Rescued By the Billionaire by Lisa Kaatz

7

Isobbed into shaking hands as I sat hunched over the toilet with my pants around my ankles. It figured that the first day at my new job would go so horrible. Not only did I spill coffee all over my shirt this morning (replaced, thank god, with an extra uniform shirt that Jeffrey had in his car), but I’d also managed to drop a tray full of champagne glasses on a customer.

The customer was upset but understanding, especially after I comped his meal - which the manager grimly explained would be coming out of my first paycheck. This place was pricey, which meant that my first paycheck was already cut nearly in half. At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to make rent.

Not for the first time since I’d dropped that envelope in the mailbox, I wondered if I shouldn’t have sent Lincoln’s money back.

Lincoln. Thinking about him again just made me sob even harder. Because it was just my luck that after the hellish day I’d had on the job, who else would walk in but Lincoln. With some glittery, gilded bitch hanging on his arm, no less.

What did she have that I didn’t? Well for starters, giant breasts. I was pretty sure they were fake. No, I was certain that they were. Those things defied gravity. Not to mention that they didn’t match her stick-thin frame at all.

Fine. If that was what Lincoln was into, then that was just fine. But then, why had he made out with me at his house?

Maybe he did this with a lot of women. Why had I allowed myself to begin to think that I might be special to him? That I might matter to him? I’d wondered about Lincoln’s motives. What I didn’t say aloud is that part of me thought - hoped - that he was motivated by feelings for me.

Seeing him and her together tonight, I realized how ridiculous I had been.

And yeah. He’d left messages on my phone. But they’d sounded professional and stiff, cold and robotic.

“Abby. It’s Lincoln. We still need to discuss your portfolio. I have some pending references for you that I think closely align with what you are searching for in your next opportunity. Call me back.”

“Abby. It’s Lincoln. You left your coat at my house. Let me know what you want to do with it. If I don’t hear back from you in a few days, I will donate it to a consignment shop..”

“Abby. It’s Lincoln. I have a referral for you, per our agreement. Call me back so that we can discuss.”

It was all so sterile. So removed. As though he wasn’t the same man who had pushed me up against the wall and kissed me. As though I wasn’t the same woman whose naked body he’d caressed.

It was like it hadn’t mattered to him at all.

And now he was here. At my job. With her. And I was supposed to be waiting on them.

I dried my face with some tissue and stood up, tucking my oversized dress shirt into my slacks and zipping them back up.

Deep breaths, Abby.

I exited the stall and went to the sink, smoothing my hair with my fingers. It didn’t do any good. My boss required all long hair to be tied back in a bun, which meant wrangling all of my hair into a giant, heavy ball on the back of my head that was constantly falling down. I noticed that it was lopsided. Had it been like that when I’d seen Lincoln?

I groaned. As though I hadn’t suffered enough humiliation.

I started taking out bobby pins and letting my hair down, brushing it out with my fingers. Then I began twisting it up into a bun, this time a slightly more centered, not lopsided bun.

It was still bumpy on the sides, and the baby hairs around my face fell out and stuck out at odd angles no matter how hard I tried to smooth them down.

But it would have to do.

I took a last look in the mirror. My eyes were still puffy, and my face was blotchy red. My eyeliner had been nearly completely wiped off from crying and drying my tears with tissue paper and my sleeve.

I was a mess.

But I just had to get through tonight. Who was Lincoln Taylor at the end of the day? Just some idiot I’d met at a coffee shop. A snob who was perpetually on his cell phone. A nobody.

A nobody who would forever be my first kiss.

The thought made fresh tears spring to my eyes. I turned back to the mirror, wiping at them frantically.

He’s a loser, I told myself. An asshole. An asshole with a plastic, spray tanned bitch for a date tonight.

Then the door to the bathroom swung open and two tall, leggy women in small dresses entered, laughing at something.

“Oh,” the blonde stopped short. Lincoln’s date. She looked me up and down with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Hi,” I said weakly. She was a customer, after all. I put on what I hoped was a convincing smile.

“Hi,” she sneered back. “You’re Abby, right?”

“Um,” I said. “Yeah, I’m Abby.”

“Lincoln’s told me all about you,” she said, looking at her friend, who smiled. “You guys hooked up or something, right?

“What?” I asked, my cheeks going pink. He’d told her about that?

“Look, it’s fine,” she said. “I was mad about it at first, but Lincoln apologized and made it up to me. Anyway, we decided we’re not willing to throw away our relationship over a pathetic little slut like you.”

My mouth went dry.

“You’re dating Lincoln?” I asked weakly.

“Fourteen months and counting,” she said with a blindingly white smile. “Anyway, I’m not upset with you either, really. I mean, I can’t blame you for going after a guy like Lincoln. He’s used to women like you throwing themselves at him and using him.”

“I wasn’t using him,” I said hotly. I guess she knew about him trying to help me with a job, too? And the money?

“Right,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Look, I gave him back the money,” I said, balling my fists at my side. It was all that I could do not to cry. But I refused to cry in front of her. In front of these women.

Dani raised her eyebrows gleefully.

“Yes, you did,” she said slowly. “The money. Well, that’s good. I’m glad you thought better of it.”

“I never wanted to use him,” I said quietly.

