Doctor's Date with a Billionaire

by Amelia Addler

He developed a reputation with his friends in New York for ordering strange dishes and always being disappointed with the outcome. James didn’t dare tell anyone what he was doing – he knew that he would sound mad, pining after his ex-girlfriend for all those years.

  He secretly thought that maybe after she had some space, she would be ready to talk and want to get back together. The time went so quickly, though. One year turned to two; two turned to three, then years four and five flew by.

  Part of the reason why it went quickly was because James threw himself into his work. If he worked evenings and weekends and holidays, it helped keep his head clear. His dad was somewhat happy with him, and he didn’t have time to reflect on the choices he’d made.

  Clearly, after a year of Juliet not returning his messages, he should have changed his tactics. But he was afraid – if he actually went to her and asked for a second chance, she could reject him for the final time. If he never asked, the chance was always out there. At least that’s what he told himself.

  James’ plan to fill his head with work eventually caused him to burn out; he spent most of his time traveling and meeting with clients and investors. One year, he only spent a total of three weeks at home – the rest was spent traveling around the country. Instead of taking a break, he started slipping at work. His presentations got sloppy. He forgot to send in orders. In the end, his father was disappointed with him anyway.

  It started eating away at him and it became harder to do his best. Everything came to a head the week before Thanksgiving; his dad assigned him the important task of meeting with one of their oldest investors to give them an update on the company’s metrics.

  James stayed up too late the night before; he had trouble falling asleep and ended up watching The Great British Baking Show. The whole premise was so delightful; there was no competitive nastiness between the contestants and the bakers were so passionate. It was the opposite of his job.

  After binging five episodes of that, he overslept and completely missed the meeting. When he showed up three hours late, he tried to sneak into the building, only to be escorted out by security.

  When word got back to his dad about what happened, James got to hear that he was a disappointment, a failure, and that he endangered both the company and the jobs of everyone there. It very much sounded like he got fired, which was problematic, because he was supposed to take over the company when his dad retired.

  He didn’t argue with his dad. Instead, he left and made a call to his best friend Zach, who promptly invited him to join his family for a relaxing Thanksgiving.

  James accepted, and not just because he felt guilty for not seeing his best friend for over three years. He decided to wait out his father’s temper tantrum by finally doing something that he’d been too scared to do for too long: win back the love of his life, the one that got away, Juliet McCarron.

  And so far, it was going much better than he could have ever planned. Juliet was at the Two Rivers Grille, just like Zach said she would be. Sure, she wasn’t thrilled to see him, but he expected that. He knew that she wouldn’t welcome him with open arms. He hoped, of course, that maybe she’d missed him too, but her feigned indifference was okay. It wasn’t Juliet’s way to forgive easily. He fully intended to apologize for whatever he did – just as soon as he figured out what it was all those years ago that made her leave forever.

  It was unbelievably lucky that her car broke down. It was so brilliant that he worried that she may even accuse him of doing something to her car. He never would’ve done that – but he was thrilled that the universe offered him a helping hand in the matter anyway.

  He pulled out his phone and found her in his list of contacts. How many times did he pull her name up, press “call” and then hang up? How many times did he have a message typed out, only to delete it?

  Hopefully she hadn’t changed her phone number since they last spoke – if so, he still knew the number for her parents’ house.

  He typed out a text that read, “Hi Juliet, this is James with your free taxi service. We’re running a special this week for the low cost of zero dollars. Please respond to this message if you are interested.”

  He hit send and smiled. That would have to crack her up, right?

  Three hours later and no answer. He decided to send one more message. “Please also respond if you are not interested, as we have many parties creating inspiring veterinary videos in need of the service.”

  He stayed up late that night, hoping that she might write back. She did not.

  James was too excited to sleep, so he got up early the next morning and helped Zach’s mom prepare for Thanksgiving dinner. Despite not coming to visit in years, she still treated him like he was family.

  There were 24 people coming for dinner that evening, and that meant there was plenty of help needed. James was initially on potato peeling duty, but he was taking so long that he was switched to setting up the tables and chairs. It was nice to catch up with Zach and to spend some quality time with Zach’s wife Amy – even though Amy’s favorite activity was teasing him mercilessly.

