I Hate, I Bake, and I Don’t Date! by Alina Jacobs

58

Tess

Istayed out later than I had planned with my friends. I felt like I couldn’t just show up at the condo with no solutions. I was sure Beck was freaked out. He still wasn’t answering my texts.

His little sisters had been texting me nonstop about the lies and slander my stepfather and stepsister had been putting on the internet and gossip sites.

“He’s probably busy,” Holly said.

“But what if he hates me?” I wailed.

“Oh my god!” Maeve exclaimed as I ate the last of my french fries.

She showed me a page of the gossip site on her phone. I quickly scanned it.

“Shannyn and my stepfather are backtracking? Did I have too much to drink?” I forced myself to focus, not believing what I was reading.

“Ugh,” I seethed. “She’s acting like she’s the victim here and her accounts were hacked and caused her to have some sort of mental breakdown. And she said she misses her mother. What the hell? Shannyn hated my mother! She was awful to her, and my mother just kept taking it! This is such bullcrap.”

“At least it’s over now,” Maeve said. “We should have one more celebratory drink!”

“I think I should probably go home and see what’s going on,” I said and slid my credit card across the bar.

“They have a really good coconut pie here,” Holly prompted, sliding my card back toward me.

“I do like pie.”

We poured over Shannyn’s social media posts while we had our dessert and drinks.

“Shannyn goes on and on about how her stepsister—” Maeve used air quotes—“used to bully her.”

“At least a bunch of people are commenting and calling out her making up lies against Beck,” Holly said, sipping her drink. “Aaand now she’s fighting with them in the comments. Jeez, this is a dumpster fire.”

“As long as she’s not tagging me in it,” I said. “Now that I don’t have to pay for food, transportation, and incidentals, I have finally been able to save enough money to start paying down some of my debt. I don’t need Beck to have a reason to fire me.”

“I have a bunch of job openings bookmarked,” Maeve said. “Maybe we could go work for a different firm together.”

I grimaced. “Is it weird that I think I would miss Beck?”

In fact,I knew I would miss him. I was already looking forward to seeing him when I got back to his condo.

His sisters were ecstatic that the mean stories about their brother had been removed. This whole thing would blow over in a few days when the tabloids moved on to the next big gossip story.

Even though I had just eaten my weight in pie, I was going to suggest that we all go out for a celebratory dinner. I would just order an appetizer and maybe french fries because I love parmesan truffle fries with garlic aioli. It seemed like every restaurant in the city served them, but that was okay by me because I was here for all of it.

Belle was in the lobby talking to Vera when I arrived.

“Don’t forget HOA elections are coming up,” Vera reminded me. “Vote for Greg and our community will have hot, shirtless guys at the pool and adult beverages for free in the lobby all day every day. Unfortunately, the current HOA administration doesn’t believe it’s a good idea.” Vera gave Belle an angry look.

Belle was shaking her head. “We can’t have people wasted in the lobby at ten thirty in the morning. There’s already free alcohol at the amenity level.”

“Yeah, but me and the girls all like to people watch,” Vera told her. “And Svensson watch. We’re not as lucky as this one, who has her very own Adonis in her bed at night!”

“Actually, we’re in his,” I quipped.

I smiled to myself in the elevator up. Maybe Beck and I would do a little pre-celebration.

“I’m back!” I called when I unlocked the front door. “Who wants to go out for celebratory french fries?”

Beck met me in the foyer, and I wrapped my arms around him, kissing him drunkenly.

“Looks like you already started celebrating,” he purred.

“And I have another extra special celebration planned for you,” I said. “I’m sure you must have put the fear of god into Shannyn and Alistair!”

I giggled as he picked me up, kissing me and heading through the living area to the bedroom. As I kissed his jaw, I noticed something odd over his shoulder. It felt like something was different in the living room.

“Did you rearrange the furniture?” I slurred, pressing kisses to his neck.

He stiffened then said, “No, nothing’s different.”

I peered. “My painting,” I blurted. “Did you move it?”

He set me down. “Look, Tess…”

“Where is my painting?” I said slowly.

“It was just an ugly little painting.” Beck let out a breath. “You couldn’t have liked it that much anyways.”

“What happened?” I shrieked, too drunk to even pretend to sound rational.

Beck pressed his lips together and turned away from me. “I gave it to your sister.”

“You gave it to—what?—my stepsister? Are you out of your mind! What the fuck, Beck? Why?”

“Because she was going to make those social media posts recanting the gossip.”

I felt like I had been punched in the chest.

“I need to sit down.” Should not have had that extra slice of pie and glass of wine.

Beck turned back to me and took my hands as I slumped in a chair. “I’m sorry, Tess, but it was the only way. I needed to shut them down. I can’t lose my sisters. You know that. I will pay you back for the painting,” he promised. “I’ll even pay more than it’s worth because your mom probably bought it for, what, about twenty dollars at a thrift store?”

I felt like I was going to puke.

“I thought you wouldn’t care,” Beck said in a rush, brushing my hair out of my face. I jerked away from him.

“My mother gave that to me.”

“I know,” he said, infuriatingly calm. “But I’ll buy you a nicer painting. I can buy you a Rembrandt or a Picasso.”

I shook my head. “That was all I had of my mother,” I said quietly. “That was it; I have nothing else. She left everything to my stepfather. That was the only thing she left to me, the only thing I was able to take of hers when he kicked me out at seventeen. That’s it. And now it’s gone because of you. How could you?” I started to cry.

“I didn’t know it was that important to you,” he admitted. “I thought it was just something of hers you had. I thought… anyways, it doesn’t matter. I had to, don’t you see? For my sisters.”

“Really?” I asked bitterly. “You have billions of dollars, and the only way you could think to solve the problem was giving away my painting?”

“I’ll make it up to you,” he repeated.

“I don’t want anything from you,” I said, standing up in a daze.

It felt like my mother had died all over again, I felt the same sense of betrayal, of being alone in the world.

“Where are you going?” Beck asked in concern as I stumbled to the door. “I thought you said you wanted dinner?”

“I’m going home,” I told him. “To my real home.”

I felt shell-shocked as I stepped off the elevator into the lobby. Belle and Vera looked at me in concern.

“What happened?”

I blinked, then the anger and hurt and betrayal set in.

“Fucking backstabbing Svenssons!” I screamed. “God, Beck is such a sociopath. He’s just like my stepfather. I never should have trusted him. I never should have dated him. I have rules. I have rules for this type of thing. This is why I don’t date because you can’t trust men. They will just use you then grind your dreams and sense of self into the dirt. God, I was so stupid!”

Belle wrapped me in a sympathetic hug. “I hate to say I told you so, but I’ve been screwed over by a Svensson male before,” she said, pulling back to look at me. “It’s not your fault. None of them know how to behave in normal society. They only think about themselves. You got caught in a trap.”

“Was any of it real?” I blinked back tears.

“Honestly?” Belle said bitterly. “Probably not.”

“You know what?” I told Vera. “We do need alcohol in the lobby because I need a fucking drink.”