Page 53 of Fake it For Good
“I’ll see you then.”
I ended the call, and a weird squeak escaped my throat. I slapped my hand on the table.
“What?” Marie asked. “What did he want?”
“He asked me to go to his place for dinner,” I said. My phone beeped with an incoming text. It was the address.
“Is this a date?” she asked.
“He said he wanted to go over some details for the next event,” I answered.
“At his house?” she asked with her brow raised. “Because that’s not an invitation. Sounds like Cane is looking for a little perk.”
“Stop.”
“Don’t act like you don’t want that perk,” she said, laughing.
“It’s business,” I assured her.
“The hell it is. He could talk to you over the phone if he just wanted to talk business. This is a booty call.”
“It is not,” I said. In the back of my mind, I had to consider the idea it just might be. It did seem a little strange to be going to his house. I wanted to do it, though.
“You don’t have to lie to me,” she said. “I’d do it. What are you going to wear?”
I looked down at my jeans and sweater. “This?”
She shook her head. “No, no, no. Let’s go to that other thrift store. Maybe even some new lingerie?”
“No,” I said firmly.
Thirty minutes later, I was walking out of Target with a new bra and panties. Just in case.
19
CANE
Most people looked at me and saw a wealthy man that had grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth. I didn’t. I had managed to stay humble for the most part. I liked to do for myself as much as possible. I didn’t want to get soft. That had been another point of contention between Kelly and me. She wanted to live like a queen. She wanted maids and gardeners and anyone else she could hire to improve her social status.
I did have a housekeeper that came in once a week. That was only because I knew I didn’t clean quite as well as I could. And admittedly, I was a little lazy. The house was fucking huge. I didn’t want to spend all my time off trying to dust and change linens and all that shit. And I did have a landscaping team put lights up on the house so I didn’t look like a total scrooge.
I cooked for myself. Well, half the time. The other half I relied on frozen dinners and takeout. Kelly used to say she was going to take cooking lessons. I had bought into the dream. I fantasized about coming home from work to a couple of kids with Kelly making cookies in the kitchen. It had been a stupid dream. She was never going to be that person. I had fooled myself into believing the fantasy without bothering to notice what was right in front of my face.
After putting away the groceries, something else I frequently did, I grabbed a cold beer. I was making manicotti for dinner. I hoped she liked cheese. Maybe it was something I should ask before I went to the trouble. Then I remembered sharing a cheese plate with her on the flight back from Texas.
“Manicotti it is.”
I started with the sauce. It was homemade but not homemade. I left it to simmer on the stove while I did a quick check to make sure the living room was tidy. It was a big-ass house, but I found I probably only lived in about a thousand-square feet of it. I spent my time in my bedroom, the kitchen, and the living room. I had a home gym I managed to make time for a few times a week. The rest of the rooms basically collected dust. Hence the need for a housekeeper.
I picked up an empty beer bottle and tossed it in the trash a moment before the gate to my driveway buzzed. The security was not really necessary, but it came with the house, and it was kind of cool. My home was situated on just over an acre. It was private and far enough from the city I didn’t worry about too much crime.
“Shit,” I said, sighing when I saw the cab.
It didn’t even occur to me she didn’t have her own car. She was a New Yorker. Most didn’t. It was too much of a pain in the ass to deal with parking and traffic. I buzzed the gate open and grabbed my wallet. I rushed out to pay for the cab. There was no way I was going to make her pay for it.
“I’m sorry,” I said when she got out of the cab. “I should have sent a car.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said with her eyes on the massive home stretched out in front of her. “I didn’t realize where the address was until the cabbie practically clapped with glee and told me the fare.”
