Certified Heartthrob: An Enemies to Lovers Romantic Comedy (Heartstring Dating Agency Book 2)

by Lauren Wood

  Do you want to disable your account or permanently delete it?

  The moment of truth. Maybe I had held onto my profiles like a safety net, a sort of security blanket. In the back of my mind, I thought one scary moment with Camille could send me right back to Heartstring, resorting to my old method for sorting through the mess of my pain.

  It seemed silly all of a sudden to think how much time I had wasted trying to rain on everyone else’s parade, just to avoid dealing with my own heartache. Camille was right: I had hurt other people in my determination not to get hurt again.

  And now it was all behind me. Or so I hoped. I took another sip of coffee and stared at the screen, waiting for any second thoughts or doubts that might creep in. But the only thing that struck me in that moment was a flash of Camille...Her laugh and her smile. The way she always tried to act so composed, cool, and calm...but her emotions sometimes got the better of her, whether she liked it or not. She tried to be an ice queen, but the blood in her veins was as hot and full of emotion as anyone’s, which I knew secretly drove her crazy.

  I flinched for a brief second over the mouse, then clicked. Boom. All of my dating profiles were gone, one by one. No more internet trolling for me.

  Letting it all go left more space for what was to come...whatever the future held for Camille and me.

  I clicked again at the chime of my email, expecting some sort of confirmation for deleting everything. I was surprised to see a message from Camille instead, with the subject: Have you seen this….

  The email had a plethora of attached articles, each one flaunting a photo of her and me kissing on the street. Oh, shit.

  The gossip columnists had heeded my call to pry deeper into the supposedly secret love lives of the Meadows siblings, only to uncover our own secret relationship...which was now on display for everyone to see.

  I groaned to myself, raking my hands over my face. I didn’t care that the whole world knew we were involved, but they weren’t painting Camille’s motives, or my own, in the best light. According to them, I was just trying to weasel my way into fifteen minutes of fame. And she was seducing me for the sake of her company’s reputation. This wasn’t just bad for her, for us...it was making everyone question what happened before, with Lucas and his wife.

  It may have been what I wanted at one point in time, but of course it didn’t happen until it was the last thing I wanted! This would have been a dream come true for me when I first set out against Heartstring. But how was I supposed to know I’d actually end up falling for her? Maybe I would have even considered they could be right about her reasons at one point...I would have spiraled into questions about her motives right along with them.

  But that was the old Mark. Things with her were different. I knew the reporters were wrong. And now I was no better than all the other countless lovesick fools out there in the world. I had become everything I’d been set against...but I liked it.

  This media scandal was all my fault. I had only just started making up for my mistakes with her, and now a whole new pile was being stacked on top of everything else!

  It’s okay, I thought. I can fix this. What was the appropriate gesture for apologizing to the girl you liked after siccing the entire internet on her, while hoping to destroy her family’s company in the process? Flowers? Chocolate? It was uncharted territory in more ways than one.

  Regardless of what I needed to do to fix this, it was the kind of thing that would only get worse the longer I tried to avoid it. I needed to see Camille right away and assure her we’d find a solution. Or maybe…

  I thought back to the very public ordeal between Lucas Meadows and his fiance. He’d told her in front of everyone that what started as an arrangement had grown into true love for him. I used to think it was a publicity stunt, nothing more than a hoax. But if he was anything like me, or his sister, I could see his side of things more clearly than ever now.

  Maybe my own statement to the press was just the thing to solve this with Camille, and it would prove to her that my feelings stood true—no matter what they said or what she thought.

  I fired a text back to Camille.

  Mark: Don’t worry, I’ll fix this.

  Camille: What are you going to do?

  I didn’t have time to explain. She’d see what I planned to do soon enough.

  I hopped into the shower and changed into a nice suit, messaging a few of my contacts while I got ready. A few weeks ago, no one would have cared about anything I had to say. I was nothing more than some rich guy who slaved away for local charities to fill my time. There were plenty of guys like me in this city. I was a dime a dozen, really. Like aspiring actresses in L.A. But now I had propelled myself into the spotlight, which gave me the audience I needed to clear the air.

  A number of online reporters were just chomping at the bit to hear my take on it all, and for once I was happy to oblige them. As I straightened my tie and combed back my hair, I jotted some notes down on a pad. There was no way of knowing if my speech would make Camille feel better or just enrage her more, but I was prepared to say how I really felt about her.

  She was right about everything, and she had accomplished what she’d set out to do. When she got the idea to set me up and convert me to the cause of love, I doubt she expected to be the one I fell for. But now I had, and I knew she was falling for me, too.

  After polishing up my appearance in the mirror one last time, I headed out the door to meet the press and issue my statement.

  Before opening my front door, I could see a figure lurking on my front steps. My heart leaped at the prospect of it being Camille, but then again it could have been another gossip columnist just waiting to pounce.

  But my insides dropped when I opened the door and saw her standing there instead.

  “Audrey,” I gasped, feeling like someone had just stabbed me in the chest.

