Something's Guava Give by Carrie Doyle

Author:Carrie Doyle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2021-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Plum suffered through the rest of the meeting with Damián, Wendy, and Alexandra. He behaved like a favored pet and preened and basked in the praise of the two older women. Plum wanted to vomit. His ambition was so transparent; how could they not see through him? Their cluelessness reduced them in Plum’s book, and she swore that when she became a woman of a certain age, a handsome man would never relegate her to a blithering idiot.

Plum excused herself after an hour and a half and was frustrated that Damián also took his leave when she did. That forced them to walk outside together and maintain the facade that they would be able to work together amiably. When they arrived at the driveway, Plum was only too eager to take leave of him, but Damián stopped her.

“Plum, let’s not fight,” he said. He extended a hand as if to offer peace. Plum ignored it.

“Let’s cut the crap,” she said truculently. “We’re not friends, we’re competitors. You’re a liar and a cheat, you tried to ruin me, I hate you, and that’s all.”

“You hate me?” he repeated, in a mockingly wounded tone.

“Yes, actually, I do,” she said. Plum wasn’t sure she actually hated him; did she really care enough to hate him? But she despised him. Was that the same thing?

Damián gave her one of his dazzling smiles, the kind that she was certain launched heart palpations in every single woman that he encountered in Paraiso. It wouldn’t work on her.

“I think we are too much alike. I think we are both ambitious and hungry. We want things more than most people. We have a need for them…an urge. And that makes us one and the same. For now, it makes us enemies. But one day, it will be different.”

“It will never be different, Damián,” scoffed Plum. “We are not the same. I couldn’t be any more different than you if I tried.”

A spark flared in his eyes, and he kept his gaze on her. “Not true. Just wait. We are under each other’s skin. In Paraiso, whether it be through war or peace, once you are under someone’s skin, your destiny is intertwined.”

“Dear God, I hope not,” said Plum. She turned on her heel and made her way to her golf cart, checking her emails while she awaited Damián’s departure. She didn’t want to be in front of him and have his speedy car idling behind her pokey golf cart, and she also wanted to make sure there was a big distance between them before she set out.

Despite herself, his words nagged at her. And that made her even more annoyed. Yes, he was under her skin. Like a disease—eczema or psoriasis. Something itchy and uncomfortable that caused red scales. Maybe she would need to talk to Carmen and find out some sort of black magic cure to get rid of him. Either that or bathe herself in Clorox. She had very little patience for the likes of womanizer Damián Rodriguez.

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