***
Sally and I sat in the back of the car on the way to the restaurant. We sat in silence, like two petulant kids whose parents had told them off for something. I stared at the back of TJ’s ear, and all I could think about was how much he annoyed me. It was really quite astonishing that I could love him as much as I did, knowing I couldn’t stand him so much at the same time. It was how I knew I was really in love with him. No mere crush would have kept my attention for so long. Not for someone like TJ, someone who frustrated me so much that sometimes I just wanted to bang my head against a wall.
“So your dad is Hudson Walker?” Barbie said as her fingers ran up and down TJ’s thighs. I wanted to reach forward and slap her hands away from his hand. My heartbeat seemed to be in sync with her fingers because as her fingers got closer to his crotch, my heartbeat increased, and as they slid away, my heartbeat got slower.
“Yes,” TJ said, his tone making it clear that he didn’t want to talk about his father any further.
“He’s really handsome,” Barbie said, her voice light and giggly. “And rich.”
“No shit,” Sally said from next to me, her tone irritated. Sally really didn’t give a shit what Barbie thought about her.
“So, you work for him?” Barbie continued, ignoring Sally.
“Yes,” TJ said and the tenseness of his yes spoke volumes. TJ was an atypical son for a handsome, famous, billionaire. While he was handsome and popular, he’d never used his father’s name to get ahead. In fact, all he’d ever wanted to do was make his father proud. Ever since I’d known him, he’d been an overachiever—and not because his parents pushed him, either—but because he wanted to prove to his father that he was just as brilliant and capable as him. Yet, his father had never really given him the validation that he needed. I didn’t think it was fair. I hated his father. Not because he was mean or rude and not because he didn’t love TJ. He loved TJ like a father should love a son, but he never gave him anything extra. He never went above and beyond. He always said the perfunctory congratulations, but he never seemed super proud or overeager. He just assumed that TJ would be intelligent and sporty because he was. And that was the crux of my issue with him. He always compared TJ to himself. IF TJ got an A, he would have gotten an A+. If TJ was second seed on the tennis team, he was first seed. If TJ won a leading role in a school play, he was lead. And it wasn’t even as if he were bragging to out-do TJ, that was just his way. TJ’s dad had taken his father’s business and made it into a multi-billion dollar industry. Hudson Walker was world famous, for his business acumen and for dating the hottest supermodels and actresses in the world. It was his way: he worked hard and played even harder. And somehow TJ had gotten left by the wayside.
“What do you do?” Barbie continued and the air in the car grew tense.
“Let’s talk about something else,” I said to change the subject. I felt bad for TJ and, while I thought he was a jerk, I didn’t want him to have to go into the nitty gritty of his job to someone like her, someone I hoped wouldn’t last past the weekend. I didn’t like Barbie and it wasn’t just because I was jealous. She seemed like the worst kind of gold-digger, and I really hoped that TJ wasn’t going to get sucked in by her good looks. I didn’t understand why guys could never figure out which girls were the parasitic vultures in the dating world. Did they really not see all the signs or did they just ignore them because the girls were hot?
“Whatever,” Barbie said, clearly annoyed that I’d cut her off.
“Whatever,” Sally mouthed at me and rolled her eyes and I had to bite my lip to stop from laughing. “So, I sure am hungry,” Sally continued and rubbed her stomach. “I wish Troy were here because I know he’d take us all to a nice steak restaurant and pay.”
“Sally.” I gave her a look and she just grinned back at me. “Troy isn’t your sugar daddy.”
“But he could be yours.”
“You have a sugar daddy?” Barbie turned around and her look was so scornful and shocked that I couldn’t stop myself from responding.
“Well, he wants me any way he can have me,” I said sweetly. “And as I’m not cheap, he knows he has to work hard.”
“Mila’s a difficult one to catch,” TJ said in an amused tone, and I blushed.
“Not that many have been trying to catch me,” I said and immediately regretted my words. I meant to be making myself look more desirable than I was. Not worse.
“You mean this week?” Sally said and giggled. “What about Louis and Damon?”
“What?” I asked, confused. However, my voice was drowned out by TJ.
“Who are Louis and Damon?” he said, his tone slightly annoyed as he glanced at me in the rear-view mirror.