Chapter 5
lex Addison spent the weekend wining and dining Mickie, when they weren’t having
unbridled sex all over his apartment. They had dinner on Saturday night at the Polo
Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, with several famous people close enough to touch at
nearby tables. Mickie was in the big leagues now and she wasn’t going to do anything to
blow it. She was an ambitious girl with a hunger for a much better life and willing to do
whatever she needed to do to get there, and to stay now that she’d arrived. A handsome,
rich, successful doctor was a lucky break, and he was crazy about her and couldn’t get
enough of her. She took full advantage of it.
Mickie had improved on her natural skills after she got to L.A., and she had learned
some tricks in bed that drove him insane. She was willing to do and try almost anything,
far beyond what most women would do, and he loved the wild side of her. They were
madly in lust, and he didn’t have to claim emotions for her he didn’t feel. She didn’t
care about that. He wanted to possess her body in every way he could, and she
surprised him frequently in bed, which he wouldn’t have believed possible. She was
totally at ease with her own body and his, and bolder than any woman he’d ever met,
and he was twice her age. She didn’t mind that either. He had never met a woman as
hungry for sex as he was.
They spent Sunday on a sexual marathon, and on Sunday night, he put five thousand
dollars in cash on the kitchen table, where they had just made love again. For a minute
she thought he was paying her, which made her uncomfortable. She wasn’t his hooker
and had never taken money for sex. She gave it away to whomever, how and when she
wanted to. He hadn’t bought her, even though she worked for him now. He felt like he
had won the lottery when he met her. It was the most exciting weekend of his life. He
couldn’t get enough of her.
“What’s that for?” she asked, and didn’t touch the bills lying on the table next to her.
Her voice was cold when she asked. She could go from hot to cold in seconds, and back
again.
“I’ve been invited to a party given by the head of a streaming service,” Alex
explained. “His wife is my best patient. I want you to come with me. Buy yourself
something fabulous to wear. If that’s not enough, call me, and I’ll have my assistant take
care of it,” he said, and she felt relief wash over her. He wasn’t treating her like a
hooker after all. To reward him, she inflicted unexpected pain on him and he loved it.
She loved causing him pain, it excited them both. “Thank you,” she said for the money
for the dress. They spent another night of reciprocal torment and ecstasy, and he looked
relaxed and happy on Monday morning, and told her she’d better leave before his
medical staff started arriving. He said they were filling the supply closets that day with
his secret formulas.
“Is that why you have code locks on all the doors in the office?” She had noticed it
when he walked her through.
“I don’t want anyone stealing the formulas it took me years to develop,” he said
seriously. “They’re worth a fortune. It’s why I have security at the door. And there will
be more once we’re open.” She was impressed by what he said. She had hit the jackpot,
in every way. The weekend had proved it to both of them. He was as convinced as she
was, and he liked that she could look and behave like a lady in public and a tornado in
bed. He had never before encountered that combination in one woman. She was a rare
find.
“Where did you go to college?” he asked her while he made her breakfast, and she
lay stretched out on the counter naked. He had to control himself not to lunge at her
again, but they didn’t have time. He was already dressed for work in a black shirt and
black jeans, with black alligator cowboy boots. He didn’t have his doctor’s coat on yet.
“Stanford,” Mickie answered, taunting him with her legs wide apart. There was a thin
film of perspiration on his forehead, while he put scrambled eggs on a plate for her.
Because she’d been hired as a model, he’d never seen an application that referred to her
education. “I took this year off, to do some modeling. I’m going back in January,” she
said casually, unzipping his jeans with agonizing slowness.
“That’s a great school,” he said in a strangled voice, barely able to breathe, as she
freed him from his jeans, and they both forgot the eggs. “You’re a very smart girl. Lucky
for me you took the year off.” She gave him what he wanted then. They knocked over
two chairs, and the plate broke on the floor and spilled the eggs neither of them cared
about. It was over in minutes, and he stood smiling at her, as she lay on the kitchen
counter. All he could think of was how glad he was that he had hired her. He could have
an unlimited diet of Mickie whenever he wanted, any way he desired. She would be
right there with him all the time every day.
She hopped off the table then and ran upstairs to dress, while he cleaned up the eggs
and smoothed down his hair. She was back in five minutes, looking prim in jeans, a
white blouse, and ballet slippers, with her hair in a knot at her neck. She looked
beautiful and normal, and not like the wild woman he had discovered on the weekend.
