The Worst Dates Bring Chocolate Cake : A Romantic Comedy, page 13
“You can have it,” I assured her, placing it on her plate.
“I asked you for food once,” Carl complained, “and you tried to stab me with a fork.”
“You could have ordered your own pizza.”
“You had three pizzas and didn’t share,” he countered.
I stood up and grabbed the biscuits out of the oven. I passed more out to my sisters, ignoring my brothers.
“You’re the picture of brotherly love,” Mike said sarcastically as I skipped over him.
“You can have mine,” Luna said, holding out the biscuit to him. “I think there’s an elf in it.”
“We’ll wrap him up safe and take him with us when we go out to the park today,” I told Luna. “Hot dogs and pretzels on me.”
Ophelia peeled a layer off her biscuit. “Are we going to the park with him to find a girlfriend?”
“No, because I already have one,” I told her.
“The one we met in the dumpster in that alley?” Enola asked, scooping jam onto her biscuit.
Greg took a sip of his coffee then set the mug down hard on the table.
“What alley, Walker?”
“So, that was supposed to be between us,” I reminded my sisters.
“There is no alley,” Luna said solemnly to Greg.
“I want to see Ana’s ferrets,” Ophelia announced. “Maybe they can be friends with the guinea pigs.”
I smiled. An excuse to see Ana and hang out with my little sisters? “I do have a few Beanie Babies to return.”
29
ANA
The morning after having a very hot and steamy dream was tough.
What was even tougher was that Walker hadn’t so much as sent an emoji. It was like he hadn’t just had his hands all over my tits and between my legs.
“You broke into his office, and now you’re complaining that you didn’t get laid? What is wrong with you?” I muttered to myself as I stomped out into the kitchen.
The ferrets were snoozing on the couch in the living room that was connected to the kitchen.
“A hard night of sneaking where you don’t belong will do that to you, I guess,” I said, opening the fridge and pulling out a container of leftovers.
I was going to have a quiet, cozy day inside.
My phone beeped with a reminder.
BRIDAL LUNCH: 12 p.m.
“Crap.”
If Walker had thought I wasn’t “like the other socialites,” then the ladies who were milling around at the tasteful bridal luncheon were the ones he was talking about.
Not a hair out of place, bodies perfectly toned, and many with engagement rings on their fingers. Big rings. Paid for by their fiancés, who were also the ones funding all their leisure activities. None of them would be caught dead putting one of their Louboutins in a dumpster.
I wish I had just skipped it.
The bride and I had been close once when we attended the private high school my father sent me to so he had an excuse to weasel out of paying child support to my mother.
“Anastasia!” Becky called, giving me a light hug, barely touching me.
As the daughter of one of the richest men in the world, you’d think I would be queen bee of this group of mean girls.
You would be wrong.
“Look who’s here,” Becky cooed, waving to the rest of the women in the room, who were sipping Skinnygirl cocktails.
They gave me less-than-enthusiastic greetings.
Charlie, the actual queen bee, sauntered over, walking like a real model in her impossibly high heels. She was flanked by her lackeys, hanger-on-type girls who copied her every style choice.
Guess high school never really ends.
“How are you, darling?” she asked, giving me an air kiss. “How’s your father?”
“Fine,” I lied.
“I heard he had another baby.”
“Oh, yes...” I said, clenching my teeth. I had not heard that. I tended to try to block out all news about my dad. I knew vaguely that he had found another girlfriend, a techno-music artist about my age. I thought her name was Grease or Garbage or something edgy like that.
“How’s the baby? How is Grunge?” Charlie continued.
Grunge. That was her name.
“They’re all...fine.” I forced the lie out. I didn’t want to think about my father.
“I heard he’s going to the Formula 1 race in Naples. Are you going?” Charlie gave me a fake smile.
“I’m busy.”
“She’s a working girl,” Becky said brightly.
Charlie and her little lackeys smirked at one another. “You have a blog, right? I didn’t know those were still profitable nowadays.”
“It’s still chugging along,” I said in a strained tone.
“Oh, my aunt is here. Be right back!” Becky waved.
Then I was alone with the mean girls.
Charlie looked pointedly at my empty left hand.
“It’s so sad coming to these events knowing that you’re behind everyone else,” she said, tucking the shiny curtain of her hair behind her ear.
A server came by and offered me a glass of white wine.
I took a gulp, wishing I was anywhere else.
“But even though you don’t have a fiancé or children, it’s great that your blog is still doing well,” she said, smiling.
Maybe Charlie had turned over a new leaf. Perhaps I was too quick to judge.
“Since you’re so successful, maybe you’d consider donating to one of the charities I’m on the board of. We’re selling tickets to our annual fundraiser.” She took out her phone. “Do you want me to put you down for two?”
Those tickets were probably something like three hundred dollars each. I would either have to buy them or admit that my blog was a failure.
Grow a spine and do not buy those tickets.
I grasped for a good excuse.
“I’ll have to ask Walker if he’s available,” I said finally.
