At that moment, I felt as if I’d never known Shawn before.
He was my fiancé, the man I was planning to marry.
But now he was being so ugly, I hardly recognized him. I said desperately, “I did it for us. I won the contest for us. I love you. I wanted us to have a nice honeymoon.”
“I don’t need your rich man’s money.”
Was Shawn jealous? Is that what this was all about?
He said, “I can pay for my own honeymoon.”
He could, but would he? I suddenly realized that with Shawn, work – his restaurant – would always come first.
He said, “There was no need for you to whore yourself.”
I flinched at the word and I felt the collective displeasure of the people around us. “Hey, watch it,” a man said.
I felt as if I was in a dream. This was all a terrible mistake.
With shaking fingers, I pulled my engagement ring off and handed it to Shawn, but he wouldn’t even hold out his hand take it. “I want nothing from you,” he said snidely.
I placed the ring on one of the empty tables and said, “You know what the saddest thing is?”
Shawn said “What?” in a belligerent tone.
“If our circumstances were reversed, I would have believed you.”
CHAPTER NINE
WINNIE
When I unlocked the door to my apartment, I found Gwen in the kitchen, making spaghetti. Her purple hair was tied up on top of her head and she wore an apron. I was surprised to see her because she was usually at work on a Wednesday. “What are you doing home?” I asked.
Gwen shrugged. “I’m not feeling well. I decided to take a mental health day. What about you?”
I had already cried in the car all the way home. I had no idea what I looked like. I said, “Jenna had her baby, so I’m flying to New York. I came home to pack.”
“It’s too bad you missed the birth,” Gwen said. “I know how much you wanted to be there.”
I sat down at the kitchen table. “Actually, I was there, but it’s a long story.”
Gwen said, “I’m in no hurry. Tell me everything.” So I did. I told her everything – about the handcuffs and Philip, the baby, and breaking up with Shawn.
When I finished, I cradled my face in my hands and groaned. “I feel like my entire world has turned upside down.”
“But at least you’ve got some more money now, some great new shoes, and you get to fly first class to see Jenna. Sounds pretty good to me.”
“But I’ve broken up with Shawn.”
Gwen looked at me sharply. “Really broken up or just having some pre-wedding nerves temporarily broken up?”
“I think it’s for real. I don’t think I can go back to him after the things he said.”
Gwen took a deep breath. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “I’ve been fooling myself, falling in love with a man that didn’t exist. I think I was so busy planning the perfect wedding, I didn’t see the way Shawn and I were growing apart.”
“Well, as long as you’re sure you won’t take him back, I can finally tell you what I really think of him.”
“Go ahead.”
“He’s a selfish jerk who never appreciated you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that before?”
Gwen said, “Because he’s not bad. As far as I know, he wasn’t cheating on you, and he never hit you. He’s not a drunk. He doesn’t do drugs. But he just isn’t right for you.”
I sighed. “You’re right. It’s pathetic. I feel like an idiot.”
“No,” Gwen said. “You’re lucky. Because you found this out before you married him. It would be worse if you were married and pregnant when you figured out that he was always going to love Alamo Beans more than you.”
She was right. I smiled. “There’s one good thing about all this.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ll never have to eat meatless fajitas again.”
Gwen grimaced. “True. And there’s the possibility of Mr. Billionaire, too, right?”
“No. We’re friends, nothing more. He was a perfect gentleman.”
“Too bad. Didn’t he flirt with you at all?”
I thought back on all our conversations. “No, not at all. He even offered to give me a week’s stay at any of the Nilsson hotels for my honeymoon.”
“Maybe he’s gay,” Gwen said.
“Or just not interested in me,” I said flatly. And honestly, that was fine with me. I had my own heartache to deal with. I wasn’t ready to jump back into the dating pool – not even with someone as spectacular as Philip Nilsson.
I FLEW BACK TO NEW York City that afternoon to spend a week taking care of Jenna and the new baby. Jenna’s recovery proceeded as planned. She stayed three days in the hospital, then came home to her apartment, where I made sure she rested as much as possible and didn’t lift anything heavier than a milk gallon. Jenna thanked me every day, “I couldn’t have done this without you.”
I didn’t tell her that on the second day of my visit, I got a text from Philip.
Philip: How’s it going?
Seeing his text made me smile.
Me: Fine. Mother and baby doing well.
Philip: Just wanted to make sure you got to NYC all right.
Me: Thanks again to you (and Ramon!) all the arrangements went smoothly.
Philip: [Smiley face] I’ll tell Ramon.
I thought that might be the end of our conversation, but a few minutes later he texted again.
Philip: Sorry about the media drama. Are you all right?
I didn’t know how to answer that. Physically, I was fine. Other than the two guys in the parking garage, no one had bothered me. From Google searches, I knew that there was brief film footage of me refusing to talk to the reporter and there were a few photos.
I didn’t really know how bad it might get. I was safe in New York City, far away from San Antonio. I hoped that by the time I returned home, everyone would have forgotten me and any gossip about Philip.
And as for the situation with Shawn, I didn’t want to tell Philip we had broken up. I didn’t want Philip to feel sorry for me or to feel responsible in any way for my problem.