She hid the truth remarkably well.
“Do you want to come by for lunch?” he asked her, and she smiled coolly.
“I have a go-see.” She didn’t, but she didn’t want to be too available.
“Tonight?” He felt like the supplicant, and would have hated her for it, except he
wanted her so badly. He couldn’t get enough of her. He was already starving for her.
And they were going to the party he’d invited her to that night.
She called an Uber and kissed him primly. The five thousand dollars he had given her
the night before was in her purse.
“Besides, I have to shop for the dress you want me to get. What time is the party?”
“Eight o’clock. I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty, unless you want to dress here. But we
might never get out the door. And tonight is important. We have to go.” It was going to
be her debut as his ambassadress and his woman, so she was eager to go too. She was
curious to discover the world he moved in, the people he knew.
“I’ll be camera-ready when you come,” she assured him. “We can always have a
little extra fun at the party,” she said playfully and he looked serious.
“Tonight’s important, Michaela. We can’t get crazy there. They’re decent
people . . . not like us,” he added. Michaela was a bad girl to the core and he loved it.
“Of course not,” she said, looking demure. She kissed him as the Uber arrived, and
she was out the door with her bag and his money and a day of shopping ahead of her.
She would be flawless at the party. She knew just how to do it. She waved as the Uber
drove away and he stood staring after it, wondering what had hit him. His medical staff
arrived ten minutes later, and they started unpacking the boxes of his medical supplies,
and placing them where he directed them to. Each time the doors locked behind them,
and they had to use the code again. He intended to change the code every day, more
often if he had to. No one was going to steal his secrets, or the woman he had found,
who in one short stunning week he had already discovered he couldn’t live without.
Michaela Banks was the most unusual, extraordinary, exciting woman he had ever met.
He could hardly wait for the party tonight, but he had work to do in the meantime. And
his secret formulas to lock up to protect them.
When Mickie left Alex’s house, she went home to drop off her things. Alex didn’t
expect her to be at his office for regular office hours, just to drop in, meet patients at
times, and go to parties with him. It didn’t even feel like a job. She called the agency to
check in and see if they had anything for her. They had her on hold for two go-sees later
in the week, but didn’t have a confirmation yet. After that, she took off to Rodeo Drive
to spend Alex’s five thousand dollars, to buy a dress for that night. She started at one
end of the street and worked her way down. She wandered around Ralph Lauren, saw a
peach-colored sundress she liked, but decided to come back if she had money left after
the “something fabulous” he had told her to buy. She walked into Chanel, and looked no
different than the other girls her age shopping there. She was wearing white jeans, a
pink sweater, ballet flats she had bought at her secondhand store, and the white Birkin
bag Alex had given her from the shoot. It was an incredibly generous gift, as was the
five thousand dollars she had in it, to shop with that day.
She saw a dozen things she wanted to buy, but none of them was dressy enough for
that night. She went to Gucci and didn’t see anything she liked, then Valentino. She was
beginning to panic when she stopped in at Prada, and the dress on the mannequin looked
like what Alex had in mind. It was a short silver knit dress, with sleeves made of black
and silver feathers. They showed it with black stockings and silver shoes, and a big
rhinestone necklace. It was a knockout, and Mickie asked to see it in her size. She was
afraid it would cost more than Alex had given her, but he had told her to call his office
if she needed more. She was trying to stay within the budget so he didn’t think she was
greedy. They took the dress off the mannequin for her to try. The sleeves floated with the
feathers. They left it with her in the dressing room, and went to get the shoes in her size.
And they had a small silver clutch with rhinestones that matched. She tried on the whole
outfit the mannequin had been wearing and it looked incredible on her. The dress was
very short but she had the legs to get away with it, long and slim like her father’s, and
the dress clung to her just enough in the right places to be sexy but not obscene. It
looked like something she would wear in a modeling shoot but could never own. Mickie
glanced at the price tag, and it was less than anything she’d seen at Chanel and seemed
to fit Alex’s description of fabulous, and the salesgirl smiled when she came back with
the shoes.
“That dress hasn’t looked like that on anyone who’s tried it. It was made for you.”
The black feather arms floated to her wrists like swan wings, and the silver knit dress
showed every inch of her figure, and the shoes fit perfectly. The rhinestone necklace and
clutch made the outfit, along with sheer black stockings with tiny rhinestones scattered
on them like stars. Mickie looked like the cover of Vogue and felt like a million dollars,
and she had seventy dollars left in her Birkin when she carried her package out of the
store. She had the perfect outfit. It was just what he had asked for. Something fabulous.