  Dinner came and went without any response from Juliet. James decided to bring it up to Zach and Amy as they washed and dried dishes.

  “Would it be weird if I showed up at her parents’ house, just to say hello?”

  Zach handed him a bowl to dry. “It would be weird, because you haven’t been there in years, and you’re not just stopping by to say hello.”

  “He’s hoping that Juliet won’t be able to resist his cool car,” Amy said.

  “No,” replied James with a laugh. “In fact, she’d be more likely to agree to travel with me if I had a different car. Juliet is not into flashy stuff.”

  “Then why did you bring a flashy car here?” asked Zach.

  “Well, my dad’s kinda angry with me right now for a minor work related issue. He blocked my access to his garage, and he froze all of my work-related bank accounts and credit cards.”

  “Whoa,” said Amy. “Your dad takes a family feud to the next level.”

  James sighed. “He always has. He tells me that it’s for my own good, and that if I expect to successfully run a multi-billion dollar company once he’s gone, then I need some tough love.”

  “That’s very tough love,” said Amy. “I thought my parents were hard on me. All they ever did was send me to my room to think about what I’d done.”

  “Well,” Zach said, “when your son has access to your billions of dollars, you can’t really send him to his room. He might, oh, I don’t know – fly off to Amsterdam or something. But definitely not to his room.”

  James rolled his eyes. “That was one time. And you loved that trip! You make me sound like a trust fund brat.”

  “I did love that trip, thanks again bud,” Zach conceded. “But don’t take this the wrong way. You kind of are a trust fund kid. Why don’t you have your own bank account?”

  “I do have my own bank account!” James protested. “He froze the other one.”

  Amy snorted. “The other one? You know the rest of us don’t share bank accounts with our fathers.”

  James sighed. “It’s a company bank account. For expenses and stuff.”

  “Uh huh,” Zach nodded. “Then how much money do you have in your real bank account? The one where your direct deposits go?”

  “There’s enough money in there to get by,” he said with a frown.

  He honestly had no idea. He’d never kept track of money – he didn’t need to. James knew that meant he was spoiled, but what was he supposed to do? He wasn’t going to turn away company money for company purposes. He barely even slept in his condo in New York because he was always working.

  Zach laughed. “I know you don’t even know how much money you have in there. I love you man, but that’s not normal. And you did total your dad’s Bentley.”

  James laughed. “It’s just a car. I don’t know what he was so mad about.”

  He was only able to keep a straight face for
five seconds before he burst out laughing.

  “Okay, yeah, that was pretty bad. He’s always mad at me though. It doesn’t matter what I do.”

  “Why don’t you just talk to him?” said Amy. “It sounds like you guys have a lot of anger and not a lot of communication.”

  James took a stack of dishes and loaded them back into the cupboard. “It’s hard. He’s been very closed off since my mom died. He wants me to do well, but I don’t know what that means, so he gets angry. And then I act out, and here we are.”

  “Stop being a big teenager,” said Zach. “You guys have been fighting this way since you were 13.”

  “I know! But I’m not going to be the first one to budge,” said James.

  Amy snapped him with a towel.

  “Ow!” yelled James. “You’re really good at that!”

  “Listen to Zach!” she said. “One of you has to give in.”

  James felt his phone buzz in his pocket and reached to grab it. “Well it’s not going to be me. Especially because my taxi service may have gotten its first customer.”

  Veterinarian’s Date with a Billionaire – available June 2019.

  About the Author

  Amelia Addler writes always clean, always swoon-worthy romance stories and believes that everyone deserves their own happily ever after.

  Her soulmate is a man who once spent five weeks driving her to work at 4AM after her car broke down (and he didn’t complain, not even once). She is lucky enough to be married to that man and they live in Pittsburgh with their little yellow mutt. Visit her website at AmeliaAddler.com or drop her an email at AmeliaAddler@gmail.com.

  Also by Amelia…

  The Billionaire Date Book Series:

  Nurse’s Date with a Billionaire

  Doctor’s Date with a Billionaire

  Veterinarian’s Date with a Billionaire (coming June 2019)