Southern Charmed Billionaire (9 page)

“Oh, God. The society pages.”
 

“Yes. Society pages.” The words made a more firm connection in my brain. “Oh shit.” Oh, I remembered the gossip queen now, and me telling Brittany to kiss my ass. It had made the gossip. Was there anything more? Anything linking me to my incarcerated father?
 

My heartbeat caught in my throat.
 

Oh no.
 

Anxiety spread like wildfire to every nerve of my body. Why did I give out my last name like that? I wasn’t thinking straight.
 

“Claire, is there anything about my father? I can’t let people find out about my past. I stupidly talked to a woman who I just thought was being nice to me. Turns out, she was tag-teaming with the other reporter. Which, I mean, never in a million years did I ever think I had to watch what I said at an event because of some gossip writer.”
 

“Sweetie. A, that is what happens when you run in these circles. You have to watch everything you do, say, and how you dress very carefully. B, it’s not your responsibility, nor is it
your
past. None of that was your fault. You need to let that go here in your new life.”
 

“Yeah, well. This may be turning into a circus, and I don’t know if I can handle this drama.”
 

“Well, as someone who is currently living in the middle of this circus, I can give you a few pointers. But I still don’t understand what’s going on. I never got your message last night about the Air B&B bill. So have you just not sent it yet…or were you at Atticus Branch III’s home?”
 

Warm, gooey feelings covered my body as I just lay there for one moment in my life and felt pampered, felt looked-after, felt like I had hardly any cares at all. And it felt pretty damn nice. I had cares, sure. But those were laced with ambition with building blocks and steps to take next.
 

Getting a taste of what it’s like as a one percenter’s lifestyle. Sleeping on a mattress that probably cost more than my yearly salary, yeah these small tidbits can elicit such tantalizingly exciting feelings.
 

“Hello? Are you?”
 

“I’m…at corporate housing for Branch enterprises.” I said feeling strange saying it like that. It sounded so formal.
 

“You’re
what
? What the hell is going on? Are you some secret escort and never told me? How the hell did you meet him? Dish now. No, wait.”
 

The phone cut her off, and I sighed nostalgically again at that moment of my life. The high pitched ringtone alerted me that Claire was Facetiming me. The infamous sound connected us.
 

“I’ve got to see this for myself. Let me see.”
 

I smiled at her perplexed face
 

“I don’t see you wearing any lingerie. Show me the floor.” I shot the phone’s screen to the floor to reveal only my slippers I brought from her apartment.
 

“So what is this? What are you doing? What exactly is your job there?”
 

“I’m…his assistant?” I said, baffled, running my fingers through my hair.
 

“His assistant?”
 

“He has these fancy functions he has to attend at night, and he needs a woman on his arm all the time. We met during the meltdown behind stage.”
 

“That must have been one heck of a meeting. What did you do, suck his dick behind the curtain?
 

“
No
!”
 

“Well,
have
you sucked his dick?”
 

“No!”
 

“Oh my god, you should. You may get some extras out of it.”
 

“You are so dirty.”
 

“Just sayin.’ ”
 

“I’m not in this for ‘benefits.’ Not those kinds, anyway.”
 

“You could be a rich sugar baby if you played it right.”
 

“Yeah, well—” The doorbell rang causing me to stop talking mid-sentence. “Um, let me get that. Hold on?”
 

“I’m not going anywhere. Flip the phone around and let me get a look at this place.”
 

I couldn’t hide the smile on my face as I flipped it around, letting her take in the white wooden floors, the wooden beams in the ceiling, the all-white pillars. It was a beautiful home.
 

“And that’s just the kitchen! I’m breaking that in today.” My voice echoed off the high walls. I finally made it to the Mediterranean door. A man in a business suit stood there with an envelope.
 

“Kate Longhouse?”
 

“Yes?”
 

“This is for you.”
 

God, please don’t tell me I’m being served. I waited for it…waited for it.
 