She went back to the apartment, laid it all out on her bed, and went to lie on a deck
chair at the pool. She felt as though she had won the lottery and couldn’t wait until Alex
saw her outfit that night. She hoped he liked the look for the party they were going to.
He said it was an important event and an opportunity to meet new patients. His most
important patient had organized it for him. He said that social appearances were an
important part of meeting new patients, and Mickie was part of his image now. The
subliminal message was that if she was that beautiful and looked that young, he must
have had something to do with it, particularly if she said she was thirty-three, not
nineteen. Mickie never minded lying for a good cause. Sometimes she lied just for the
hell of it or because it was fun.
She stayed at the pool till six and went back to the apartment to get ready. She was in
the shower when Billie came home from work. It had been an interesting day at work.
She had been assigned to do breast biopsies. The hospital had an important breast
health clinic. She helped herself to a snack in the kitchen, and stuck her head into
Mickie’s room to say hello and saw the silver dress hanging on the door of one of
Mickie’s closets. She had hogged them all, but Billie didn’t care, she hardly had any
clothes.
“Wow! What’s that?” Billie looked at the silver dress and touched the sleeves, as
Mickie walked into the room. The feathers floated and were light as air. Billie had
plans herself that night and had stopped in Mickie’s room when she came out of the
shower, and was wrapped in a towel.
“I just got it today,” Mickie said proudly.
“At your secondhand place?”
Mickie nodded. “Umm . . . yeah . . . It was dirt cheap.”
“It must look incredible on you.” She went to get dressed herself then, while Mickie
got ready for her big evening.
She did her hair in a sleek bun, did her makeup, and put the whole outfit back together
with the necklace, and Billie gasped when she saw the full effect. It was dazzling, and
the rhinestones on the necklace and stockings flashed like iridescent stars.
“You look amazing,” she said to her little sister in a tone of awe, not envy. When she
saw Mickie dressed, it reminded Billie of a dress Mickie had worn one year as prom
queen with a rhinestone bustier. She had sparkled like the disco ball at the party when
she was crowned. She had a knack for pulling together stunning outfits.
Mickie was ready when Alex arrived on the dot of seven-thirty and called her from
the car. She asked him if he wanted to come up and meet her sister and Alex responded,
“Another time. I don’t want to be late. I want a chance to speak to the relevant guests as
they arrive.” He had no interest in Mickie’s family, only in her.
“Have a fun evening,” Billie said as Mickie sailed past her and hurried down the
stairs in the silver high heels, and down the walk to where Alex was waiting. He still
had the Ferrari for the rest of the week. He was wearing a black Tom Ford tuxedo with
a black shirt. He was all in black as usual, but on him it didn’t look ominous, it looked
elegant and dramatic, as she did. His eyes grew wide when he saw Mickie. He hadn’t
been prepared for the impact she would make but he loved it.
“Oh my God, Michaela, I said ‘fabulous,’ not ‘give me cardiac arrest when I see
you.’”
“Is it too flashy?” She looked panicked.
“No, you look like a star fallen straight from heaven, it’s perfect.”
“I have seventy dollars left for you,” she said proudly, relieved that he liked it. “I got
the whole outfit at Prada.”
“It’s a knockout. You’re the best advertisement I could have.” Every woman in the
room would envy her look, her dress, her perfect body, her exquisite face. He was
pleased on the way to the party, and heads turned when they got there, and everyone
stared at her as Alex made his way to their hostess, with Mickie’s hand tucked firmly
into his arm. Every woman there was wearing a gorgeous designer dress, but Mickie’s
was the shortest, brightest, and sexiest, and she was by far the youngest and most
beautiful woman there.
Their hostess, Marilyn Hodges, kissed him on the cheek and Mickie noticed that she
was nice-looking and had lovely skin and a smooth face. She was in her late fifties and
no longer had a face or figure like Mickie’s, or never had. She was wearing a pink
brocade cocktail dress with a matching jacket, which was a little tight on her. Alex had
met her at a spa in Miami. Mickie was dazzled by the clothes and the jewels she was
seeing around her. She took a glass of champagne from a tray, as the hostess took Alex
around and introduced him to her friends, whispering to each of them that he was the
magician she had told them about. Their faces lit up at the introduction, and Alex was
attentive and charming to each of them.