“Is that the Svensson brother? I heard gossip you guys were dating,” one of the lackeys said in excitement. “He’s so hot. Is that the one you were trying to go after, Charlie?” She gulped when Charlie’s nostrils flared.
“He’s not really my boyfriend,” I said hastily. “We’re just friends. But he kind of has a weird schedule, so I don’t want to make any plans.” I tried to scope an exit out of the corners of my eyes.
My phone chimed.
I pulled it out so fast I almost dropped it, thankful for the excuse to cut the conversation short. When the text message came in, I scanned it quickly.
Walker: I’m coming over to your house in a little bit.
Walker: You free?
“He actually wants to see me right now,” I said, sticking the phone out for the other young women to see.
Instead of nodding and saying, “Ah, yes, sure,” they erupted in screams.
“Oh my god!” They giggled uncontrollably. “That is some dick pic!”
The other women in the bridal lunch streamed over to see what the commotion was.
“What the hell?” I turned the phone back to face me...and came face-to-face with Walker’s bare chest and billionaire bulge.
It was a nice photo.
“Ooh! Is that your hot billionaire?” exclaimed another girl I had done ballet with before I quit. She grabbed the phone out of my hands.
“I, er...I don’t think he meant for everyone to see that photo.” I tried to grab the device back.
The women ignored me and passed around my phone.
I got several high fives and requests to be introduced to Walker’s brothers.
“He’s so hot.”
“And rich.”
“Get a ring on it, girl!” Becky said, handing me a fresh glass of wine.
“How big is his dick?” another woman demanded to know.
“Not sure,” I said. It was way too much attention on me.
“It looks huge in this photo.”
“I don’t know why you all are so excited about a Svensson brother,” Charlie snapped. “His father’s in prison. The Svenssons are not a good family.”
“Charlie’s marrying into old money,” Becky said to me.
“Congratulations,” I told her as I tried to snatch my phone back.
It chimed.
“There’s another picture!”
All the women started screaming again.
“I hope Walker finds out you’re letting everyone see his private photos,” Charlie told me nastily.
“A man like that?” Becky said with a laugh. “He would be ecstatic to know he has women practically fainting. You’re a lucky girl, Anastasia!”
The lunch got a lot better after that second photo.
I was Miss Popular. Everyone wanted to know where I had met Walker, was he really that tall, had he bought me any nice presents.
“Thanks for coming,” Becky said, giving me a hug after the luncheon was over. “You better go home and get your brains fucked out.”
Wait, crap. I had forgotten I had texted Walker that yes, he could come over to my condo.
But I had somehow also forgotten about my three million roommates. That many people were not conducive to sexy times.
I did a mental tally.
The flight attendants should be out. They had been bragging about going to Paris. Gia was probably out shopping with Nonna. Elsie was definitely working a wedding. I would have the place to myself.
Except for the ferrets.
“And the mess,” I said when I opened the door. The flight attendants weren’t the cleanest, and dirty dishes were stacked in the kitchen.
The living room wasn’t much better. It looked like half of Gia’s closet was spread out on the couches and floor.
Not to mention that I hadn’t cleaned my condo in, well, a while. I used to have a cleaning lady come by weekly, but all my discretionary income had dried up.
Walker could not be in here. I needed to cancel. I needed—
My phone chimed.
Walker: On my way. Will be there soon.
Crap. I needed to clean.
30
WALKER
I had a selection of sexy photos I sent to women to convince them that they did, in fact, want to run their nails all over my bare chest then let me eat them out.
I would let Anastasia simmer with those for a little bit. In a couple of days, she would be begging for my cock.
I would have gone over that afternoon and begged her to ride my dick. Before my sisters’ arrival, that would have been my regular Saturday plan.
But now?
Luna was walking next to me while Enola read from her phone, enlightening us about ferrets.
I was herding all the girls in front of me.
“Did you know,” Enola said, “that you can teach a ferret to roll over and fetch, just like a dog?”
“I wonder if they’ll remember me,” Luna said. Something about the ferrets kept her from going quite so far into the tinfoil-hat mode. The most I had seen her act like a little normal girl was when the ferrets and, as a byproduct, Ana, were involved. Therefore, we were going to see the ferrets. Shoot, I might even adopt a couple of ferrets for her if it helped Luna have a normal childhood.
“What kind of house does Ana live in?” Luna asked me. She had her hand in mine and was swinging it as we walked. Even her movements were a little looser, not so robotic.
It made me happy to see her relaxed.
She still had her tinfoil hat on, but we all had our oddities.
I hoped that when our dad’s trial started, it wouldn’t make her worse. I had started coding a program that would churn out websites and articles and trick the algorithms into bringing up only positive news about one of my brothers’ companies when people searched for Leif Svensson. Ideally, that would help suppress stories about our father’s trial.
A car pulled up alongside us, and a window rolled down.
“Do you need a ride?” Mags called.
I squinted.
