Passion Overseas: A Billionaire BWWM Holiday Romance (19 page)

“
That’s
odd,” she thought when Eli didn’t pick up. “Maybe
he is in the bathroom or something,” she thought as she started
her car. She shrugged and buckled in before she began driving home.
She had considered getting a touch up on her hair but she shrugged
the thought off. “If it was good enough for the jury, then it
is good enough for Eli,” she said to herself as she caught a
glimpse of her reflection.

Erica
liked to consider herself as a small person with a big personality.
She had learned to love and appreciate her height the day she
discovered high heels. After spending her years in high school and
college being the short girl, she had made a decision to see her
glass as half full especially since she was the most promising
student in her class. After college, she got into the prestigious
Kirkland & Smith, the leading law firm in the country and
according to Forbes, the third largest firm in the UK and US
combined. Most of her classmates were jealous since she was earning
almost triple what they were making in her first year alone. Two
months into the new job, Erica had already earned a name for herself.
She was like the Bethany Horowitz at Kirkland & Ellis, small but
dangerous.

When
she finally got home, she looked at her reflection in the mirror
before she pulled out the pin that held her loose bun in place,
letting her thick luxurious brown hair flow on her shoulders. She
grabbed the takeout boxes from Antonio’s Grill and stepped out
of the car but when she saw her reflection in the driver seat window,
she frowned. She put the boxes on the car roof before she took off
the jacket she had on leaving her in a cream colored pencil button
down knee-length dress. Braving the cold Vermont weather would
definitely be worth it in a few minutes. She twisted her head to the
side wondering what to do to look a little sexier, not that she
needed any help or anything.

“
A
button or two should do the trick,” she thought as she undid
two buttons –and then a third. A smile played on her lips when
she saw how perfect her cleavage looked. It was like looking at two
amazingly perfect cushions on her chest. She grabbed her bag and the
takeout boxes before she walked into the house.

“
Eli!
Babe I’m home,” she announced when she walked into the
three bedroom house she shared with her fiancé. She looked
around the living room and raised an eyebrow. There were two wine
glasses and some Chinese takeout boxes. The TV was on but there was
no sign of Eli. She shook her head as she put her bag down and kicked
off her shoes before she began clearing the table. This was classic
Eli. He would always entertain his friends and forget or ignore to
clean up. “Too bad you ruined your appetite. I brought us
ravioli for dinner and you know what that means. I won!” she
said excitedly as she walked the two glasses to the kitchen. She put
her hands on the counter and wondered why Eli was not answering. A
smile played on her lips when she realized that Eli must have been in
the bathroom. He hated talking while on the can. He always said it
was bad manners. But Erica could not wait to share her good news. She
quickly made her way out of the kitchen and began walking down the
hallway. But when she touched the doorknob, her heart skipped a beat.
She saw a shoe outside her bedroom door, a shoe that didn’t
belong to her. She tried taking deep breaths as she walked towards
her bedroom. There was no telling what she would find. Her mind was
going crazy with all the different but possible scenarios waiting for
her on the other side of the door. When she got there and pushed the
door open, she gasped in anticipation but all she saw was an empty
bed. An empty unmade bed. She looked around and blinked back tears
when she saw a black satin skirt and a flowered blouse on the floor.
She could hear the shower running in the bathroom and the clothes on
the floor along with the unmade bed told her more than she needed to
know. But for some reason, she found herself slowly walking towards
the bathroom. She wanted to stop herself but for some crazy reason,
she couldn’t.

“
Oh
my God,” she said in a low voice when she opened the bathroom
door and came face to face with a naked Eli who was pinning a naked
woman to the bathroom wall. She opened her mouth to speak but she was
not sure what she was supposed to say. She gave him a disappointed
look before she pulled off the princess cut engagement ring and threw
it at him. She spun on her heel and walked out of the bedroom leaving
Eli calling out to her but she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear
anything he had to say. All she knew was that the wedding was off and
she could not stand being in that house a second longer. As the tears
finally began rolling down her cheeks, Eli chased after her as she
ran out to her car and started the engine. As she drove away, the red
Prius parked opposite her house finally registered in her mind. She
had seen it before, many times before…which meant that this,
Eli’s indiscretions had been going on for a while. As she drove
off, she could not help but wonder if he had cheated on her because
she was always busy working.

“
No,
this has nothing to do with you, Erica. He made the choice to cheat
because he didn’t deserve you,” she told herself as she
drove off but even those encouraging words were not enough to make
her feel better about herself. The next thing she knew, Eli’s
stuff was gone from the house. He had moved out and moved on with his
life without giving her as much as an explanation. And even though
Erica knew she deserved an explanation, she didn’t really want
anything that reminded her of Eli’s betrayal.

Erica
was staring at the ceiling with the sounds of Pierce Morgan in the
background when she heard her apartment door open. She rolled her
head to the side to see her sister Emily and her longtime friend
Cassandra walking in.

“
That
officially marks the last service provider canceled,” Cassandra
said as she sat down next to Erica.

“
Thanks
guys, I couldn’t have done this without you,” Erica said
forcing out a smile.

“
By
the way, you should really lock up. The world is a dangerous place to
be in nowadays,” Emily said in a cheerful voice. Erica looked
at her and shook her head.

“
I
literally live in a building practically owned by the police
department,” she said. That may have not been reason enough but
for her it was enough. It had always been enough knowing that eighty
per cent of her neighbors had firearms; legal firearms.

“
Well,
we came bearing gifts,” Emily said as she pulled out a bottle
of champagne from the brown paper bag she was carrying. “We
pinched it from the caterer’s van. I mean, they shouldn’t
get to keep everything right?” she asked.

