Mister Moneybags(20)

I had zero available time, yet… “Sure. My calendar is full during the weekdays, but perhaps we can work something in.”

“How about Sundays?”

“No,” I snapped…perhaps a bit too quick. “I meant—it’s hard for me to get away on Sundays but I should be able to figure a time during the week. Do you have a card? I can call you once I figure it out.”

She reached behind the counter and pulled out a card, handing it to me in exchange for Bandit’s leash.

“Thank you. I’ll be in touch soon.” Before my sanity returns.





It was starting to feel like I was being blown off. After I returned home from my business trip, I’d texted Jay to let him know I was back, and though we’d exchanged messages for a while, he didn’t attempt to nail me down for our next date either. Perhaps he was just busy at work, and I was reading too much into things.

While I was a bit disappointed about it since I thought the chemistry we had on our date was off the charts, there was a part of me that also felt a bit conflicted about my conversations with Dex. Mister Moneybags had grown on me. And unless I was misreading things, he was also interested in me. My trip out of town gave me the opportunity to pull together my story about the elusive Dexter Truitt, and I’d also done some deeper research. Tonight, I had some questions about his father that I thought might be difficult, but would definitely shed more light on the mysterious man.

Promptly at eleven, the chat window on my laptop popped up. My pathetic heart started to accelerate seeing that Dex was already typing to me.

Dex: Hello, Bianca.

Was it weird that I heard him say my name in a deep, sexy voice. Hello, Bianca.

Bianca: Hello, Mr. Truitt.

Dex: I thought we’d moved past the formalities.

I’d nervously typed that without thinking. He was right; we weren’t Mr. Truitt and Ms. George anymore.

Bianca: Sorry. Habit.

Dex: How was your week? Did you miss me?

Yes.

Bianca: I did think about you a lot.

Dex: Tell me more about that.

Bianca: Well, I was writing your story and that had me thinking about you.

I left off the fact that I’d saved the candid photo he’d sent me during our first chat and was staring at his abs while I was writing his story all weekend. That might have had something to do with why he was so difficult to get out of my head this week.

Dex: It seems that since I’m not writing a story about you, I have no excuse for thinking about you. No professional excuse, that is.

I smiled at the screen.

Bianca: Are you saying your thoughts of me are not professional?

I chewed my nail watching the screen as Dex typed back.

Dex: My thoughts were definitely more of a personal nature.

Bianca: Interesting.

Dex: They certainly were…

Great, I was going to get all hot and bothered at the beginning of the interview. Suddenly, I had no idea what to type in response. Turned out that was okay.

Dex: So how’d my story come out?

I was relieved he’d brought us back around to a work discussion.

Bianca: I think people are going to enjoy it. I just have a few more questions.

Dex: Shoot.

There wasn’t really a way to soften what I needed to find out, so I went with the direct approach.

Bianca: What happened between your father and you?

He was silent for a minute.

I knew from personal experience what a horrible person Dexter’s father was. I specifically chose not to divulge that to Dex. In the end, it didn’t matter anymore. My need to get even with Dexter Truitt Sr. seemed less important the more I’d gotten to know his son. They were simply not cut from the same cloth.

Dex: As I’ve divulged before, my father was a liar and a cheat for most of his life. He cheated on my mother for the majority of their marriage and cheated business partners out of money. As a kid, I didn’t really understand what type of a person my father was. I’d idolized him, in fact, even though my time with him had always been limited. By the time I was a teenager, he was all over the news for his alleged involvement in some crooked deals. Even though he was somehow always cleared of anything technically illegal, there was nothing he could do to hide the truth about himself from me anymore. So, our relationship was strained for many years because I didn’t want to be associated with his bad behavior. As I’ve told you before, my decision to stay out of the public eye has a lot to do with not wanting to repeat my father’s mistakes. I alienated myself from him for a long time, which was wise from a business standpoint.

Bianca: And from a personal standpoint?

Dex: Well, the guy is still my father. It’s not easy to be on bad terms with the person who helped give you life. We’ve been working on our relationship more over the past few years. He’s joined a church down in Florida—thinks he’s found Jesus. He also had a skin cancer scare. I think he’s starting to realize that life is too short to live it like a piece of shit.

Bianca: So, you are slowly learning to forgive him.

Dex: I’m trying, yes. It’s more about accepting the things I can’t change and moving forward. I can’t change the fact that he wasn’t a very good father to me as a kid. But he wants to be more involved in my adult life now, so that’s an opportunity I can choose to take or leave. I don’t want to have any regrets, and I know he won’t be around forever.