“When are you opening your new center, Doctor?” one of the guests asked him.
“We’re putting the finishing touches on now, and we’ll be fully open next week, but I
can sneak you in this week, if you like,” he whispered back, and the woman beamed. He
made each woman feel special, and the hostess most of all. The hostess whispered in
his ear.
“Tomorrow?” she asked, hopeful, and he nodded with a smile and gave her a hug.
“I have your special formula waiting for you. I put it in the fridge for you myself
today. No name on it, of course, just your number.” He was planning to do everything
with the utmost secrecy. He wanted all his patients to feel special, and he made it clear
that they were to him.
Alex circulated in the crowd all evening, talking to beautiful women, and their
hostess explained how remarkable he was and called him a genius.
When appropriate, he would have Mickie join them, or if not, at a subtle sign from
him, she would drift away, and one of the men at the party would join her within
minutes. She was the hit of the evening in her dress, and Alex in his tuxedo with the
black shirt, with unlimited charm, as he introduced himself. And their hostess did the
rest. Those who wanted it would all have his number by the next day. Alex knew how to
work a crowd without ever being obvious about it. He was very efficient, and Mickie
was impressed after watching him in action.
“What kind of treatments do you give them?” she asked as they moved from one group
to another. He was like a magnet to women over thirty-five once they knew who he was.
And Marilyn talked about him a lot to her friends. He was alternately boyish, charming,
or seductive with them, depending on the subtle cues he got.
“The usual procedures,” Alex answered vaguely. “Botox for some, some collagen,
laser treatments, fillers, we’ve been doing a lot of collagen thread lifts, Thermage,
mesotherapy, and I have some magic potions that work miracles,” he said mysteriously.
“Should I get any of that?” Mickie looked intrigued. She’d never considered it
before.
“At your age?” he laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. We’ll talk about it in five years.
Until then, you can have a lollipop and a Barbie Band-Aid if you scrape your knee,” he
said, and she laughed. It was magical being with him. And after the party, the moment
they walked into his house, before he even switched on the lights, her shimmering
silvery dress with the black and silver plumage lay on the white marble floor. They only
made it as far as the sleek white Italian couch in his waiting area, with the subtly lit
pool beyond. Both of them were naked within an instant and her whole body was
electrified by his touch. They began making love on the couch, and when she straddled
him he carried her outside to the pool. She felt as light in his arms as the feathers on the
dress she had worn, he slipped naked into the pool with her, and they continued making
love in the warm water. They were hidden from view, and she teased and tormented him
in all the ways she had discovered were what he liked best. He came with a shuddering
surge and a shout of exquisite agony. She pulled away afterward and swam away from
him, and he followed her to the deep end of the pool, where she perched on a wide step
and he took her again. He fought her for control, and she bewitched him once more. She
was a strong swimmer, and their sensual dance continued as he pulled her deeper
underwater, and held her there in his powerful arms. He only released her when she
thought her lungs would burst, and she came while gasping for air when she reached the
surface, and she took vengeance on him until he begged for mercy. It was Mickie who
won in the end. They were like two beautiful sea creatures in a primal dance that went
on long into the night until at last they were spent, and fell asleep on a lounge chair,
naked and exquisite in the moonlight.
Billie’s night out was very different from her sister’s. As different as they were.
Jason Bell had an apartment a floor above Billie and Mickie’s. He came by to pick
her up at eight, after Mickie had left for her Cinderella evening with Alex. Jason drove
Billie to the restaurant in his battered Jeep, with the top down, not in a Ferrari. He was
wearing a crisp white shirt, jeans, and loafers, and she was wearing a flowered blouse,
white jeans, and sandals, with her dark hair loose down her back. She looked young and
pretty and fresh.
The restaurant was crowded and fun. There was an outdoor terrace, where they got a
table, and a terrific mariachi band played for the first hour. Billie loved the music, they
drank margaritas, and the food was delicious. There was a festive atmosphere, and
when the band left, Billie and Jason chatted over dinner. He talked about growing up in
New York. His mother was an intellectual property attorney and represented several
famous writers, and his father was the head of a well-known, respected publishing
house. Jason had gone to private schools in New York, and was faintly embarrassed to
admit that he had had a comfortable, privileged life with loving parents. He had gone to
college on the West Coast to get away from them and have a normal life “without
someone ironing my jeans and doing my laundry and solving all my problems for me.
