaire/ Lea Michaels. -- 1st ed.
Contents
Chapter 1
1
Chapter 2
11
Chapter 3
19
Chapter 4
23
Chapter 5
29
Chapter 6
33
Chapter 7
37
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Chapter 1
“Yes…no, I did have a nice time,” Madison smiled trying to shake the awkwardness out of her voice. She looked in Dave’s direction but purposefully missed making eye contact. Dave was a lawyer with a kind face and an additional hundred pounds and ten years than he’d posted in his profile photos. He’d also posted that he was a runner, loved hiking, played competitive tennis—and when she’d mentioned it in an email, he said he was dying to walk Santiago de Compostela too.
As soon as she’d walked into their meeting spot she knew there had been some wishful fabrication somewhere.
“So, I’ll see you again?” Dave asked. Madison cringed at the thought of answering his question. She could be honest and embarrass him or she could put him off and give him hope.
“I don’t want to lie to you,” she took a preparatory breath. “I did have a nice time talking with you. You are obviously very successful and you seem very nice—but I don’t think it’s quite the right fit.” She was using all of her communication skills to make this exchange as nice as possible.
“Oh…” He stared at Madison as if she was about to kiss him goodbye. He’d spent most of the time talking about his new six-bedroom house, the Lotus he’d just purchased, and the type of comfortable future he was expecting to have. If he’d thought that meant so much to women why hadn’t he put that on his profile instead of obvious make believe.
“Oh, right…” he finally said, understanding. “I appreciate your honesty,” he was going to turn away, but then he turned back. “Can I just ask…why?”
“Well,” how to put this nicely. “You’re not really my type. In the pictures you posted you looked a lot different.” His face was turning the color of his hair. “It’s just that—all the things we talked about online and in your profile really seemed to line up with me, but it doesn’t seem like that stuff is a priority to you right now.” She felt like she was sliding downhill. “Which is fine, having a successful career and being financially comfortable are incredibly admirable things, I just don’t value them as much as some other women might.” He stood staring at her and Madison began to wish she’d gone the path of least resistance.
“Well to be fair, you don’t look exactly like your photo either,” he said sharply.
“How so?” Madison asked. She was genuinely perplexed. As far as she was concerned, she’d tried to represent herself as honest as she possibly could. She’d done what all of the articles online had suggested. She’d used a current photo and she’d tried her best to post pictures of her doing things she absolutely loved.
“Well for starters, from the pictures I assumed your hair was naturally blonde. Seeing you now, it’s obvious that that isn’t the case. And…the tan is a little over done if I were being completely honest.”
Madison stared at her date with a completely dumbstruck look. Her hair, which hung past her shoulders, was naturally blonde and the tan he spoke of was perfect in her opinion.
He continued, “I mean don’t get me wrong, you’re a beautiful girl. Your eyes are captivating and you’re incredibly fit, but you don’t look exactly like your pictures either.”
As if things couldn’t get more awkward, there they both stood, with blank looks on their faces.
Finally, Dave seemed to understand that she wasn’t going to say anymore. She wondered if she’d brought this all upon herself by being too harsh initially. But, even if what he said had been true in the past, even if he did run and loved the outdoors, and would have walked 500 miles from France to Spain, he certainly wasn’t that person now.
Madison sighed. She walked in the direction of her battered red Jetta while Dave was somewhere getting into his six-figure car. She patted the dash with her hand. This car had been good to her. Her California plates hadn’t been exchanged even though she was supposed to have done it months ago. The thought of giving up her California plates made her feel like she was giving up her home. Even though she’d already done that.
Driving back to work left her with a lump in her chest. This was so much harder than it had to be. Did everyone feel so awful saying no?
She’d taken a break from work to have an easy coffee date; Madison felt that made things more informal and easier to walk away from. Belvedere Health & Fitness was a quick two-minute drive from their meet location in Ellicot City. There were others closer but she didn’t want to meet someone too close to home either.
Was it just usual practice for men to lie so they would seem more attractive? Did they think no one would find out? So far, online dating had proved to be wasting more of her time then doing any good in her life.
“Hey Willow,” Madison walked in and waved at the quirky woman behind the front desk. “Busy day?”
“Usual,” Willow said. Willow had short hair with an orange tint and a face that already resembled a goldfish. She’d been a receptionist at Belvedere Health & Fitness for the last six years and, to Madison, she felt like an important permanent fixture.
“I got you a coffee,” Madison lifted the cup up over the front desk. “Just the way you like it.”
“You read my mind. How did you read my mind?”
“You always want coffee, I don’t think that counts as reading your mind.”
