Four Week Fiance (Four Week Fiance #1)(16)

“Sure.” He nodded, the smile on his lips not quite reaching his eyes. In fact, his eyes looked like he was slightly turned off. I tried to make eye contact with him, but when he finally looked into my eyes, he looked like he was having the time of his life.

“You girls hungry as well?” TJ grinned as he looked at us.

“Is that even a question?” Sally looked at me and laughed.

“Yeah, TJ, was that a real question?” I smiled at him, though I was feeling anything but happy as I watched Barbie running her hands down his back. “Of course we want to eat.”

“So I guess this means the romantic dinner you promised me is off.” Barbie’s voice sounded annoyed and she pouted. “You’ll have to make it up to me tonight.”

“Of course, baby,” he said, his eyes never leaving mine as he grabbed Barbie around the waist and kissed the side of her face. “I’ll make it up to you all night long.”

“You’re a pig.” Sally said what I was thinking.

“Well, do you want this pig to feed you or not?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Let’s go,” I said, wishing I hadn’t spent so much money on the lingerie. What had been the point? I wasn’t going have an opportunity to try and seduce him. It wasn’t as if I were going to slip into his room, knowing he and Barbie were going to be getting it on. It made me sick just thinking about it.

***

Sally and I sat in the back of the car on the way to the restaurant. We sat in silence, like two petulant kids whose parents had told them off for something. I stared at the back of TJ’s ear, and all I could think about was how much he annoyed me. It was really quite astonishing that I could love him as much as I did, knowing I couldn’t stand him so much at the same time. It was how I knew I was really in love with him. No mere crush would have kept my attention for so long. Not for someone like TJ, someone who frustrated me so much that sometimes I just wanted to bang my head against a wall.

“So your dad is Hudson Walker?” Barbie said as her fingers ran up and down TJ’s thighs. I wanted to reach forward and slap her hands away from his hand. My heartbeat seemed to be in sync with her fingers because as her fingers got closer to his crotch, my heartbeat increased, and as they slid away, my heartbeat got slower.

“Yes,” TJ said, his tone making it clear that he didn’t want to talk about his father any further.

“He’s really handsome,” Barbie said, her voice light and giggly. “And rich.”

“No shit,” Sally said from next to me, her tone irritated. Sally really didn’t give a shit what Barbie thought about her.

“So, you work for him?” Barbie continued, ignoring Sally.

“Yes,” TJ said and the tenseness of his yes spoke volumes. TJ was an atypical son for a handsome, famous, billionaire. While he was handsome and popular, he’d never used his father’s name to get ahead. In fact, all he’d ever wanted to do was make his father proud. Ever since I’d known him, he’d been an overachiever—and not because his parents pushed him, either—but because he wanted to prove to his father that he was just as brilliant and capable as him. Yet, his father had never really given him the validation that he needed. I didn’t think it was fair. I hated his father. Not because he was mean or rude and not because he didn’t love TJ. He loved TJ like a father should love a son, but he never gave him anything extra. He never went above and beyond. He always said the perfunctory congratulations, but he never seemed super proud or overeager. He just assumed that TJ would be intelligent and sporty because he was. And that was the crux of my issue with him. He always compared TJ to himself. IF TJ got an A, he would have gotten an A+. If TJ was second seed on the tennis team, he was first seed. If TJ won a leading role in a school play, he was lead. And it wasn’t even as if he were bragging to out-do TJ, that was just his way. TJ’s dad had taken his father’s business and made it into a multi-billion dollar industry. Hudson Walker was world famous, for his business acumen and for dating the hottest supermodels and actresses in the world. It was his way: he worked hard and played even harder. And somehow TJ had gotten left by the wayside.


“What do you do?” Barbie continued and the air in the car grew tense.

“Let’s talk about something else,” I said to change the subject. I felt bad for TJ and, while I thought he was a jerk, I didn’t want him to have to go into the nitty gritty of his job to someone like her, someone I hoped wouldn’t last past the weekend. I didn’t like Barbie and it wasn’t just because I was jealous. She seemed like the worst kind of gold-digger, and I really hoped that TJ wasn’t going to get sucked in by her good looks. I didn’t understand why guys could never figure out which girls were the parasitic vultures in the dating world. Did they really not see all the signs or did they just ignore them because the girls were hot?

“Whatever,” Barbie said, clearly annoyed that I’d cut her off.

“Whatever,” Sally mouthed at me and rolled her eyes and I had to bite my lip to stop from laughing. “So, I sure am hungry,” Sally continued and rubbed her stomach. “I wish Troy were here because I know he’d take us all to a nice steak restaurant and pay.”

“Sally.” I gave her a look and she just grinned back at me. “Troy isn’t your sugar daddy.”