Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59939 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59939 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
We spend the next hour at the blackjack table, with Ben explaining the game to me with the utmost patience. After a few big wins, I start to relax. I smile at the tuxedo-clad men who join us, sip a glass of champagne, and stare at a familiar-looking woman in a gold sequined dress for ten minutes before Ben finally whispers that she’s an anchor at CNN.
“You do watch the news, don’t you?” he teases.
“Sometimes.”
The laugh he gives sends a flurry of shivers up my spine. “Don’t you feel alienated sometimes, being so out of touch with the world?”
I shrug. “I’m too busy to feel alienated.”
He tweaks one of the wavy tendrils framing my cheeks. “We really need to talk about this jam-packed schedule of yours.”
My reply is cut off by the sound of a female voice squealing, “Benjamin?”
An unbelievably tall, unbelievably beautiful woman with raven hair and sparkling blue eyes saunters over in an indecent red dress and a pair of six-inch heels. Before I can blink, the giant sexpot throws her arms around Ben and splatters kisses on his cheeks.
“Benjamin! It is you!” With her heavy accent, it sounds more like “Ben-ja-meeen, eet eeez you!”
Something about the way her eyes twinkle suggestively hints that this beauty knows Ben on a very intimate level. In fact, after a closer examination of her face, I realize she’s the supermodel at Ben’s side in the picture I found on the Internet.
“Sonja,” Ben says in a warm voice, while gingerly disentangling himself from her embrace, “I should’ve known I’d run into you here.”
“Well, of course. This is my second home! Do you remember the first time we came here, Benjamin?” Sonja licks her bottom lip, a move so blatantly sexual I want to tear out her tongue.
Meow.
“And who is your lovely friend?” she adds, sparing me a brief look.
I have to hand it to the woman. She makes the phrase “lovely friend” seem like the most contemptible insult ever composed.
“This is Maggie.” Ben’s features are strained, discomfort evident in his eyes.
“It is wonderful to meet you, Maggie.”
Wow, even my name coming out of Sonja’s lush red lips sounds like an affront.
“Yeah, same here,” I reply.
“And what do you do?” she presses, and there’s something a bit catty in her eyes. “Judging by the way you look in that dress, I’m going to guess you’re a model?”
I swallow, feeling horribly exposed as Sonja looks me up and down. “Actually, I’m a waitress. From New York.”
There’s a moment’s silence. Then it’s broken by a long tinkling laugh from Sonja.
She turns to grin at Ben. “So you’re—how do you Americans say it? Slumming it?”
The callous words slice into my chest and cause my breath to jam in my throat. I no longer feel exposed. I feel humiliated, and even though nobody is looking our way, I feel like every eye in the room is glued on me.
My hands tremble slightly. I want to slap this bitch the way I slapped Robbie Hanson when he called me a foster-freak back in the ninth grade, but for the life of me I can’t make my vocal cords work. So I do the only other thing I can think of. I mutter, “Will you excuse me, please?”
And then I straighten my shoulders, lift my chin, and walk away as steadily as my legs will allow and with as much dignity as I can muster.
24
Ben
“Oopsy. I seem to have upset your little friend.”
My heart shrinks as I stare after Maggie’s retreating back. Next to me, Sonja looks pleased with herself, which makes me rethink every positive thing I’ve ever thought of the woman. She’s a snob, sure. Self-absorbed, totally. But I never took her for downright nasty.
“That was uncalled for,” I say coolly.
Sonja just laughs. “Oh, Benjamin, I was only—how do you say?—goofing around. Your friend is much too sensitive. This is why you need a real woman, caro.”
“I have a real woman.” I hook my thumb at the exit. “She went thataway.”
Without another word, I leave Sonja at the blackjack table and march out of the casino, quickening my stride when I enter the lobby and find it empty. One of the clerks at the front desk discreetly nods toward the glass doors at the entrance.
I step outside in time to see Maggie stalking toward the golf cart in front of the building. She looks so achingly beautiful in that green dress, so goddamn sexy in those strappy heels, that I have to restrain myself from pulling her into my arms and kissing the fuck out of her.
She isn’t crying, but the look of ice she gives me when she notices my presence clearly says, Back off.
“Maggie…” I start timidly.
She bunches the hem of the dress with her hands so it doesn’t drag on the ground on her way to the waiting cart. “Don’t worry. It’s not your fault she spoke the truth.”