Madison began to walk back toward the fitness room. She had a client in twenty minutes and she wanted to prepare. The little office that she shared with two other people was encased by glass walls so she could see out and everyone could see in. The fundamentals stocked this room. Training programs in the filing cabinets, reports on each client, injuries and doctor’s notes, a doctor’s scale in the corner, fat calipers in the desk, measuring tape next to the fat calipers. A computer took residence on the standard office desk for any and all paperwork that needed to be done for each of them to get paid.
Technically Madison was a fitness coach, but her title had been turned into a myriad of things depending on who she might be talking to. Her mother called her a fitness trainer, her clients often called her their personal trainer, she’d been pegged “guru” by one enthusiastic client and a merciless tyrant by another (she liked that one best.) She didn’t care what people called her as long as they didn’t add a girly touch. Something like, aerobics trainer, was too Jane Fonda for her taste.
Madison had just taken a seat when her cell phone pinged. A text message from Dave popped up, “Thinking about you, maybe coffee again?”
It had been maybe twenty minutes ago that she’d told him she wasn’t interested. Men were weird. What made him think she would change her mind in twenty minutes? Or had he just blocked that part out altogether? Madison turned it off and shoved her cell phone into a desk drawer before it could go off again.
~
“…I think it’s a sign that you should move back home,” Ana said from 3,000 miles away.
“Men are just as weird in California,” Madison was sitting with her legs lifted on the wall while laying on the full-size bed that was all she could fit into her new studio apartment.
“I just miss you.”
“I miss you too.”
There was silence between the girls for a few moments as each felt the physical distance keeping them apart. Ana was Madison’s best friend; they’d met in high school, went to college together at Fresno State, and then went on to be roommates for four years out of college.
“I was thinking that maybe I would come visit you,” Ana framed it more as a question.
Madison smiled, “You can’t afford it. Plus, you just started a new job.”
“Actually, they give me a vacation day per month until I’ve been here for a year so I’m up to eight days.”
“What about the rest of your family?” Madison had known when moving, how difficult it would be for both of them to make it across the country. Both were financially on the rocks, Ana’s parents had moved to Mexico City so she usually went there if she was going to go anywhere, and Madison didn’t get paid if she didn’t work.
“You
are
my family,” Ana said. “Plus, I’ve already talked to my mom and she’s the one who suggested it.”
Madison loved Ana’s mom, a world away from her own mother.
“Ana,” Madison felt tears coming to her eyes. “I want you to come, I miss you so much.”
“Me too.”
“But, you have to let me pay for half of your airfare, otherwise I won’t agree.”
“You drive such a hard bargain,” Ana went silent and Madison could feel that she was about to say something about
him
.
“I thought maybe I should tell you…that he’s getting married.” Ana wouldn’t use his name and neither would Madison, it had caused too much harm in the last year.
Madison was silent as she processed the new information. Tears were falling silently off the sides of her face and she held the phone up while she took a breath so she could sound normal for Ana.
“I figured that would happen sooner or later,” she said as she bit her lip. “I just didn’t expect it to be so soon.” She wiped her cheek and made another silent inhalation, “Thank you for telling me, Ana.”
When they got off the phone, Madison stared at her ceiling. The tears came faster, falling back into her hair. Madison picked up the pillow laying next to her, pushed it on top of her face and let herself sob into it. The pain was still so fresh. He’d ruined so much. Now, because of him she was reduced to dating a whole new set of liars, because of him she was 3,000 miles from Ana. Because of him she was in a strange town full of people she didn’t know. Because of him she was broken. She gave herself over to being the victim, knowing it couldn’t last.
~
The next day she was back to the land of the living, acting as if nothing had happened. Madison had a gift for putting a smile on —being peppy and energetic even when she felt like shit. It was a great gift and a great curse. She’d just finished with her first three morning appointments, 5am, 6am, and 7:15am. After three hours of being “on” she really needed to be off. Picking up her wallet she headed out of the gym to run for the first coffee of the day.
“Coffee?” Madison asked Willow as she walked by.
“Do I ever say no?” Willow opened Belvedere Health & Fitness every morning Monday through Friday and worked until 1pm, so Madison had spent a lot of down time with her. This morning Willow had a bright purple velour jump suit on, with large turquoise earrings and her hair twisted into little spikes around her head. Madison could appreciate a woman who didn’t follow social form.
Today Ellicott City was storming, something she didn’t experience much of back home. The nearest coffee spot was only a two minute walk from the gym so, with an oversized raincoat someone had left in the lost and found, Madison rolled up the bottom of her form fitting yoga pants and ran all three blocks. She ran right up to the coffee shop and quickly opened the door. Coffee went flying up, raining down on her coat and on a man who stood in front of her. The calamity was complete; two empty and rolling cups were on the ground in front of her.