“Have a good day, mam.”
 

Phew. I exhaled and looked back down at the envelope, forgetting Claire was watching my every move on the phone.
 

“Well? Open it!” Her voice squealed.
 

I laughed as I shut the door, shaking my head. As much as Claire gave me a headache and made poor boyfriend choices, she was the closest thing I had to a sister, and I loved her anxious, neurotic ways. She was like a quirky kitten: so cute, you just had to watch, but no doubt she would be soon jumping from corner to chair to curtains. It’s what made her a fascinating performer and artist to watch.
 

I tore the side of the envelope open to see the fanciest check ever made out to me, with my name professionally typed in fancy font.
 

Pay the order of Kate Longhouse in the amount of $1,000.
 

“Holy shit, Kate! That’s how much you go paid?”
 

All I could do was nod and feel a thrill of shock and a wave of wonder. I mean, I knew he had set the amount. It just didn’t register then like it did now. I’d never earned that much money in a single day in my life.
 

“And you swear to me you didn’t fuck him?”
 

“I didn’t!”
 

“Look at me, Kate Laura Longhouse!” She demanded through the mobile device.
 

Her face looked at me closely, inspecting me through the screen, zooming in dramatically to her left brown eye. She eyed me so close I could see the dark green that lined her iris, which made me to laugh even more.
 

“You’re telling the truth, I can tell. Okay, if you want my honest opinion, girl, get freaky with him, and fast. You've read
Fifty Shades of Gray.
You know how horny and freaky billionaires are. Just give him the best blow job of his life, let him put things up your ass and slap you with whips. Hell, get the candle wax out, and I promise you, you'll have your new business up and running and your debt cleared in no time. You’ll see that $1,000 go up in numbers real quick.”
 

I sat in a nearby chair, and for the first time in the sitting room, I failed to notice when I had one thing on my mind last night: the kitchen.
 

My debt cleared in no time. How nice would that be.
 

All that debt.
 

That was the looming pile of bricks that seemed to follow me like a dark rain cloud. It was an unfortunate result of a combination of a bad father and bad boyfriends. One factor I had a choice over, the other I did not. But both had one thing in common:
they used me, and they took advantage of me for their own personal gain. I was tired of being used for someone else’s life plan. I promised myself that would never happen again, which was the reason why I hadn’t dated at all in three years since I moved to Charleston to work for Claire’s band. And to be honest, all of the traveling really kept me busy. So did the work and the hustle of being their manager and booking agent. But deep inside my heart at night, I’d dream of the kitchen and concocting my newest creation. And over the years, I came up with a plan to fit not only my new life, but also my newfound lifestyle of healthy living. After ditching locale, I felt so heavy from debt and shame from my family’s past, I lost nearly thirty pounds from a combination of clean eating and regularly working out. I loved the way I felt. I loved the way I looked at food. And I was determined to bring my story to others to not only inspire them to change, but also to bring joy into the healthy living sector.
 

The only thing standing in my way of bringing the dream to fruition, from more action to my plan, was nearly $100,000 in credit card fraud debt, as well as money stolen from me by my ex.
 

But I hadn’t thought about it. I hadn’t thought about it in a very long time like that until Claire brought it up.
Thanks, Claire.
 

 I shook my head. I couldn't keep obsessing over it. I just had to plan and work hard. Worrying wasn't going to change any of it. But this new job might provide just the right amount of capital to start something small. My wheels were turning.
 

"Okay you little whore, I'm not a tramp like you! I would never do that! But to be honest with you, I don’t know if I can handle this whole ‘high society’ thing with all these rules. It’s hard, Claire. I mean, it took hours to look like I did last night, and the spanx that I wore underneath was just unbearable! And you should have met Atticus’s sister. Brittany’s a bitch. And I swear her friends were like, just as bitchy, between the scathing looks and condescending laughs they gave me. Like, they had no heart. No compassion.”
 

