Longing For The Beach Billionaire Daddy
Chapter 33

Michael

My driver pulled up to the front of the Express Air Building, and I immediately jumped out to scan the crowd for Shelby.

I lived only a few blocks away from the office, and I left as soon as I’d gotten word that she had been to my office. If I was lucky, maybe I would catch her before she left.

I stood in the middle of the crowded sidewalk and scanned the surrounding street; just across the street, I caught a glimpse of bright red hair. My heart skipped at the chance that It might be her.

My designer dress shoes slapped the pavement hard as I tried to make up the distance between us. I did my best to avoid a collision with the other pedestrians as I ran, but I knew I was doing a poor job of it, hearing the mutters of frustration in my wake.

Despite knowing I was being rude, I pushed myself harder as the gap between Shelby and me started to lessen.

I was halfway down the block from her when I saw her tiny arm shoot up, hailing a taxi. I had to reach her before one of them stopped to pick her up.

I was ten feet from her when a bright yellow car pulled up in front of her, and she opened the back door.

“Shelby, Stop!” I yelled as I raced toward her.

She bent her head to enter the cab, and I grabbed her wrist just in time.

“Excuse me!” she responded.

“Shelby, please, I need to talk to you.”

“I am not Shelby!” the woman said as my eyes finally landed on her face. Clearly, not Shelby’s.

“s**t. I am so sorry, ma’am.”

“You should be,” the woman chided me as she yanked her wrist from my hand and slammed the cab door shut.

I made the long walk back to the entrance of Express Air, catching my breath along the way. I silently got in an elevator, ignoring the buzz of my employees, numbly answering some of their greetings with a slight nod.

Luckily, many of the employees were too busy to notice their boss sulking through the lobby and hallways. The elevator pinged at the top floor, and I took a step out into the waiting room of my office.

I noticed at that moment that I had scuffed my shoes in the chase for the ‘not Shelby’ woman. There went a perfectly good pair of five-thousand-dollar shoes.

“Good Morning, sir,” my receptionist Tabitha said as the elevator doors closed behind me.

“Tabitha,” I answered with a small nod. I was still angry with her that she had called security on Shelby, but I wouldn’t get the information I needed from her if I automatically started scolding her, so I held off.

“Can I get you anything, sir? I wasn’t sure if you were coming in today.”

“No, that is quite alright. I wasn’t planning on coming in today. Did anyone come by for a meeting with me today?” I asked, hoping she would tell me about Shelby stopping by.

“No one of any importance, sir,” Tabitha said with a seductive smile as she grabbed a water bottle from the mini fridge under the reception desk. She cracked the seal and handed it to me.

I took a mental note that Tabitha was purposely not telling me that Shelby had come looking for me, which I knew from the explanation she had given the security guard.

I figured that might be a sign I needed a new receptionist. I took the water bottle from Tabitha’s outstretched hand, maintaining my stern exterior.

“Are you sure? I expected a visit from an old acquaintance. She was supposed to stop by today,” I said with a calculating stare.

“Oh, we did have someone stop by,” Tabitha said, fidgeting slightly under my gaze. “I didn’t catch her name, though.”

“Did you happen to ‘catch’ what she stopped by for?” I asked.

“She said something about knowing you personally, but I highly doubted it with the way she was dressed. I don’t think you would stoop so low as to mix with someone who dressed so…common.”

“What did she look like?” I asked, anger rising up.

Tabitha took this as an invitation to further mock Shelby to me as if I had asked her for more of her petty gossip.

“Oh, you would not believe the state of her shoes. These ugly brown clunky things. I cannot believe someone would ever leave the store with something so awful!” Tabitha squeaked with delight.

“No, Tabitha. I do not care what she was wearing. Why on earth would you think I was so shallow as to only care about the clothes on a person’s back?”

Tabitha looked as though I had physically smacked her. She looked away from me without saying a word and slid a note from underneath her keyboard. She held it in her hand and nearly flicked it at me.

“She left this note,” her flirty tone had completely changed, and I could tell she was trying very hard to keep her voice professional.

“Thank you, Tabitha,” I said as I took the note from her. I walked into my office and closed the glass doors behind me.

I carefully flipped over the note in my hand.

