The Wager: A Billionaire Romance (5 page)

"Don't worry about me, sister. You know I've learned my lesson," she said. "It's just the excitement of meeting someone new; I know it's nothing serious, yet anyways."

I smiled, relieved that she was keeping a cool head in this situation. Mel was a true hopeless romantic and fell in love too quickly for my liking.

"Good."

"Who knows? Maybe you and I will be double dating with Chad and Roman one day," she teased.

"Yeah right, that'll be the day when pigs fly."

***

I was glad to get back to work on Monday morning. The sense of normalcy and the comfortable flow of my routine gave me a sense of peace and balance. Miguel was already there when I arrived. I was balancing my coffee and some packages in my hands, when he spotted me. He immediately stopped what he was doing and came over to take the package from me.

"Thanks Miguel," I said.

"No problem, boss. How was your weekend?" he asked.

"It was all right," I said.

"You enjoyed the gala?"

I snapped my head in his direction. "How did you know about that?"

He smiled knowingly. "It was all Doris could talk about on Saturday."

"I should have known," I muttered. "Speak of the devil."

The little bell on the door jingled as Doris walked in rubbing the cold from her hands. "It's so nice and warm in here," she said giving her body a little shudder.

"Well close the door, don't let all the heat out," I snapped.

Doris stared at me confused before shutting the door. "What's gotten into you?" she asked.

"She's mad you were gossiping about the gala," Miguel chimed in.

"I am not mad!" I snapped. "I'm perfectly fine. And for your information, the gala was fine too," I added more moderately.

"She mad," Miguel whispered to Doris.

"Oh most definitely," she nodded.

Both of them continued to shoot me curious glances while whispering to each other. It was obvious they wanted me to hear what they were saying since their conversation carried across the store, even in whispered tones.

"Miguel, you keep talking about me and I'm going to have to have a word with your mother," I finally said.

At that he shrugged and shot me a grin, "Good luck with that. She doesn't speak English."

"You're both just lucky I like you so much," I said.

The truth was, I considered both of them more like friends than employees. In fact, they were really the only friends I had besides Mel. Miguel had been working for me ever since he was a teen. He, like Doris, was the main breadwinner in his family, juggling school and work. I knew he was very loyal and a hard worker. We all got along well, and were always teasing and ribbing each other. This wasn't new behavior, so I just had to smile and shake my head at their antics, even though I pretended to be mad.

As I settled in behind the counter, I sorted through the mail that was waiting for me in a pile. I bit my lip as glanced over the letters, mostly bills. Things had been getting pretty tight around the shop and sales weren't as great as I hoped. We were the only book shop in our neighborhood, and while we had loyal customers, they wouldn't be enough to keep us afloat for the long haul.

The only good thing was that the rent on our building was cheap. Mr. Mosley, the old owner of the bookstore also owned the building and hadn't raised the rent on us, even though this was a desirable neighborhood. If it weren't for that, I don't think I would have been able to keep the shop open. I hated to think about even closing the shop, not only for myself, but for Miguel and Doris too.

"Bad news?" Miguel asked.

I looked up from the letter in my hand to find Miguel and Doris staring at me worriedly. "Nah, you know just some bills and junk mail," I said, plastering a smile on my face.

I could see they didn't believe me and were about to say something when the door jingled. We turned our attention to the visitor. A delivery man walked in holding a large bouquet of flowers.

"I've got a delivery for a Lily Hayward," he said.

"That's me," I said, holding my hand up.

He placed the flowers on the counter in front of me and took out a little slip for me to sign. I scribbled my name carelessly as I stared at the beautiful bouquet of lavender hydrangeas, pink lilies, and freesias arranged in a square glass vase.

"Well, who are they from?" Doris asked excitedly as she pointed to the card attached to the bouquet.

As I opened the card, I had to blink several times to make sure I was seeing things correctly.

--Roman

I turned the card over, thinking there might be more to the message, but it was blank. He'd just signed his name and that was it. My mind was in a flurry. Why would Roman Conrad be sending me flowers? And what could it mean? I wondered. I stared at the lilies and felt an involuntary flutter in my chest. No one had ever sent me flowers before.

"Hello? Earth to Lily."

Doris' question startled me out of my thoughts and I gave my head a tiny shake to clear my mind.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" I asked.

"Who's it from?"

"Oh just some man I met this weekend," I said, feeling the color rising to my cheeks.

She drew in a long breath and smiled brightly at me. "I'm so happy for you, Lily. You deserve this."

"Whoa, wait a minute," I said. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the gentleman who is obviously smitten with you enough to send you flowers at your work," she explained.

"No one's smitten with me."

"Honey, men don't send flowers to women they aren't interested in," she explained as if she were talking to a two year old.

"It's true, boss. I'd never send a girl flowers if I didn't
like her
, like her, you know what I mean?"

"No, I have no idea what you mean, Miguel."

"Well it's like this. If I liked a girl, but not in a romantic way, I wouldn't send her flowers because I wouldn't want her to think that I liked her like that," he explained.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. "This conversation is giving me a headache."

"Ok I'll break it down for you simple. This guy has it for you bad if he's sending you flowers after just having met you a couple days ago. This bouquet ain't cheap either," he added.

"All right you two, stop getting the wrong ideas. There is no "romantic" anything going on between me and this guy. Now I'm going to the back office to get some work done, and you two should get to work too," I said, looking at them pointedly.