  It had been a year since I last saw her, and that time hadn’t been kind to her. Or maybe I was just immune to her effect now. Her blonde waves and tall, slender body didn’t seem as appealing as they once had. That seemed impossible, though, because she was clearly the same knockout she had always been. I chuckled to myself at the memory of my friends warning me she was a maneater when we first got together. I should have listened to them.

  “Mark.” She wore a worried, sort of apologetic look on her face.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I needed to talk to you.” She smiled awkwardly. “I was going to knock, but I...I needed a minute to get my words together.”

  “You mean to get your story straight,” I shot back. “To come up with whatever excuses or empty apologies you’re going to dump on me this time. No, thank you. We said everything we had to say to each other the last time we spoke.”

  “I messed up,” she blurted out quickly. “I messed everything up. I should have never...ugh, Mark. Can I come inside? I don’t want to talk like this out here on your front step.”

  I paused for a moment and looked her over. This was the moment I had been waiting for, and even praying for, all this time. For her to realize her mistake and come rushing back to try and make it all right again. My old feelings were long gone, but maybe she deserved a chance to say her piece. Maybe it would bring me some kind of closure.

  “You look really good, Mark,” she offered.

  “I was just on my way out to take care of something important,” I replied, adjusting my suit jacket.

  “I won’t take up much of your time. If I could just come in for a minute...”

  “It’s been a year, Audrey,” I scoffed. “And you’re just now seeing a reason to show up like this?”

  “I wanted to come before. I’ve stopped myself a million times. If you would just hear what I have to say...then I’ll leave and you never have to see me again. If you don’t want to.”

  A big part of me knew I should tell her off all over again, send her away without giving her a moment more of my time. But I had waited for this for so long. I could
n’t very well go off into this new chapter with Camille and expect it to work out if I was still harboring old resentments. Maybe this would be the last push I needed to finally let the past...be the past.

  17

  Camille

  I cringed at the knock on my door. It’s not like it was distracting me from anything but staring blankly at my computer screen, trying not to think about Mark. But the last thing I wanted was another encounter with my siblings to send me off deeper into my bad mood.

  “Sorry to bother you,” Joe said. “I just thought you’d like to know that all of Mark’s dating profiles have been deleted.”

  “I thought I told you not to—”

  “Not by us, ma’am,” he corrected. “Mark deleted them himself. They were disabled a few days ago, but now they’ve been permanently deleted.”

  I nodded and sank back into my chair. “Are you sure? There were several different profiles…”

  “All of them gone.” He smiled. “I guess he finally found someone to move on with.”

  Joe then excused himself, which gave me the freedom to let loose the big goofy grin that was exploding out from inside of me. I knew the person he had found to move on with was me, and I was done caring about whatever the media had to say about it.

  Shooting up from my desk, I snatched up my purse and headed out the door. On my way out, I told my assistant to push back all my meetings. I wouldn’t be back in the office until late the next day.

  I could see my siblings glaring at me from their respective offices as I marched towards the elevator, but I kept going with my head held high and a big smile on my face. We’d all trusted Lucas while he was navigating his way through that disaster of a PR scandal and even bigger disaster of a relationship when he messed things up with Victoria, and he’d made it all right again. It was their turn to trust me, and I was far more worthy of that than either of my brothers combined.

  Jada was the only one who ran after me. She seemed infected by my own giddiness.

  “Are you going to see him?” she asked eagerly, sliding onto the elevator with me. She always was a hopeless romantic. Seeing me go against everyone’s better judgment to pursue the man I loved was exciting for her.

  “Yes, but not without a little shopping and a trip to the salon first.” I grinned. “I never treat myself and this seems like the perfect occasion. Coming with?”

  “Yes, please!”

  I had an image in my mind of me showing up on Mark’s doorstep looking better than ever, declaring that I didn’t give a damn what my brothers or the media had to say about anything. With him, it felt...fresh...different...promising. And he was worth the risk.

  Jada and I stopped by a string of boutiques downtown, but the moment I tried on the blue dress in the third store, I knew I had found what I was looking for.

  “Wow,” Jada gasped, staring at my reflection in the fitting room mirror. “If that doesn’t hook him, I don’t know what will.”

  It had a scoop neck and cinched waist that hugged my lean body well enough to form a perfect hourglass figure. The color made my hair and my eyes pop, and the subtle sparkling gems on the jewelry I got only complemented it more.

  “I think he’s already hooked.” I smirked. “I just want to throw in a little bonus to sweeten the deal in case he starts getting cold feet about all of this. But...that’s doubtful. Joe said he deleted all of his dating profiles.”

  “Well, if nothing else...you solved our troll problem.” She laughed. “Unless you break his heart, too, and he goes right back to it for revenge.”

  I bought a shiny new pair of black stilettos and a matching handbag for good measure. I could see Jada eyeing the shopping bags in my hands as we walked out.

  “Don’t you already have black pumps and a black bag at home?” she asked skeptically.

  “I know, but I can’t explain it,” I replied. “I’m on too much of a high to go home and mess with all that now.”