-Michael, I am being contacted about swimming in the cove. We need to talk.-

-P.S. I am sorry I didn’t say goodbye.

Shelby had signed the bottom of the note and left her phone number next to her loopy signature.

I pulled out my phone and dialed her number.

Shelby

I sunk into our old sofa, completely drained from the interaction with Michael’s horrible receptionist. I had held in hot tears the entire elevator ride to the main floor, but those were quickly forgotten as I walked back to the apartment.

I didn’t want to call Lin for a ride, and I couldn’t afford to take a taxi.

The walk home was fine until I noticed a man in a dark hoodie. This man didn’t follow me home, luckily, but it did remind me that someone out there could be watching me. The thought made the rest of my walk a lot less enjoyable.

“So, did you talk to him?” Aubrey peeked out of the kitchen. She had a grimace on her face. She probably noticed my less than enthusiastic flop onto the sofa, or maybe I had let a sigh of frustration out.

“No, he wasn’t at his office, so I left a note with his snobby receptionist.”

“Well, I am sure it is only a matter of time until he calls you and straightens this whole thing out,” she answered with a smile she probably meant to be reassuring.

“Yeah, I am sure he will call if the receptionist actually gives him my note. I wouldn’t put it past that witch to have tossed it right in the trash as soon as I turned my back,” I said as I pulled a throw pillow over my face.

“Why do you say that?”

I lowered the pillow just under my chin and saw Aubrey staring at me with her big eyes full of love and concern. I couldn’t help but spill everything to her.

“Aubs, that was the most embarrassing interaction I have ever had in my entire life. She told me women pulled the same stunt all the time to try and get Michael’s attention. She treated me like I was some kind of groupie,” I said.

“I am sure it wasn’t your most embarrassing interaction. Do you remember when you sat on that foreign exchange student’s jacket? You thought he was hitting on you because he couldn’t figure out how to tell you he needed you to get up.”

“Aubrey! I asked you not to mention that again! What was I supposed to think when he kept gesturing to me and then pointing to his butt,” I said exasperated, but I couldn’t help the smile sneaking onto my lips.

Aubrey started laughing to the point she was nearly wheezing.

“But you went on for like ten minutes about how you thought he was really nice but didn’t see him or his a*s in that way. Oh man, the look on that poor confused boy’s face,” Aubrey said, wiping a small tear from the corner of her eye.

I pulled the pillow back over my face, mostly to keep Aubrey from seeing me smile at the embarrassing memory.

“What am I missing in here?” Lin asked, walking in from the bedroom holding a tape gun.

“Oh, we were just remembering the time that Shelby sat on the foreign exchange student’s jacket,” Aubrey said, trying to suppress a giggle.

“Oh, I never get tired of that story!” Lin said and then began imitating me, “I agree. You do have a really nice a*s, but that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t think of you like that.”

Aubrey laughed so hard that she snorted, which set Lin off laughing just as hard. I was really going to miss living with these two. I was taking Lin with me to Harvard, but it wouldn’t be the same without Aubrey.

“I am going to miss this,” I said as I sat up on the couch and hugged the pillow in my lap.

“Don’t remind me that you guys are leaving. I have already cried about it today,” Aubrey said.

“Yeah, don’t make Aubrey cry. You know I get all weird when people cry,” Lin added.

“You are right. I am sorry, you two. I just feel bad I have spent the last week moping around the place, not enjoying our time together.”

“We understand Shelby, even more so now that we know about the whole mess with the photographer.”

“What Aubrey said. Anyway, what happened at Express Air? I am guessing you didn’t get a chance to talk to Michael, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”

“No, he wasn’t at his office. His horrible receptionist made fun of me and would only let me leave a note for him. I don’t even know if she will give it to him, so all I can do now is sit and wait for him to call, but that is probably a long shot.”

“I am sure he will call Shelby,” Aubrey said, coming to sit next to me on the couch.

“It is only a matter of time. And if he doesn’t, I will go up to his office and see if that snot-nosed receptionist can say no to me,” Lin added, sitting on the other side of me.

“Who said she was snot-nosed?” I asked.

“Just a shot in the dark, honestly, but it felt right.”

We all laughed until my phone started ringing.

I pulled it out of my pocket and took a deep breath before answering.

“Shelby?”