Truth was, I was mortified by the whole mess and wished it would go away.
After a few minutes, Philip texted me again.
Philip: You’re worrying me.
Me: Sorry. I’m fine. [Smiley face]
Philip: Truly? Or are you just being nice?
I smiled. In that day together, he’d learned a lot about me. I decided that he deserved the truth, or at least some of it. I texted back.
Me: Things bumpy with Shawn. He wasn’t thrilled to read about us online. But it’s okay now.
Philip: Is there anything I can do to make things better?
Me: Change the subject?
At this point, there was another pause and I wondered if I had offended Philip. That was the problem with texting – there was no way to read tone, even with emojis. I was trying to be funny, but I was afraid I sounded rude.
I waited a full two minutes, and he responded.
Philip: [Smiley face] Sure. How’s the baby?
Me: Cuter than cute.
Philip: That’s cute.
We texted a few more minutes. I asked him if he was still in San Antonio, finishing the mixer and he said yes.
Me: Then what?
Philip: London and Paris.
Me: Must be nice.
Philip: It is but sometimes I wish I had a home.
Me: Buy one.
Philip: [Smiley face]
There was another long pause and then:
Philip: Next time I’m in San Antonio I’ll stop by and say hi.
Me: [Smiley face] Team 4 Forever.
Philip: [Smiley face]
He was quiet after that and I didn’t know what to say, so I kept our text conversation to myself. Instead of overanalyzing it, I distracted myself by focusing on Timothy.
Timothy was a
sweetheart with chubby cheeks and a crazy tuft of dark hair on top of his head. He liked to sleep during the day more than at night, but I had hopes that we could eventually change that. Sometimes when I rocked him in my arms, I was envious. I wanted a baby of my own, and without Shawn, that wasn’t going to happen.
When I told Jenna about Shawn, she said, “I always wondered about him. I mean, he didn’t want to get married in June.”
“I know. I was oblivious. I should have seen the signs.”
Jenna said, “Don’t beat yourself up over it. Just move on. Like with Mr. Nilsson? He seemed nice.”
Why did everyone think there was something between me and Philip Nilsson? First Shawn, then Gwen, then the internet, and now Jenna. “Nothing happened!” I said. And a few texts were just his being nice, following up with me.
Jenna smiled. “I think the lady doth protest too much. Besides, I saw the way he looked at you.”
Now she had my complete attention. “How?”
“He looked at you like you were his favorite ice-cream.”
I laughed. “Be serious.”
“Seriously? He looked at you as if he really liked and admired you. The way Eric used to look at me when we were first going out.”
It made me happy to hear that, but I was realistic. Philip and I lived in different worlds. He was a Vice President and I was just the second assistant to the banquet coordinator. He was a billionaire and I was still making payments on my Toyota.
We had shared one adventurous day. That was it.
I did look him up online, though. I did a search for Philip Nilsson’s girlfriend. There were a few photos of me, and before that, there was a tall, elegant woman who was a lawyer standing beside him as they went to some charity event. I looked up the date on that reference and it was three years old.
For all I knew he was still dating her.
Or someone else.
Or I was making myself crazy.
All I knew was that he was out of my league.
And a few texts meant nothing.
PHILIP
MY FATHER SUMMONED me to headquarters again at the end of the week. “What is it this time?” I asked as I walked into his office.
My father didn’t mince words. “What happened between you and Winnie Abbot?”
“Nothing,” I said.
“It’s all over the internet.”
Some pictures of us had been published and various sites were full of speculation. I thought the best response was to ignore it and eventually the gossip would die down. It’s not as if I was Conrad, who was always in the news.
“It’s still nothing,” I said. “And she’s getting married in four weeks.”
“But you liked her?”
“I did,” I said. “But I’m not a jerk.”
My father said, “All’s fair in love and war until there’s a ring on her finger.”
I shook my head. “That’s not the way I work. And if you met Winnie, you’d know that I couldn’t steal her away, even if I wanted to. She doesn’t care about money. She’s in love with her fiancé and loyal to the core.”
My father said, “Then I’m sorry I made you go to the Mixer in the first place.”
“No,” I said. “You were right. I needed to take a break.” And I was glad that I met Winnie, even if I could never have her. It made my heart sing to know that there was such a wonderful woman in the world, and I would do whatever I could to make her life better.
I just hoped that one day, someday, I would find someone like her for myself.
CHAPTER TEN
WINNIE
The day before I came home, Jenna received a gift in the mail: two months of a weekly house cleaning and laundry service, plus a five-hundred-dollar gift card for food delivery. “It’s from Philip,” she said and then read the card out loud. “It says, ‘Best wishes for you and Timothy.’ Wow, what a great guy.”
I nodded. I already knew he was a thoughtful person.
Jenna said, “Thank Philip for me, okay?”
So I texted him.
Me: Jenna says thanks for your gift. [Kissy smiley face][Kissy smiley face]
He didn’t respond, but I thought with the different time zones in Europe, he might be asleep.