  I could feel her studying me out of the corner of her eye. I stopped on the street corner and faced her. “What is it? Are you with Joshua and Lucas on this? You think I’ve gone crazy.”

  “Not crazy.” She shrugged. “But I’ve never seen you like this before.”

  She was right. I was normally the cautious one. If our roles were reversed, I would have been lecturing her the same way my brothers were lecturing me. And I certainly wouldn’t have condoned a shopping spree, especially for things she already owned.

  I was always the responsible one who kept both feet planted firmly on the ground—in reality. A reality that, before, would have told me I would regret blowing all that money in three weeks’ time after he broke my heart.

  “Mark and I really aren’t so different,” I explained. “I think that’s what intrigued me about him in the first place. He was expressing a kind of cynicism that I secretly felt, too.”

  “Or not so secretly,” she grumbled.

  “We can change each other’s minds.” I sighed. “Or...maybe we already have. Anyway, you won’t be complaining when I pay for your new cut and color!”

  She twirled a strand of her long, mousy brown locks around her finger. “What color? You know I don’t like to do anything crazy with my hair.”

  “Just a few highlights or something,” I suggested. “We’ll let the stylists work their magic. Whatever they suggest.”

  They chose a few caramel highlights for her and a few burgundy highlights for me. We sipped mimosas while we had our nails done, and then I even paid extra to have our makeup done as well. We walked out of the salon looking like a million bucks.

  “Too bad I don’t have some lover to go rushing off to meet,” she said wistfully as we walked out.

  “You have me to meet with. I suggest a round of cocktails before I set off to see him.” I glanced down at my watch. “He probably has volunteer gigs until later this afternoon, but I don’t want to text or call. I want to surprise him.”

  Jada was happy to indulge me as we settled into a chic spot on the corner, sipping cosmopolitans on the patio. As we snacked on some appetizers, I noticed a table of people with cameras sitting nearby. Tabloid reporters from the looks of it. I spotted them before they saw me, but as soon as they did see me...all bets were off.

  They weren’t rude enough to storm the table like I expected. But they did send one of their number over to approach me.

  “Ms. Meadows,” the man said somewhat nervously. “Do you have any comment on the latest breaking story about your relationship with Mark Silver?”

  “Sorry to disappoint.” I flashed a coy grin across the table at Jada. “No comment. Not yet, anyway.”

  “Any idea what his comment would have been this afternoon?” he pressed.

  “What do you mean? This afternoon?”

  “He reached out to a number of us and asked us to meet him to hear his statement about an hour ago,” he explained. “But he never showed up. Cold feet, perhaps?”

  I winced at the words. Cold feet were exactly what I was afraid of and why I was parading my credit card all around town to make myself look even more irresistible than usual.

  “I had no knowledge of Mr. Silver’s plans to address the press today,” I told him.

  He lifted his camera and snapped a picture without my permission. Ignoring my obviously displeased expression, he thanked me and scurried back to his table with the others.

  “What do you think that’s all about?” Jada asked.

  “I have no idea.” I dropped my eyes to my phone.

  Mark still hadn’t responded to my earlier message when I’d asked what he meant by, “I’ll take care of it.” The impromptu press conference must have been his solution, but the fact that he’d scheduled it and then was a no-show...It left a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  I wanted to rush off right then and there, but that would only entice the gossip columnists to follow me. Besides, Jada and I had already ordered another round of drinks and some salads.

  “You okay?�
�� Jada noted my suddenly uneasy disposition.

  “Fine.” I smiled tightly, refusing to let go of my rosy mood just yet. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions about anything.”

  But who was I kidding? I had already been jumping to a plethora of conclusions! Like that Mark and I could live happily ever after together. That we could be two cynics who turned romantics and took the world by storm. The more I thought about it, the deeper I retreated into my stone-cold corner of doubt. My usual extreme temperance was starting to take hold. All the more reason not to rush off on my romantic crusade right away.

  “I’m sure everything’s fine,” I decided out loud, reassuring both myself and Jada.

  “I’m sure it is, too,” she said with a comforting smile. “Although I am dying to know what he planned to say to everyone.”

  Surely he was going to confirm our relationship and deny any sinister motives behind it. But then again...he was the guy who’d sicced all of these reporters on me and my company to begin with. He was the one who had trolled us for months and lost us a great deal of money.

  With each passing second, I was getting more paranoid that maybe Mark’s original mission wasn’t complete. Maybe this was part of it. All of it...press conference included, which he might have intended to use to back the media’s story. What if he’d believed them? What if he was going to stand right up there in front of everyone and say I really had gone so far as to con a man into a relationship just to save my company?

  The next round of drinks and our salads finally came. I downed both, but Jada was taking her time. By rushing her, I’d only make myself look crazier...which I didn’t need any help with at the moment. As soon as I could, I flagged the waiter down for the check and did my best not to look like I was rushing off to see Mark. I knew that was what the reporters wanted.

  Finally, the check came and Jada finished, though it felt like it took an eternity. I tried to pay and tip as calmly as possible, but the tabloid journalists were still camped out at their table, watching me like a hawk.