Beauty and the Brit by Poppy St. James
CAMRYN
“Are you all right?” Anna asks when I sit down beside her at the banquet table. “You’re acting funny this morning.”
“Funny how?” I hope she doesn’t suspect anything. I have too much dignity to tell her what happened between me and New York’s most eligible bachelor last night, a man who happens to be our client.
God, I’m an idiot.I can’t believe I thought he was going to call the whole thing off and profess his love for me. I was dead wrong on that one.
“Like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something,” Anna says, watching me over the edge of her paper coffee cup.
Her words sting, and I let out a slow exhale. “Let’s just get on with this.” Time to put on your big-girl panties and deal.
“Couldn’t agree more. It’s Saturday, and we’re working. The sooner we hook him up, the better. And then we can go home, right?”
“Yep.” Grabbing my phone, I dial the number for the hotel’s event manager, who’s waiting for my signal before opening the floodgates downstairs. “We’re ready. Send ’em in.”
Anna rubs her hands together. “Here goes nothing. Let’s get that sexy Brit married off.”
From our perch at the table, we have a clear view of the escalator, and suddenly here they come, one after the next.
Blond. Brunette. Redhead. Busty. Thin. Young. Old. Outgoing. Quiet. And everything in between.
Our large printed signs are clear and seem to work. The first women form a line behind our banquet table, a line that soon snakes around the entire perimeter of the massive ballroom behind us.
It’s go time.
The first woman in line is standing directly in front of me, watching me with an impatient smile.
My underarms begin to sweat as the significance of this moment sinks in. Sure, there a few whack jobs here, but for the most part this is an amazing group of girls. By and large, they’re educated, beautiful, and looking for love. Or at least they’re ready to put their best foot forward for a shot at marrying a millionaire.
It’s disheartening to see the idea of marriage boiled down to this. A competition for who has the prettiest smile and can wow Sterling with her wit and charisma.
Anna elbows me in the ribs and clears her throat. “Camryn.”
I blink and realize that the line is forming, dozens deep, and I’ve just been staring off into space.
“Hi. Name, please.”
“Brittany Fallon.”
My thumb slides along the head shots in the folder until I reach the F’s. We required everyone to preregister with us online, so we at least have the basic information and a head shot at our fingertips. I pull her shiny photo from the stack and appraise her again.
Our informal meet and greet with the woman is really just a sanity check. We’re making sure that she’s a normal girl, someone Sterling might be interested in meeting. The info for the women he likes will be placed into a separate folder, and they’ll get a follow-up one-on-one date next week.
I can’t even imagine continuing to work on this campaign. Forget my bonus. My sanity isn’t worth it. I might have to ask Anna to take over. I don’t want to look in that folder and see the glossy head shots and bright smiles of the women, the hope in their eyes at getting the shot to marry a millionaire.
“And what makes you think you’d be a good match with our bachelor?” I ask.
A slow smile spreads across Brittany’s lips. “I’m twenty-four with a good job, and ready for a great guy. Plus I love sports, and beer.” She giggles.
“Sold.” Anna chuckles. “Head down the hall just past the tree. Sterling will be waiting for you.”
What the heck, Anna?
I roll my shoulders, having no idea what’s gotten into me today. Anna, normally bubbly and fun, always makes me smile, but today I want to hit her in the face with a two-by-four.
That was not a proper screening process. For all we know, Brittany could have a pickax in her purse. And the girl is busty and cute, and she just told us she’s basically a guy’s dream. She’s not someone I want anywhere near Sterling.
I watch Brittany strut down the long hall until she reaches the door to Sterling’s conference room. A hotel staffer is positioned outside for security purposes, and to make sure only one girl is let in at a time. He’s been instructed to give a courtesy knock at the five-minute mark, and to open the door at ten minutes to make sure the mini-dates don’t run long.
Nausea rolls inside me as I watch the first woman slip inside the door. I can just picture the sultry smile on her red-painted lips, her come-and-get-me-big-boy eyes as she bats her lashes at him.
Anna has to clear her throat again for me to realize I’m once again staring off into space as the next girl stands before us.
We manage to get through a couple more in line, sending some to stand in the line that’s now formed outside Sterling’s door. A few we sent back downstairs, as they weren’t a match.
Brittany emerges from down the hall, done with her mini-date, and waves her middle finger straight at me and Anna. “Good luck getting him married off. He’s obviously hung up on somebody else.”
I barely have time to process her words because we’re so slammed with applicants. Bodies are packed wall to wall, and the line grows longer and longer. I’m sweaty and growing agitated, and we’re barely ten minutes into our day.
Shrugging off my suit jacket, I motion the next girl in line to approach the table.
Somehow, we make it through the hour or so and a couple of hundred girls. I have no idea how things are going for Sterling, whether he likes any of the women he’s met. Other than a text from him an hour ago that said he had something he needed to tell me, we’ve not had any contact since this began.