When I got home, I unpacked and went back to work. My first day there, I was called in to speak to the Human Resource Manager. I hadn’t finished my 90-day probationary period yet, and I hoped I wasn’t getting fired.
I hoped that Bernice still thought I was doing a good job.
After I sat down across from the manager’s desk, she asked me how I was doing. “I’m doing great,” I said and smiled brightly. “I really like working for Nilsson Worldwide.”
The manager nodded. “I’m glad. And I understand you participated in the mixer activity two weeks ago with the handcuffs?”
“Yes. It was hard, but we survived. Team 4 rocked.”
She leaned forward. “I hate to ask this, but I have to know if anything unprofessional happened during this activity.”
“No, not at all.”
She said, “There has been some discussion of this activity on the internet – of you and Mr. Nilsson spending time together – and if there was any coercion or harassment involvement, we need to know.”
I was startled by her statement, but with the recent #metoo movement, I understood the company’s need to clarify the situation. “No, there were no problems at all. And I’m willing to sign whatever you want to testify to that. Mr. Nilsson was a gentleman.”
The manager seemed relieved. “Good to hear. We already have reports from all the other participants, and you were the last. But FYI, we won’t schedule a repeat of this particular activity. Upper management has decided that it is too controversial.”
I wondered which member of upper management had decided that – Philip? But it didn’t really matter. Handcuffing people together for twenty-four hours might cause liability issues, despite the waivers we signed.
The manager asked a few more questions, had me sign a report form, and then I was dismissed. When I returned to the banquet coordinator’s office, Bernice had some filing for me to do.
That evening, I started cancelling all the plans for my wedding. I also called my parents to tell them that the wedding was off, not just postponed as it had been before.
“Oh, sweetheart,” my mom said. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I said, and realized that it was true. I still had times when I cried at night, grieving over my lost dreams, but I didn’t want Shawn back.
My parents didn’t seem devastated by the news, and I promised to visit them the next weekend. “We’ll have barbecue,” Mom said.
“Thanks.” There was nothing like brisket and coleslaw to cure a broken heart.
Then Shawn surprised me a few nights later as I was walking to my car. At first, I thought it might be the paparazzi again, ambushing me in the parking garage, but no, it was my ex-fiance, wearing a suit and holding a bouquet of flowers: carnations and baby’s breath.
They were pretty, but they were just another sign that he really didn’t know me at all.
I said, “What are you doing here, Shawn?”
He got down on one knee. “I’m apologizing, Babe. I’m begging your forgiveness.” He held out the flowers to me in one hand and my engagement ring in the other.
This was totally unexpected. “Stand up,” I said. “I’m not going to say ‘yes’ just because you’re all dressed up and you brought flowers.”
Shawn struggled to his feet. He said, “Give me a chance, Winnie. Don’t throw away everything we had.”
He sounded sincere and for a moment, I felt a familiar tug on my heart strings. This was the man I had loved for the past year. I said, “Marriage takes trust. And you didn’t trust me.”
“You’re right,” he said. “I overreacted. I was a jerk. But I was jealous of your boss. I knew I couldn’t compete with that.”
“It was never a competition,” I told him. “I loved yo
u.”
He nodded. “I know. That’s what Philip said.”
“Philip Nilsson?” I suddenly felt as if I were on shaky ground. “When did you talk to him?”
Shawn said, “He came by Alamo Beans to talk to me last week.”
“What?”
“He felt bad about all the media attention and wanted to assure me, man-to-man, that there was no foundation for the rumors. He told me that your relationship was as co-workers, nothing more, and that he knew you loved me.”
I was dumbfounded. I didn’t know what to say. I supposed Philip must have talked to Shawn after our first few texts. No doubt he thought he was being helpful, trying to smooth things over.
Personally, I didn’t want him to smooth things over. Frankly, I was glad Shawn had said what he did to me – it was ugly, but it showed me clearly what I had been ignoring for months. Shawn didn’t love me. I was a convenient girlfriend, nothing more.
“Anything else?” I asked.
Shawn smiled. “Oh, yeah. He wanted to give us a wedding gift, so he bought us two new ovens.”
“How nice.” I don’t think Shawn caught my sarcasm.
Shawn said, “I know. I thought it was quite generous. I like Philip. He seems like a good guy.”
He was a good guy, but I was annoyed that he had interfered with my love life. What right did he have to barge into my life, fixing things I didn’t want fixed?
I took a deep breath. “Shawn,” I said carefully. “I appreciate your coming to see me, and the flowers, but I don’t want to marry you. I don’t love you anymore.”
“What?”
“We’re not a good match. I don’t like your food and you’ve never watched one of my videos.”
Shawn gasped. “What are you talking about? You don’t like my food?”
“Not really,” I admitted.
“You’ve been lying to me all this time?”
“No. I admired your dedication and your work ethic. I was willing to support your dream, but –”
He didn’t let me finish. “Was I just a game to you? Just a way to get your fancy wedding?”
Our wedding would not have been all that fancy, but there was no way I could explain that to him.
Roses from a Billionaire: A Clean Billionaire Romance (Lone Star Billionaires, #2) Page 7