Hate the Player: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romantic Comedy(85)

“I guess I found better things to post.” His smile grows. “Now, I have to head out, but I’ll be done by three at the latest, so don’t make any plans because I’m taking you somewhere.”

I narrow my eyes. “Where are you taking me?”

“Nice try.” He winks and presses a kiss to my lips. “Eat your waffles. Take a bath. By all means, hang out in my room all day and text me pictures of you touching your pussy, but just be ready to go somewhere at three.”

“Be ready at three? What am I supposed to wear?”

“Jeans, a T-shirt, nothing fancy.”

I narrow my eyes again, and he just smirks.

“You might as well give up now, sweetheart, because I’m not telling you shit,” he says and grabs his phone and keys and wallet and shoves them into the pockets of his jeans. “See you later, birthday girl.”

And then, without another hint about what in the hell is happening at three, he’s gone.

The bastard.

When my phone pings with several notifications, I more than expect it to be something insane from Andrew but realize quickly it’s a bunch of Happy Birthday texts.

One from Rocky.

One from Luca.

A whole thread of Happy Birthdays from Samantha and Neil and the rest of my team.

And just before I can even question the lack of Happy Birthday from my very own sister, she does me one better and FaceTimes me.

Her pretty face puts an instant smile on my face.

“Happy birthday, Birdie!” she exclaims.

“Thanks, sis.”

“I wish I were in Memphis to celebrate with you, but as you know, I’m bigger than a freaking house.” She moves the screen of the phone down so I can get a good view of her now protruding belly.

“Oh my, that baby is growing.”

“Gah. Tell me about it.” Camera back on her face, she frowns. “Luca has to tie my damn shoes for me now. Unless I can sit on the couch and binge on Netflix, I’m basically useless.”

I grin. “Sounds like Luca is being a good baby daddy and taking care of you.”

Billie nods. “For as grumpy as my future husband can get, he’s been a damn saint. I probably owe him like a thousand blow jobs.”

“Hell yes!” I hear Luca’s voice chime in from the background, and Billie rolls her eyes, ignoring him completely.

“So, I gotta say, sis, I started bawling like a baby when I saw your Instagram post.”

“What? The blueberry waffles made you cry?” I ask, my voice tender with worry.

She nods. “It just made me miss them all so much, and I started thinking about how you’re basically celebrating your birthday alone in Memphis, and I feel bad for not being there.”

“Billie, don’t be ridiculous. I’m fine,” I assure. “And I could easily say the same thing about your baby shower last weekend. I felt horrible that I couldn’t be there.”

I tried like hell to switch around my schedule to attend her baby shower, but I just couldn’t make it happen. Though, I did get Rocky to assist me in buying a whole bunch of gifts from me for Billie to open at the party. Still doesn’t make up for my absence, but I already have plans to spend lots of time with her in LA once I’m officially done filming.

“You couldn’t be there because you were working on location in Memphis.”

“Just like how you can’t be here because you’re too pregnant to fly and working in LA.” I offer a knowing smirk. “And don’t worry, I’m not spending my birthday alone.”

“You’re not?” she asks, hope rising in her voice. “Who are you spending your birthday with?”

Uh…

There’s a huge part of me that wants to tell my sister the truth because I never keep anything from her, but before I know it, a lie falls off my tongue.

“I’m going to grab dinner with some of the cast and crew later.”

Well, I sort of lie. I mean, technically, I am going somewhere with one of the cast. I don’t know where, but that kind of counts…right?

“Oh, okay, good,” she says through a relieved sigh. “That makes me feel a lot better.”

Frankly, none of it makes me feel better. I hate the fact that I’m lying to my sister about spending time with Andrew, but I’m simply not ready to make it a big thing.

I mean, I don’t even know what we’re doing or what we are, so how can I begin to explain it to anyone else? Pretty sure I need to figure it out for myself first, you know.

Honestly, I’m having a lot of fun just living in the moment with him and not getting fixated on labels and shit. Not to mention, Andrew Watson doesn’t exactly have a reputation for long-term relationships.

Yeah, but for a guy who supposedly doesn’t want anything besides fun, he sure is doing a hell of a lot of sweet and swoony things for you…

I shake off my insane thoughts and focus on chatting with my sister. I ask her about the nursery and her last appointment and how her production schedule is going. And while she rambles on with all sorts of updates, I set my phone against the pitcher of coffee and eat my blueberry waffles and listen.

Talk about bittersweet birthday perfection. Thanks to modern technology, it almost feels like the old days, when Billie and I were kids and our parents and Granny were still alive.