“No thanks,” I said. I didn’t like how she was trying to be super friendly with my siblings and me. She was a Svensson Investment employee, not Greg’s girlfriend, right?
She sat back in the seat, and I noticed Greg beside her in the car.
“You’re going to see Anastasia,” he stated.
“Yeah.”
“You know what to do.” My brother fixed his steely gaze on me.
“You make it sound so ominous,” I joked.
“This is serious, Walker,” Mags said sharply.
“She’s right,” Greg added.
“Ana doesn’t even know her father,” I argued. “He barely talks to her.”
“You’re the self-proclaimed dealmaker, the one who can get women to do anything,” Greg said snidely. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”
“We have faith in you.” Mags waved as the window rolled up.
“I don’t like her,” Enola declared as we watched the car drive off. “I wish he was back with Belle.”
“Belle is a woman jilted,” Ophelia said dramatically. She wrapped her gauzy cape around herself. “Wronged.”
In the past, Belle had stolen more than a few deals from Greg. I wondered if this would be another of those times. Probably. My brother had a blind spot when it came to her.
It would at least save my relationship with Anastasia if Belle stole another of my brother’s big deals out from under his nose.
I smirked.
Ideally, that would be the push Greg needed to get Mags out of the office and our lives.
“Wow, is this her building?” My sisters gawked up at Frost Tower. All glass and steel, it soared up to the sky. At the base of the tower was the Gray Dove Bistro, the original of the franchise that was in Harrogate.
“It’s polite to bring food with us, right?” I told my sisters.
“We should get her soup muffins,” they said, “and cookies.”
I opened the door, and they all hustled inside.
“Oh my gosh!” Chloe, the girlfriend of Owen’s brother, Jack, gushed when she saw my sisters. “They’re so cute!”
That was one of the perks of taking my little sisters with me. All the women thought it was the most adorable thing.
“Are you keeping your brother out of trouble?” she asked them in mock seriousness.
“Me? Trouble? I’m offended.” I gave Chloe a hug.
“We’re going to see Walker’s girlfriend,” several of my sisters chorused then giggled.
I grinned at them. “Just telling everyone’s business.”
“Is she someone in this tower?” Chloe bounced on her feet. I knew she was itching to ask me who.
“Do you know Anastasia?” I asked.
“Uh, yeah, love her! Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her in a while. She used to come in here a lot. She must be busy.”
“She’s got a ton of modeling jobs,” I explained while my sisters tried to decide which cookies they wanted. The bakery case offered a huge assortment.
After a moment, I said, “Hey, have you ever heard her talk about her father?”
Chloe frowned. “I don’t think so, maybe generically in passing. Why?”
I shrugged. “Girls, do you know the order yet?”
I wasn’t sure what to do about making contact with Ana’s father. Everything was a dead end. He was notoriously anti meeting and difficult to schedule face time with unless you were part of his inner circle. Greg wasn’t going to take “I tried and failed” for an answer, though. I had been hoping he might drop it, but now with Beck and Mags egging him on, I had to produce some results just to show I was making an attempt.
I adjusted my grip on the stack of large white boxes as we all rode up the elevator.
“You’re touching me,” Cora complained, shoving one of her sisters.
“There was an offer to take separate elevators,” I reminded them, “but the consensus was that we were all going to cram in one cab.”
“We should have left a designated survivor behind in case the elevator malfunctioned,” Luna said in that creepy raspy voice.
The elevator lurched for a second, and my heart almost stopped.
I loved my sisters, but they were raised in the desert with its expansive sky and acres of land and did not do well in confined spaces. It would have been chaos.
Fortunately, the doors opened.
“That was a close one, huh?” I joked to Luna. She stared at me, unblinking.
“Next time, we may not be so lucky.”
“Which is her unit, darling?” Ophelia asked, sweeping down the hall, cape fluttering behind her.
“It’s 1008,” I said as the girls raced down the hallway.
“Found it!” Kiki rang the doorbell. “Do you know the ferrets’ names?” she asked me in excitement.
We could hear them squeaking on the other side of the door and Ana telling them to get back.
The door unlocked and swung open.
“Surprise!” I yelled.
Ana shrieked.
31
ANA
After racing around like crazy to pick up all the clothes and clean the dishes, vacuum the rug, wipe a Swiffer over the hardwood floor, collect all the empty wine glasses and mugs of tea, brush the cracker crumbs out of my bed, and scour my bathroom, I was beat.
“Walker’s going to be here in ten minutes,” I said, rousing myself.
I took the best sponge bath I could then dug through my closet trying to find something cute and sexy to wear. I had been hitting the catering leftovers a little too hard to fit into my cute dresses. Not to mention I still needed to list another batch to sell online, and I didn’t want Walker to rip an expensive dress off of me and ruin it.
I shivered at the thought of his large hands on me.
Wait, I needed to shave. Crap! I hastily ran the water and carefully swiped the razor down there. Then, of course, I had to clean the tub again.
I checked my phone.
“He’ll be here any minute. Just pick something.”
