New York Billionaires Series

“The pretzel shop?”

I clear my throat. “Would you like your pretzel bites with a dipping sauce? We have cheddar cheese, curry and barbecue, or for a sweet touch, caramel, maple or chocolate.”

Carter chuckles. “You still remember it?”

“I’ll remember it until the day I die,” I say. “God, I’ve eaten enough of them to last me a lifetime.”

“Did you put yourself through college?”

I look back down at my pizza. “Partly, yeah.”

And if it wasn’t my father’s greatest shame. I’d only mentioned my student loans a few times at home, before the pained look in his eyes became too much. I hated seeing him beat himself up.

“That’s impressive,” Carter says. “But all that left little time for dating?”

I chew the inside of my cheek. “I’ve never had a boyfriend.”

His hands slowly lower to the plate, pizza slice forgotten. “Never?”

“No. Nothing… confirmed. I haven’t really been on dates, either. Before this past year.”

Carter looks at me for a long, silent moment. Is he judging? I know the conclusions people draw. The ones that aren’t true, not really, but sting nonetheless.

“That’s a fucking disgrace, Audrey.”

“You called me Audrey,” I whisper.

“I’m embarrassed on behalf of my sex,” he says. “How the hell did none of the college boys scoop you up? Someone on the paper?”

I rub a hand over the back of my neck. “Well, my one college fling was with someone from the paper.”

“Ah. Here it is, the big scandal. Come on. How awful was he, and what was his social security number? I can have a SEAL team give you justice in four hours. Ten, if he’s abroad.”

I laugh, shaking my head. “No, no, it was nothing like that. It was good. It was just not traditional. We never went out together. I never had to do that awkward first date dance where you’re both pretending to be someone else.”This belongs to NôvelDrama.Org - ©.

“There’s an easy solution for that,” he says. “Stop pretending.”

I roll my eyes. “What, just be myself right off the bat?”

“Yes. You were yourself with me, from the first moment we met, and I’m still here.”

“Well, I wasn’t trying to impress you.”

He raises an eyebrow. “And yet you have. Perhaps you don’t have to pretend, kid.”

I give him a teasing smile. “If I stop pretending, you have to, too.”

“I don’t pretend anything,” he says.

“I’m not convinced. You’re the biggest charmer I’ve ever met. Were you yourself at that Reporters’ Ball, with the date you brought? Or with the blonde I saw you with the night we met?”

Carter leans back in his seat and gives me a calculating look. “You’ve been paying attention.”

“Of course I have. I don’t know many venture capitalist billionaire CEOs.”

“I know too many,” he replies.

“Wouldn’t you agree, though? That you wear a mask?”

He’s quiet for another beat. “Maybe I do,” he says, reaching for his beer.

“I get that it’s probably safer for you in some cases,” I admit. “With all the people trying to con you. If only they could see you now, eating twelve-dollar pizza in a worn-down restaurant in Queens.”

“They’d never stop calling,” he says.

“So, we’ve psychoanalyzed me. I want to know the same things about you. What do your parents do?”

His lips quirk in a half-smile. “My mother’s a teacher. She works at an elementary school right around here.”

“So that’s why you grew up in Queens?”

“Yes. We lived just a few blocks over.”

“Normal childhood?”

“Normal enough,” he says. “No mini quiches, if that’s what you mean.”

“No one really needs mini quiches,” I say. “So, do you also have a sibling who answers your texts sporadically?”

“Not really,” he says.

“Not really? Isn’t that a yes or no question?”

His mouth twists into another one of his smiles, but this one feels more rehearsed. “Not really,” he repeats, voice smooth.

I laugh. “Mysterious. I respect that.”

“It was mostly my mother and me,” he says. “She still lives in the area, actually.”

I put two and two together. “You’ve been to this restaurant a lot, haven’t you?”

“Every other Friday, like clockwork,” he says with a grin.

“That’s why the hostess recognized you!”

He looks over at the woman, busy with showing a new party to their table. “Fiona. She recognizes me, but isn’t quite sure who I am, I think.”

“Wow.”