Players

2. Pretty Pretty Sure

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Jeremy popped the champagne as I plopped down on my chair, rolling my eyes.

He poured the foaming liquid into two flutes and handed me one.

“To me.” He raised the glass in the air.

I raised a brow at him.

“To me being the luckiest partner in the world.” He emphasized before he took a sip.

I rolled my eyes. Bloody drama queen.

“Maybe we should go out for dinner tonight? Take the celebration home?” The man child was buzzing with excitement.

“This behavior of yours is why people think we are dating.” I pointed at him.

He just gave me a constipated look. “Dude, I know that you are waaaay out of my league, kay? And Madison deserves a good father figure, considering her real father is a total nutcase.”

I scrunched up my face as soon as my brother-in-law, Liam’s face flashed through my mind.

I mean, I loved the dude. He was a great man and he loved Sydney with all his being but ever since she died, he had been spiraling down into self-destruction. And the worst part of all of it was that he didn’t care about my baby girl either.

I would have been glad to help him take care of my kid and be the aunt that I was supposed to be, but he made it impossible for me to trust him enough to leave her along with him.

The fight for custody was hard but thankfully, I was backed by one of Liam’s friend’s father as a last favor to him and we had been living a great life since. My parents could have helped, but they didn’t. I was fighting cancer back then and they did not want me to take on the responsibility of the child and Liam was in such a bad state. They thought Madison would be better off somewhere else. They were not wrong from where they stood.

“But… that dude, Dominic Grant-”

I gave my dear dumb friend a pointed look.

Nah uh.

I was not going to hear that.

I refused to hear that.

I was not going to let any more people ship me with that nutcase.

He was as cold as ice and as observing as a hawk. It was like he could see through every bit of the layers I had on me.

Though I managed to get the Grants to take back the case, it didn’t sit well with me that there was a human in this world who didn’t fall in to my word trap.

It meant that I needed to up my game.

“I am going home.” I announced. “It’s not like we have anything else to do today.” I stretched my arms over my head and got up from the chair. Of course, there will be paper works. There was always paper works. But since I had cracked the case, it was Jeremy’s turn to do that boring job. The weird part being… that dumb*ss actually enjoyed it.

“See ya.” Jeremy said, taking a sip of his champagne. “And say hi to Maddie for me.”

“Will do.” I hummed as I put on my trench coat and took my bag.

I typed away on my phone, letting my friend, Sally Hopkins, know that I was coming around to her café today. I was free till the evening when I had to go pick up Madison and get her the replacement for Wonder Willow.

“Oof!” I felt the air get knocked out of my lungs as I bumped into a huge wall.

“Look where you are going, Meyers.” I muttered to myself as I looked up. And I was met with the smirk of the last person I wanted to see right now.

“Good that you took the words right out of my lips.” He smiled crudely.

I raised a brow. “Great, I will be on my way then.”

“In a hurry to get rid of me? Why? You think you won't be able to resist?” He pouted, but he looked anything but cute. This man screamed evil with his crooked smile and twinkling dark pools. And that was something, coming from me.

“Aww, I am sure Momma’s baby boy also thinks that the eight planets revolve around him and not the sun, right?” I gave him an equally mocking pout. “How do I break this to you? Oh right, get off my face because I have better things to do than waste my time talking to you.”

I could see that his smirk had faltered for a moment before he regained his composure. See, I am good at what I do.

“You do know who I am, right?”

“Dominic Steven Grant, billionaire and owner of the Grant Hotel Chains, has like seven private jets – though I really don’t understand what you do with all of them – and is obsessed with the Lakers.” I poked the inside of my cheek with my tongue as I realized that I was just proving his point that I knew every single detail about him; I also knew exactly what he was going to say next. Ugh, I was probably PMSing - me in my game would never slip up like this.

“Forget about the eight planets, are you sure your world doesn’t revolve around me?” He bent down to my level, his smirk in place. Truth be told, it looked pretty good up close.

I rolled my eyes. “Pretty sure.”

“Pretty sure?”

“Pretty pretty sure.”

“How about we get some coffee?”

“How about we just terminate this conversation and go our separate ways?” I rolled my eyes. I knew a bad guy when I saw one and this dude was infamous for his cruelty and ruthlessness. But the irony was that, this very personality of his made girls dig him. Like, really?

I did not want him lurking near me.

Dominic Grant let out a sinister laugh. It made shivers run up by spine.

I just made some weird hand movements and shooed him away. My business with him and his family was over and I did not want to stay around for more drama.

I was dusting my hands off this case.

“See you around.” He called after me.

“Hopefully never.”

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“Oooh hot!” It was the first time Sally was seeing Dominic Grant’s photograph because she did not keep up with the business world like I did. I had to know who was on top of the political, entertainment and business food chain at all times so that I could stay clear from their bad books.

“Really?” I rolled my eyes as I sipped on the kiwi mojito she had put together for me. While she sat and chatted with me, I could see her part-timer, a college boy who obviously had feelings for her staring at her like a lost puppy. Cute. “Because all I see is a stupid self-entitled arrogant b*stard who would go to any ends to make sure that he stayed at the top and no one ever came anywhere close to him.”

“I don’t know about any of that.” She waved her hand at me. “I mean, it’s not like I am ever going to encounter him or anything. I am happy looking at him through the screen, enjoying his abundant sexiness.”

I scrunched up my face. I mean, yes, the man wasn’t the worst looking person in the world but ‘abundant sexiness’? Really? Gross.

“Whatever.” I simply said and continued sipping on my drink.

“Considering that you have about three more hours on your hand…” Sally said, keeping her phone on the table. “How about the two of us go shopping?”

I raised a brow. Now, that was something I could never say no to.

I was a bit of a shopaholic. Not that much but still, I loved to spend my time shopping. It was kind of my stress-buster. And though I was not exactly what I would call stressed, I could really use a distraction after having all that negativity from that dude today.

He wreaked of evil. He was bad news. When someone’s at your throat at one moment and trying to get into your panties next, know that he is up to no good!

“I will pick up Maddie in between and we can continue with the shopping spree.” I smiled, Sally’s smile widening at my input. “And then we can have dinner together, like old times.”

“Alright.” Sally clapped and got up from her seat.

“Harry, clear the table. I am going out so keep an eye on the register as well” She told the kid who looked flustered at her mere mention of him.

Cute.

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