“So? It’s not like he’s your boyfriend or anything. You don’t have to live with these people for ever.”
 

Boyfriend.
 

He surely wasn’t. I wouldn’t even know how to be involved with a guy like that.
It seemed complicated. Very complicated. And I wasn’t about complicating my life any further. Besides, maybe Brittany was right—guys like that are paired with women born into that fancy rich scene, groomed for that life since infancy. If I ever, and I mean
ever
in a blue moon dated a guy like that, I’m convinced there wouldn’t be enough etiquette lessons to attend every day for a year to prepare me for that scene.
 

“You’re going to stick it out and treat this as a j-o-b, Kate. Just like you manage all the crazy cats in the music scene. Just treat these bitches like they are actors or something, alright? Smile and nod. Hold your tongue. Play the part. You don’t go telling off lead singers of other bands. You let them think they’re king and queen of the castle. Just switch gears and do the same here. As your cousin and practically your sister, it is my duty to help you stay the course. And $1,000 a day to attend an event is a pretty swanky deal. And
please
! Don’t give me that, ‘do you know how long it took to get ready?’ routine. You know you enjoyed it!” Her smile was ear-to-ear. Well, maybe she was right. I did enjoy being taken care of for once.
 

“And if I were you, I would throw in some extra if you know what I mean.” She whistled. “Some extra lip, hand, vag, ass action. Whatever. I think you know what I’m talking about, girl.”
 

I sighed and rolled my eyes at her vulgar suggestion. That type of behavior just wasn’t me.
 

“Anywaaaaaaay,” I stood up and headed to the kitchen. “There has to be coffee in this kitchen somewhere.” Oh, this kitchen was just to die for!
 

“So, enough about me. Did you patch things over with Andy the asshole?” I didn’t expect her to actually say anything positive about it. I was just trying to change the subject.
 

“Heeeeeeey…don’t call him that.”
 

“Well, he is. He cheated on you and acted like it wasn’t a big deal in front of thousands of people, and now the
world
since that video went viral. What else can he really be called?”
 

“My, um, on-again boyfriend?” she confessed with a sheepish smile.
 

Oh, god.
 

“Now, before you get all judgey-pants. I’m thinking about the grand scheme of
things, okay? He’s a rock star. We are in an up and coming band together. This is, like, totally normal for what they do. It’s like being with a professional NBA player. Most of them cheat, statistically. It’s just what happens. All guys want to fuck other girls.”
 

I sighed and rolled my eyes and moaned dramatically.
 

“Which may mean we still need your help,” she finished
 

Honestly, their sort-of breaking up and this new job with Atticus really allowed me to think about my future and what makes me happy again. I needed to think about it. I had a lot of things to think about.
 

“Well, look. I don’t know what to say right now, but….”
 

“But…but, but, but, but, no buts. Look, I’ve gotta go. You’re doing it. There’s only one you. We can work something out with lover boy, Atty. Andy and I are running to lunch. We’ll chat later. Kisses!”
 

Lover boy, Atty?
Yeah, I didn’t need those thoughts running around in my head.
 

They were already there. Bad.
 

Chapter Eight
 

Kate
 

Hours later, my cell phone rang again. It was Claire.
 

"So don't hate me—like I'm not obsessed with you or anything by any means, but you do have me interested in this new job of yours, and without making this more long winded than I already am, you already know I’m obsessed with you always, so that was a total lie.” I rolled my eyes with a smile as she went on at a mile a minute. “Having said that, there's been another statement released, and I’m gonna warn you, it's not pretty. This is what it says, Kate: ‘I'm convinced the woman on my brother’s arm is the worst form of social climber there is. I mean, when your food truck business collapses (and that alone should tell you enough about the caliber of woman he's dealing with there—food truck), when your bus business is failing, what do you do? Snag a rich billionaire. This won't last, trust me. No one’s heard of her.’ ”