Whiskey Heart_An Alpha Billionaire Friends to Lovers Romance by Caroline Tate

Author:Caroline Tate [Tate, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Becca and I sit at a downtown bar at four on a Friday afternoon. The hum of busy patrons after a long workweek cradles us into a lullaby of quiet. I sip an Old Fashioned as she waits for her drink. The bartender slides a cheese board we’ve ordered at us over the wooden bartop. Grabbing a cracker, I aimlessly nibble and tap my cherry-painted fingernails as we study the bartender who’s finishing Becca's electric blue margarita in a cocktail shaker.

“It'll be fine. We’ll find something,” Becca says, reading my mind. She can tell I'm still stressed thinking about what the focal point will be in our new client’s space. We’d been all over Savannah today looking for the right painting, the perfect wall-hanging, or that obvious piece of must-have art. But nothing spoke to either one of us. When the bulky man sets her cocktail in front of her with a grin, she smiles coyly and tucks her dark-as-sin hair back behind her ear.

“He's cute,” I tell her, nudging her with my shoulder once he's turned the other way.

“He is. And well, let’s be honest. Not all of us can date a billionaire.”

“Not fair,” I say, playing with the curl of orange peel in my drink. “Totally unfair. We’re not even dating.”

“And that's your problem. Not mine,” she lilts, her eyes going wide.

“Actually,” I say, the lightness in my voice surprising me. “I don't think it's much of a problem at all. I kind of like the casual thing. It helps me feel better about the fact that he’s such a... player,” I say, the word sounding foreign rolling off my tongue. “That way, I won't feel so bad when he does move on to someone else.”

Becca rolls her eyes at me and pops a cube of Manchego cheese in her mouth. “You're full of it.”

I shrug and sip from my glass. “It's the truth. Better to be the offender than the offended,” I sigh, tracing the water ring on my napkin.

“Oh Lord, Riley. Who hurt you so bad?” She licks salt off the rim of her glass and squares herself to me. “Seriously. Who damaged you so fully that you can’t accept someone may have feelings for you?”

“No one.” I shake my head. “Honestly, there are no feelings. It's just easier this way. We both get what we want without getting hurt.”

Becca scoffs and reaches for an olive. “So what is it that you both want?”

I consider the question for a minute. “I'm not sure what he wants. But I know what I want— or,” I cock my head to the side, turning to her. “What I need, actually, is someone who doesn’t get in the way of my career. Someone I don’t have to commit to. Someone who is okay with casual sex every once in a while.”

“So you’re friends. With benefits.”

I grab another cracker and count the holes in it, studying the shape of it like my night depends on it. “Something like that.” When I say it out loud, I start to feel a hint of melancholy leak from the bottom of my heart.

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