After I graduated from UCLA, I went back to New York for grad school, at the
Columbia School of Journalism, but I lived in a rat’s nest apartment with two other guys
to pay penance for going to my parents’ place in Connecticut on the weekends. I really
like my parents. They’re good people, with good values. I have a terrific sister, Emily,
who’s two years older than I am. She’s thirty-five, a novelist, and lives in Vermont with
a guy I like a lot. He’s a country doctor, a GP. My sister has had two novels published
so far, not big bestsellers yet, but she’s good. She went to Middlebury and liked it so
much she stayed in Vermont, and that’s how she met Thad, Thaddeus MacAdams. His
family has been in Vermont for generations. She loves the country life. I’m a city boy. I
love New York, but I like living out here too. I moved here three years ago when I
turned thirty, and I was momentarily fed up with New York. I have a love-hate
relationship with the city,” he said, and she laughed. “So what was Iowa like?” he
asked her and she thought about it for a minute, thinking about how to describe it.
“I never fit in. Weirdly, neither did my sister. She was too glamorous and wanted the
fast life, so she dropped out of high school, got her GED, left, and came out here. But
she was the coolest girl at school and the prom queen every year at home in Iowa. And I
was the nerdy, geeky one whom all the cool girls made fun of. My best friend all through
school was a guy. He’s in the Middle East now, doing counterterrorist missions in the
army. I never see him anymore since he’s been undercover, but we were best friends till
he graduated from West Point, and shipped out when he got into military intelligence.
“My mother was the glue that held our family together,” she said wistfully. “She
never went past high school, got married as soon as she graduated, and had me. She
didn’t go to college, but she read everything she could lay her hands on. My father
doesn’t believe in education, for anyone, men or women, he thinks it’s all nonsense.
He’s an old-fashioned farmer, owns a small dairy. My mother died when I was
seventeen and my sister was fourteen, and it all fell apart after that. I was a science nut
and got into MIT on a full scholarship. I graduated in May and now here I am. I wanted
to stay in Boston. I loved it, but I couldn’t find a job, so I came out here to share an
apartment with my sister. She’s modeling, and she just took a job with some weird
doctor. He’s a Harvard-trained plastic surgeon who doesn’t believe in surgery, so he
does noninvasive treatments with some sort of miracle drugs and makes people look
young again. I can’t tell if he’s a charlatan or not. I’m pretty skeptical about that kind of
thing. But he hired my sister to be the symbol of youthful beauty for his medical beauty
center. That kind of thing seems a little too narcissistic for me,” she said.
“Are you and your sister very close?” he asked her, touched by her story and how
openly she told it, without dressing it up or hiding anything or making it better than it
was.
“No,” she answered him bluntly about Mickie. “I hated her growing up. She did all
the worst stuff, I mean really awful stuff, and blamed me. My father always believed
her, so did our teachers and other parents. The only one who didn’t believe her was my
mother. Mickie was a little witch as a kid, and I was always punished for her crimes. I
swore I’d never trust her again, and now here I am, living with her. But I have to admit,
she’s been really nice, and I’m actually enjoying her. I just don’t trust her completely.
But it looks like she’s grown up while I was in college. She’s young, she’s only
nineteen, but she’s always been very advanced for her age. She was having sex while I
was milking the cows and playing with dolls, and she’s three years younger!” she said,
and he laughed at her honesty.
“I think a lot of siblings fight when they’re kids, and are best friends later. My sister
and I had a few nasty rows, mostly because she was older and lorded it over me. She
was taller until I was fifteen, and then I shot up. Before that, she used to beat me up. But
we’re good friends now. I love her books, and I hope she really makes it big one of
these days.”
“I can’t say I had a normal childhood,” Billie said. “I’m not even sure what that is.
You’d think life on a farm in Iowa would be as ordinary as it gets. But it isn’t. Maybe
some people there are normal. The ones I knew married too young, were unhappy, got
trapped there, cheat on their spouses, and drink too much.” She thought of her father. “I
don’t think they’re happy. I couldn’t wait to get out, and I wanted an education. My
mother was determined to see that I got one. In the end, my high school counselor got me
into MIT, which was my ticket to freedom. I couldn’t go back now, except for a visit. I
go home for Christmas every year, but that’s it.”
“Are you happy?” Jason asked her gently.