Their discussion about my romantic prospects was making me even more confused. I needed to get away and think for a minute alone without their speculation clouding my reasoning. I grabbed the bouquet to take with me as I headed towards the back of the store. Once inside my office, I sat back and stared at the bouquet, as if it held all the answers. After about five minutes of this, I blew out a frustrated breath and got up from my chair.

There was no point in thinking about it any further. I was no closer to figuring out why he would send me flowers. The card was annoyingly vague, and despite what Doris and Miguel thought, I knew Roman Conrad wasn't at all attracted to me romantically. At most, he might have felt sorry for me and thought sending flowers would be a nice gesture.

I decided to put it all aside and do something productive, like work. Since I was gone the whole weekend, there were a lot of things I needed to catch up on. I spent the morning dusting the shelves and going over inventory lists, while Miguel and Doris took turns helping me and watching over the front of the store. The issue of the flowers wasn't brought up again, and by noon time, I had almost forgotten about them completely.

"You guys can head out to lunch now," I told them. "I'll stay and watch the shop."

Miguel and Doris left the shop minutes later as I sat down by the front register and pulled out my own lunch. I was just about to dig into my left over pasta salad when I heard the door jingle. Thinking one of them had forgotten something, I looked up smiling.

"Did you for--," I began. My words died on my mouth as I watched Roman Conrad stride into my little book shop.

He seemed to fill up the space with his presence. He was dressed impeccably in a black suit with a grey and black checkered shirt and a black tie. The suit fit him perfectly, like it was molded to his tall athletic body. He moved with casual grace across the shop until he stood in front of me a mere inches away.

My mouth must have hung open in shock and I noted the faint amusement lighting his eyes as he watched my discomposure. My fingers twitched, but I resisted the urge to pat down my hair. I must have looked like a hot mess with my clothes all dusty, and I was sure there were cobwebs in my hair. At least I wasn't wearing my glasses today, I thought consolingly. That was the one thing I could be glad of.

He leaned in until he was just a breath away from my face and for a moment I was sure he was about to kiss me. My eyes fluttered and I took a deep breath inhaling the scent of his cologne--a fresh crisp scent with hints of citrus and amber. He reached out his hand but instead of pulling me in, he wiped a smudge of dust from my nose.

When he leaned back, I let out a long sigh. This man was completely messing with my equilibrium. He must have known the effect he was having on me as he continued to stand cool as a cucumber, the amusement deepening in his eyes.

"Wha--? Why--? Um...How can I help you?" I stammered.

"Hello. It's nice to see you again too," he laughed.

The smile that crossed his face made him look even more handsome than he already was. The corners of his eyes crinkled and the dimples on both sides of his cheeks deepened. I could see now why he had women throwing themselves at him. Even without the billions of dollars to his name, he was still dangerously appealing.

"You're a hard woman to find, Lily Hayward," he continued.

"You were looking for me? Why?" I asked.

"Because I wanted to see you again," he said simply.

I blinked three times not believing my eyes or ears. Roman leaned his elbow on the counter and looked around the book store in interest. That gave me some time to try to get myself together.

"You have a nice place here. It's very...cozy," he said turning back to me.

"Thanks. So what brings you here today?" I asked with some semblance of calm.

"Did you get the flowers I sent?" he asked.

"Yes, I did. I guess I should thank you for those," I said.

From the flowers, to the unexpected arrival in my shop, to his confession that he wanted to see me again, and even the delicious scent of his cologne, I couldn't help but think he was up to something. He was trying to throw me off balance. I frowned as I thought about his motives, whatever they were. Why would someone like Roman Conrad go to all the trouble to track me down and send me flowers? Nothing about it made sense and the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I was sure he was playing a game and I was the butt of the joke, as usual.

He looked at me, his eyebrow lifted quizzically. Even though he tried to keep his face impassive, I could see his lips twitch as he tried to fight the smile that was threatening to break free, and at that moment I didn't know whether I wanted to kiss him or smack him. I shook my head. Where did that thought come from?

I knew nothing about this man and I wasn't one of those weak willed fawning woman who just throws herself at any man that shows her interest. Guys couldn't be trusted and the sooner I remembered that, the better off I'd be. And I just had a feeling that Roman Conrad was up to something.

"You didn't like them?" he asked.

"I liked them just fine. I just wondered why you sent them to me in the first place," I said.

"Does there have to be a reason?"

"Come on now. We only met for like two hours on Saturday. Do you really expect me to believe you just send flowers to random women you barely know?"

"No, I don't. I send them to women I'd like to know better. Not everyone has an ulterior motive," he said.

I noticed the gleam in his eyes as he spoke those words and wondered if I'd hurt his feelings. Somehow the thought of Roman Conrad getting his feelings hurt never crossed my mind. I'd always thought he was larger than life, unflappable and calm in all situations. Yet, here he was looking vulnerable and human, and I regretted my attitude and suspicions immediately. After all, he'd never done anything to make me dislike him. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

"You're right, I'm sorry for doubting you. It's just not an everyday occurrence that I get sent flowers and visited at my work by handsome billionaires," I said.

"Oh, you think I'm handsome?" he asked, perking up immediately.

"Don't give me that," I said rolling my eyes. "You know perfectly well you're not bad to look at. I'm sure this isn't the first time you've heard a woman call you handsome."

He studied me a moment before bursting out into a low chuckle.

"You are a breath of fresh air. I've never met anyone quite like you," he said. "And that's a compliment. Don't go looking for any underlying insult in that."