Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 77485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
She laughed lightly. “You’ve got jokes, but just wait. One day I’ll be living a lavish life and putting you on as my sister-wife.”
“Uh, I think I’ll have to pass on that.” Sticking my hand in a high-speed blender would be more enticing. “I thought you weren’t into sharing?”
“I’m not, but I can still make sure you’re taken care of. All joking aside, I would never go from rags to riches without you, Lo.”
Her tone was playful yet genial. That warmed my heart and also sort of broke it. “I appreciate the sentiment, but don’t ever let me stop you from living your dream.”
She scoffed and nudged me with her shoulder. “It wouldn’t be much of a dream without you.”
“I am pretty irreplaceable.”
“Exactly. And this goes for you too. If you get on with a rich guy, bring me along for the ride.”
I smiled but didn’t reply.
The chances of that ever happening were about one in a zillion, and I wasn’t at all put off about it. Unlike me, Anya was dead set on manifesting herself into fortune by adorations from a man. There was no doubt in my mind that the kind of men she wished to pursue wouldn’t refuse what was offered.
Her Asian-Konkani ethnicity took a vibrant soul and wrapped it in a ridiculously gorgeous shell. I would proposition Anya if I swung that way. But that was never the issue. The problem was with the men she allowed to know her intimately. They treated her like a novelty with a short-term shelf life instead of a priceless treasure.
She’d been down the road of wealthy men already, which was why I didn’t understand her endless need to have one. Every time she got to the inevitable end, I helped her pick up the pieces of a broken heart and slighted ego.
I wondered if she realized that her hurting hurt me too. Bearing witness to her crying and raging was mentally taxing. Over time it had hardened my resolve to remain single. I was too unsure about life at the moment to get involved with anyone. I had no clear-cut path I wanted to walk. I couldn’t project a visual of me in any one profession.
Whatever my calling was, I hadn’t gotten it yet. Dragging someone along while I figured it out didn’t seem right or fair, not to mention distracting. And the bar men thought they had to reach was in hell. I had plenty of time to settle my love life in the future.
“All I’m saying is that you’re aware from experience that wealth doesn’t make a person decent. Why not try something different?”
She looked at me as if I’d just announced I could fly. “Because I want to be disrespected and have my guts rearranged on a pile of money.”
“I…I don’t know how to respond to that. Have I told you you’ve got issues?” I reiterated with a laugh.
“Yeah, but I also know you love me because I’m a headcase.”
“Whatever. You’d better be careful.”
“I’m always careful,” she retorted.
I urged her in the direction of the bistro, deciding where to eat for the both of us.
We were ten minutes late getting back to work. Luckily, the suite on my roster was a prep and not a check-out or refresher. Normally, the regular rooms were supposed to be done in less than thirty minutes.
Suites tended to take longer since they were bigger. If they’d been thoroughly used, I could forget any kind of timetable. Having to come in after a bachelor party was a new kind of torture. I would be scarred forever by some of the things I’d found under and in these beds. If it weren’t for the resort’s vigorous cleaning policy, I wouldn’t think any of them sanitary.
I finished fluffing the decorative pillows in the sitting area and then went to check the bathroom, making sure the toilet paper and mini bottles of soap and lotions were presentable before moving into the bedroom. I grabbed the silver bed tray from a nightstand and began to load it up with more of the resort’s customary welcome novelties.
Hearing a man’s voice carry from across the room, I paused and looked in the direction it’d come from.
The drapes were still drawn, prohibiting me from seeing outside, but someone was definitely out on the balcony, and there wasn’t supposed to be anyone in here. I quickly searched for signs of luggage but didn’t see any. If it weren’t for the event going on today, I would’ve found this odd. The bellhops never delayed in bringing up bags.
The front desk must have forgotten to mark this room as preoccupied. That, or it was a self-check-in and the app had glitched because it couldn’t handle the traffic. Either way, this was a major oversight. I hadn’t even announced myself. I’d waltzed right in like I lived here. I needed to promptly waltz right back out.