“Sure you didn’t,” she winked. “Well, no harm done. Although it is a bummer you were here tonight. A little bird told me that Lincoln bought an engagement ring a few weeks ago. I’m pretty sure he was going to propose tonight. But with tonight’s...awkwardness,” she smiled. “Well, you can see how you might have unintentionally ruined those plans. Unintentionally of course!”

“Of course,” I repeated breathlessly. I looked down.

“Well, you’d better get back out there,” Dani said, nodding toward the door. “Lot’s of work to do. And don’t forget: vod-ka cran-ber-ry.”

I pushed past them as she and her friend laughed. I ran past the server station.

“Abby, Kayla just sat a four-top in your section,” Mario, the head server, said.

“I have to go.”

“What?”

“I have to go,” I repeated, already untying my apron. “I need to get out of here.”

“You can’t go, it’s a Saturday night,” Mario shook his head. “The dinner rush is just starting.”

“I’m sorry, it’s an emergency,” I said, my voice climbing.

“Abby, you can’t just leave in the middle of a dinner rush,” Mario said. “It’s only your first week. How do you think this is going to look?”

“Patrick will understand,” I said, looking around, at the door to the private room. Dani and her friend had just gone back inside. What would they say to Lincoln about me?

I tried to tell myself that I didn’t care. I tried not to care but I did. I cared a lot, too much, so much that Dani’s words in the bathroom left me raw and bare, as though she’d stripped away everything and ripped my heart out of my chest.

“I need to go home,” I said, putting my folded apron on the server’s station. The same thing I’d done at the coffee shop. I wasn’t getting fired, but I knew that leaving now was as good as quitting.

Getting this job had been a small miracle. Leaving would mean being fired. Being fired would mean going back home to Maine, which was the last thing I wanted to do.

But I had to get out of here. Lincoln had been a mistake. And maybe, just maybe, coming to this stupid city in search of an art career - whatever that even means - had been a mistake too.

The tears I’d held back before were falling now. I ducked my head and ignored Mario calling after me, rushing past the hostess stand and out the door. The air was cool against my face and I breathed in deeply as though coming up from air after being underwater for a long, long time. Which was exactly what being around those people felt like.

“Abby?”

Fuck.

I turned, looking for Lincoln. I hadn’t seen him coming out of the restaurant. Had he followed me out?

But he wasn’t behind me. He was in a cab parked curbside, with the window rolled down. Looking at me with those piercing blue eyes of his.

“Abby, let’s talk,” he said. “Come, get in the cab. Let’s go somewhere.”

“Shouldn’t you be inside?” I said with a high-pitched laugh that didn’t sound like me.

“I left early,” he said. “Wasn’t happy with that group.”

“Aw, did you and your girlfriend have a fight?” I said, still laughing. What was wrong with me? I was over the edge now, beyond my limit. I didn’t care anymore. Why should I care? I would have to move out next week. This city - and everyone in it - didn’t matter anymore.

None of it mattered anymore.

“Girlfriend?” he said. “What the hell are you talking about? She’s not my girlfriend.”

“You can stop with the act now,” I said, glaring at him. “She told me everything, Lincoln. Everything. How could you?”

“What are you talking about!?” he asked. “Abby, come here and get in the cab so we can go somewhere else. We’re making a scene.”

I looked around. He was right. People had slowed down and stop to watch our exchange, which had become louder and louder. Especially on my side of things.

None of it mattered anymore.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said. “You’re a liar, Lincoln. Dani told me everything. You’ve been lying to me since day one.”

Lincoln got out of the cab and walked to me, where I stood, rooted in place.

“Look,” he said. “I was going to tell you eventually. I just didn’t want you to treat me differently.”

“Well that’s not really up to you is it?” I asked incredulously. “I deserve to know things like this Lincoln.”

“I know, Abby, but you have to understand - ”

“I can’t understand,” I said, my voice shaking. “Why wouldn’t you tell me you had a girlfriend? You’ve been with her for a year, Lincoln? A year, and you didn’t think that was relevant information? Of course I would treat you differently if I’d known that! I wouldn’t have gone to your house, I wouldn’t have let you…let you do those things.”

I blushed, remembering. Anger burned deep inside of me, anger and guilt. Knowing my first kiss had been with another woman’s man would forever taint it. It was rooted in dishonesty and secrecy. I would always know that.

“Wait,” Lincoln said slowly. “That’s what you’re talking about? You’re still talking about the girlfriend thing?”

“What do you mean the ‘girlfriend thing’?” I asked, throwing my hand in the air. “Yes, of course I’m still talking about that. You cheated on her with me, Lincoln. You lied to both of us.”

“Abby,” he laughed. “No. No, I didn’t. Dani is not my girlfriend. You have to believe me.”

“She told me - ”

“She lied to you,”  he said desperately. “Look, I don’t know what she said to you but it sounds like it was a bunch of bullshit designed to make you leave me alone.”

“Why would she want that?” I asked.

“Probably because of how painfully obvious it was when you were around,” he said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “How obvious it was to everyone that I’m attracted to you. That I want you.”

I said nothing.

He took a step toward me and leaned in, taking my face in his hands and wiping a tear from my cheek with his thumb.

“She’s really not your girlfriend?” I whispered.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” he said. “And I can prove it. I have text messages from Harrison that I can show you, setting up a blind date for tonight.”

He started to pull out his phone and I stopped him.

“It’s fine,” I said. “I believe you. I don’t know why I thought you’d lie to me, Lincoln. You’ve been nothing but perfectly honest with me since the very beginning. I’m sorry.”