She thought about it before she answered. “Yes, I think I am. L.A. is kind of fun. I like
my job. I want a better job when I can get one. But I like going to work every day. I
loved MIT and everything I learned there. I got the education I wanted, and one day I’ll
get the job, and I’m not trapped on a farm in Iowa. I can go wherever I want. I’m free.
All those mean girls I went to school with, who were such bitches to me because I was
smart and I wasn’t cool, are miserable now. So yes, I am happy. Are you?”
“I’m kind of like you,” he said. “Though in my case I’m close to my family so I
always have them to fall back on, which is lucky for me. I love New York, but I love
L.A. too. I like my job but I don’t love it. I’m eleven years older than you are so I feel
more pressure about the job. I want to cover politics, not homicides, but I don’t hate
going to work every day, and I figure I’ll get to where I want eventually. I worry about
getting complacent and too comfortable and not pushing myself hard enough. I try to
watch out for that.
“I’ve had a couple of nice relationships with women I liked and didn’t want to marry,
and we’re still friends. I’ve never been madly in love or felt compelled to get married,
so maybe I have a Peter Pan complex. My parents think men shouldn’t marry till they’re
thirty-five, so I have this illusion that I have time, but most of the people I went to
school with have kids by now. I definitely don’t feel ready for that. I’m kind of coasting
along, feeling good. Maybe I’m not ambitious enough, but California does that to you.
You get comfortable here and don’t push yourself. But New York is so driven, it’s too
much. I have a nice time in my life. It’s all I need for right now,” he said, and he smiled.
He was in fact very normal, and she liked that about him. He didn’t have any deepseated damage,
he was just a nice, smart guy who liked his family and had a good job.
“I have a lot to be grateful for,” he said, and she agreed, but she did too. She had a roof
over her head, she had found a decent job, and she was living with her sister and it
seemed to be working out. She hadn’t run out of money, although she had come close,
and she was going to be able to pay her share of the rent with the job at Cedars-Sinai.
All her needs were being met. And now she had met a guy she liked. He seemed
respectable, he was fun, smart, and had an interesting job. She thought being a crime
reporter sounded fascinating, even if he liked politics better. He was well educated, and
his family sounded like a dream come true to her, compared to growing up with a father
who had ignored her and overlooked her for all her life, and the sister from hell,
although admittedly, Mickie seemed to have improved markedly since she grew up and
left home. She wasn’t even a bad roommate. Billie wondered what her sudden affair
with her new boss would turn into. It had taken off at jet speed, which was always
Mickie’s style, but he sounded like a big-deal fancy guy to Billie. She didn’t know why
but she had a strange feeling about him. He sounded so flashy and so showy from
everything Mickie said that she wondered if he was for real. But Mickie always seized
the opportunities that came and made the best of them. And Alex Addison sounded like
the biggest opportunity she’d ever had. Billie thought he was too old for her too, but
Mickie didn’t care. He had a gorgeous house, an expensive car, he was incredibly
handsome, and he was generous with her. It was all she wanted for now.
The evening with Jason ended on a gentle note. They sat in the lounge chairs at the
pool for a while, looking at the sky over L.A. He went and got a bottle of wine from his
apartment after a while and poured them each a glass. She’d had two margaritas at
dinner, but the meal they’d eaten had neutralized them. She didn’t feel drunk, just lazy
and relaxed. She felt slightly tipsy with the wine, but she enjoyed his company. Jason
seemed very grown-up, sane and well balanced. She liked that he had such a stable
background and wasn’t getting over some horrendous trauma in his youth. He was polite
and kind, intelligent, and attentive to her. After half an hour he walked her back to her
apartment. They both had work the next day.
“I really had a nice time,” he told her before he left. She didn’t invite him in. There
was nowhere comfortable to sit, between the sagging couch and an equally ugly chair.
Mickie had bought the barest essentials when she moved in.
“So did I.” Billie smiled at him, feeling shy for a minute. She didn’t know if he was
going to try to kiss her, and it seemed like too soon. She was relieved when he didn’t.
She had only met him two days before. She was hoping he’d ask her out again. And he
was smiling when he went upstairs to his apartment, thinking of her.
Billie wasn’t surprised when Mickie didn’t come home that night. She would have
been stunned if she had, and disappointed for her. In the outfit she was wearing, her
little sister was out to conquer the world, with an important new man at the end of her
line. Billie knew that Mickie would stop at nothing until he was addicted to her, and she
knew just how to do it. It was only a matter of time before she caught him and had him
hooked. Knowing her sister, the only question that remained in Billie’s mind was when.