“
Yeah,
they are keeping the security deposit,” Cassandra said
matter-of-factly. Erica looked at the two and shook her head.

“
I
hate to burst your bubble guys but you do know that bubbly is usually
used for celebrating stuff right?” she asked. Emily and
Cassandra looked at each other and smiled before Emily popped the
bottle.

“
Well,
we are celebrating,” Emily said. Erica raised an eyebrow. She
wanted to ask what her sister meant but she was too tired to let her
brain work out the kinks. “Well, you and Eli are officially
over and trust me, if ever there was a reason to celebrate, this is
it,” Emily added with a smile. Erica shook her head and grabbed
the bottle from her sister before taking long gulps from the bottle.

“
You
do have glasses, right?” Cassandra said as she held her long
dark hair up in a bun. Erica put the bottle down and stifled a burp.
“Well,” Cassandra pressed. Erica rolled her eyes and
walked to the kitchen. She caught a glimpse of the matching his and
her mugs. Normally, she would have smiled and probably held Eli’s
cup in her hands, maybe even kissed it at some point. She sighed and
dumped the two mugs in the trash causing Cassandra and Emily to run
into the kitchen. “Are you okay?” Cassandra asked when
she and Emily walked in.

“
Yeah
we heard something break,” Emily said.

Erica
turned around and smiled at them. “Never better.”

Emily
looked inside the bin and smiled. “I also thought a little
spring cleaning could do this place some good,” she said.

Erica
smiled and reached for the wine glasses.

“
So,
what exactly are we drinking to?” Erica asked as she leaned
against the counter.

Cassandra
handed her a glass and smiled.

“
There
is the obvious reason, freedom from Eli but then again we could also
just celebrate the fact that you never have to be in the same room
with his family ever again,” she said. Emily laughed and Erica
nodded. Cassandra was right. One of the best things about her and Eli
being over was never having to spend a day with Eli’s
judgmental family ever again. She raised her glass and took a long
sip.

“
You
know what I don’t get?” Emily started as she looked
through Erica’s fridge. “The fact that men get off so
easily.” Erica’s eyes lit up when her sister said that.

“
Funny.
I was just thinking that before you guys came in,” Erica
started. “When a high school girl gets pregnant, she has to
take a year or two before she goes back to school. But the guy could
very well be on to his next target, maybe even getting another
teenager pregnant,” she said.

Cassandra
looked into Erica’s brown eyes.

“
Is
this really about some high school boy?” she asked.

Erica
took another sip of her champagne and shook her head.

“
No,
it is about me dealing with all this crap while Eli is away having
the time of his life with his boys and his new woman in Ibiza,”
she said. “Maybe he should have been responsible for returning
the wedding presents. It was brutal,” she added.

Emily
shut the fridge door and looked at her sister.

“
Hey,
you know what? I am really proud of you,” she said. “Cousin
Trisha would have most definitely gone ahead with the wedding just to
make sure she wasn’t embarrassed,” she added with a
smile.

“
Yeah
she would have done that, wouldn’t she?” she laughed.
Cassandra looked at them a confused look on her face.

“
Trisha?
I have been friends with you two since senior year and I think I
would know of a Trisha given the fact that I have met most of your
extended family,” she said.

Erica
took another sip and nodded.

“
Actually,
you have met her,” she said. Cassandra raised an eyebrow. “Four
years ago at the Thanksgiving party. The pretentious light skinned
woman who was acting all diva like,” she added. Cassandra
frowned.

“
Oh,
you are talking about miss ‘I can’t believe you don’t
have any salad at this party because everything is so fatty.’
That girl?” She asked. Emily and Erica nodded. “I always
knew I didn’t like her.”

“
Yeah,
two years ago she paid someone to act as her boyfriend because she
hated being the only one in the family who didn’t have a man,”
Emily said. “I guess I was too thrilled to tell her that my
date was actually a gay friend,” she added.

Erica
laughed.

“
Yeah.
I’m sure she is having a field day knowing that Eli and I
called the wedding off,” she said. “You know she once had
a thing for him, right?”

“
Does
she have a thing for everyone?” Cassandra asked shaking her
head. Emily and Erica looked at her.

“
What
the hell are you talking about?” Emily asked.

“
The
guy I brought to the Thanksgiving party four years ago,”
Cassandra started.

“
Yeah
that guy was amazing. What ever happened between the two of you? What
was his name anyway? CJ, DJ…” Erica wondered as she
played with a strand of her hair.

“
JT,”
Cassandra said wondering why Erica was throwing around random
letters. “He was cool and everything but he had to move to
Guam. Career choices and everything. So anyway, we’ve been
keeping in touch over Facebook and stuff but I always notice a Miss
Tee posting on his wall. I didn’t know who Miss Tee was at
first but when I checked her photo out, I remembered who she was.”

“
Really?
What exactly does she say to him?” Erica asked.

“
Well,
she is always asking if she can visit him in Guam and everything,”
Cassandra said as the three of them walked back to the living room.

“
Well,
that’s Trisha for you,” Erica said sitting back down.
Emily and Cassandra sat down and looked at her. Erica noticed her
phone ringing again and sighed.

“
Need
to get that?” Emily asked. Erica shook her head.

“
I
really don’t. It’s a whole lot of apologies I can’t
handle,” she said. Emily gave her an apologetic look. “Don’t
give me that look. I’m okay. Actually the way people are
handling this whole thing is the main reason why I have to leave,”
Erica said as she looked at her sister.