Suddenly, Anna rises to her feet and stretches her arms over her head.
I glance up at her, wondering if she needs a bathroom break. We joked with each other about wearing adult diapers today so we wouldn’t need to visit the restroom.
“You know what?” she says, fixing her skirt. “Life’s too short. You only live once, right?”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you’re not going to grab life by the balls, I will.”
“Anna?” I ask, my mouth going dry.
“First you let that douche David walk all over you, and now you’re just going to sit back and give up on Sterling too?” She shakes her head.
My stomach fills with lead, and I watch in stunned horror as my supposed best friend straightens her shoulders and struts all the way down to Sterling’s room, waiting until the security guard opens the door and lets her in.
What in the world?
Did Anna just quit her job for a chance with Sterling?
“Hello? Hellooo?” The blonde standing in front of me wearing stripper high heels waves a hand at me. “Are you okay?”
My heart is slamming against my ribs, and I’ve broken out in a cold sweat. No, I’m definitely not okay. I just watched twenty years of friendship be thrown away for a shot at a guy. A hot, British, soon-to-be millionaire, but still. If you asked me yesterday if anything could rock my friendship with Anna, I would have sworn on a stack of bibles that nothing could. We were as solid as they come. She knows all my darkest secrets and failures, and she’s been there beside me through them all, just like I have for her. And in an instant, that’s all over.
“Hello?” the girl in front of me repeats.
“Just go.” I motion her down the hall, feeling like I’ve now truly failed at everything. At my job, at being a friend, at winning over Sterling. I can feel the edges of a deep depression that’s standing at attention, ready to take over the moment I let my guard down.
I send a few more girls away, wondering if Sterling was as thrown off as I was at seeing Anna toss her hat into the ring. I wonder what they could be talking about, and if they’ll click.
Finally, Anna emerges from down the hall. She walks straight past my table, her eyes forward the entire time. It’s as though she’s fighting to hold her head high and make a graceful exit, but I sense that things didn’t go quite as well as she had hoped. Oh, darn. Then she disappears down the escalator, and I wonder if I’ll ever see her again.
I wave the next few girls through without bothering to check their names or pull their information cards. I feel like the world’s biggest idiot for setting all this up for the man I’ve fallen for.
At just before lunchtime, I send a girl in a red dress through to meet Sterling, somewhat aware that she looks vaguely familiar. Maybe she goes to my gym, or then again, maybe I’m just losing it. My entire goal at the moment is to just survive the next few hours and get home, where I’ll enjoy a large bottle of wine.
Several minutes later, I check my phone for the time again, annoyed that the girl is going to cut into our one break today. Not that I have any interest in actually eating lunch, my stomach is too twisted up in knots for that, but I just want to go hide away from the crowd for thirty minutes and attempt to get my act together.
I suspect Sterling’s request to talk over lunch will be the breakup conversation I’ve suspected was going to happen all along. I was just a fun distraction, nothing more. And it’s not a conversation I’m ready to have. Now or ever.
Realizing she should have been out by now, I rise from the table with a huff and head back to Sterling’s room. The security guard is nowhere to be found.
What the?Guess he decided to take an early break.
Pulling open the door, I’m struck by several things at once, and my brain struggles to make sense of it all.
First, there’s a red dress lying discarded at my feet, along with a tiny black thong. Second, there are soft moans—both male and female—in the otherwise silent room. I keep my eyes cast down on the dress, knowing I’ll never be able to un-see Sterling’s heart-shattering betrayal.
Just as quickly as I opened it, I pull the door closed and stand there, my mouth hanging open, hot tears staining my cheeks.
The fact that we made love last night makes this moment ten thousand times worse. I feel like my heart has been ripped from my chest and forced through a meat grinder.
With horror, I realize why that girl in the red dress looked familiar. That was Rebecca, Sterling’s ex. The lawyer from his firm. The one he dated for eight months last year.
It seems he’s found his Mrs. Right, someone who can give him exactly what he wants.
The contents of my stomach rising, I run for the bathroom. As I dry heave over the toilet, a cry slips from my lips.
That stunt with Anna surprised me earlier, but if I thought that was shocking, it was nothing compared to this moment.
Hot tears sting my eyes as I sink onto the cold tile floor in the stall, sobbing. When that first girl came out of the room, she said he was still hung up on someone. I guess she was right.
Has Sterling been hung up on his ex this entire time?
With disgust, I realize that last night meant nothing to him. I was just one last plaything for the him before he’s forced into settling down. I fell for his act, the one where he pretended to be a decent human being—funny, humble, and kind—but that’s all it was. An act.
Pushing myself up off the floor, I dry my eyes with tissue and make a hasty exit. I make a brief stop at the banquet table, just long enough to grab my purse and cell, and leave all the folders scattered on the table, ignoring the whispers in the crowd as the women still waiting wonder what’s going on.
Then I make my escape from the hotel, needing to be as far away from Sterling Quinn as possible.