Chapter 7
Matteo
Heading back to the hotel room, I couldn’t believe how the night had gone. Why couldn’t she sell it better? Who would ever be so quiet at the dinner table? She was meeting my family for the first time; the least she could do was be more interactive. I doubt anyone believed that façade tonight. Right now, I was furious. If this didn’t pan out, then I was screwed. Maybe, I should have picked someone else. Lacey just wasn’t meeting my expectations. I couldn’t have this fall through. Otherwise, I would look like an absolute fool in front of my family. That couldn’t happen. We must do better tomorrow.
I checked my phone to see if Kimberly, my assistant, had left any voicemails. Nothing. Usually, when I was away from the office for more than a couple hours, she was calling me with an update. Weird.
I dialed her phone number. She answered, “Thank you for calling Matteo’s office. How can I help you?”
“Everything okay? I’ve got no voicemails or emails from you,” I said worriedly.
“Yes, boss. Everything is okay. Enjoy your vacation. I’ve got this handled,” she replied, and I could tell she was wearing a smile on the other end.
Kimberly had been my assistant for five years. She knew almost every aspect of my life. My laundry schedule, how I liked my coffee, my favorite places to eat, and probably anything else you could think of. A dedicated employee, she knew how important it was for me to get away.
Lacey walked into the room, huffing and puffing like she had any right to do.
“I don’t know what happened tonight, but you are going to have to step up your game. Tomorrow must be better than this. I got way too many looks like they were unsure. Do you understand?” I didn’t mean to come off like an utter asshole, but after the way she turned and looked at me, boy, was I glad I did. I had to close my eyes and take a deep breath to calm myself down.
She scoffed. “Excuse me? Step up my game? All night you looked like I was your crazy ex-girlfriend who tried to murder you.”
I couldn’t believe how she was speaking to me. No one talked to me that way, especially not hired help. How dare she? I felt my face get hot, and I couldn’t think of anything to say in response.
“You want me to be better, then you need to do better. You need to look happy and smile occasionally. Matter of fact, look at me like someone you love!” she said, waving her hand around in my face.
I couldn’t. All I could give her was a disgusted look. I didn’t like her attitude toward me. It was off-putting. How could I look at a woman like I loved her if I didn’t know a damn thing about her? This had gotten off to an awful start, and it needed to get better. Something had to give.
“Well, you want to know something? I can’t stand you either. It’s mutual, buddy. You have got to be one of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met. The way you talk to women is despicable. No wonder you had to hire me to pretend to be remotely interested in you. No one else would be otherwise,” she said as she slammed the bathroom door in my face.
How fucking dare she? My face gets hotter when I realized this woman just called me an asshole and then told me no woman would ever be interested in me. Not that I was complaining because I didn’t want a woman in my life anyway, but it still hurt. How did I not defend myself one single time throughout all of that? I didn’t even get a word in! Well, I would now.
“First of all, you have no right to talk to me like that. I’m this close to calling this a loss and sending your ass back home. Second, hurry up. I need to get changed so I can go to bed and forget about this day happening,” I said, banging on the door to make her hurry up.
Lacey stormed out of the bathroom with her hair in a bun and her makeup taken off. “There, it’s yours, asshole. Send me home, I wouldn’t mind. The company I’m stuck with is unbearable, to say the least. I don’t know if it’s worth the ten thousand dollars anyway. No amount of money is worth this. You realize that I didn’t even eat but dessert tonight. Your family ordered me some disgusting fish. I hate fish! You should probably get to know your girlfriend better.”
I didn’t have anything to say back to her. I was at a loss for words. This woman was getting under my skin with her attitude and making me be the worst version of myself. Things must be bad if I couldn’t pay a woman $10,000 to spend a week with me. Then, I realized the end part of what she said. She didn’t eat? Where the hell had the food gone? I remembered her clean plate but also hearing her stomach grumbling under the table next to me. That explained it. I started to feel bad because I knew when we got dinner, devoured wouldn’t even be the right word to describe how fast I had eaten.
“I’m sorry. I had no idea. You should have just said something. You could have gotten something. There’s no need for you to starve while you are here,” I said in the kindest tone I could find inside me right now. I looked over at her, attempting to read her, but I couldn’t.
Once I had changed, I lay down on the bed and turned out the lights. I could hear her heavy breathing across the room. I turned the lights back on. “Listen, we are both pissed right now. We are going to have to get over this disgust for each other and make it work. You need the money, and I need my family to believe this for a week. Can we come to an agreement to try and get along for the sake of this trip?” I didn’t know why I felt the need to say that to her, but I did. My mouth started speaking before I even had a chance to stop it.
Lacey muttered, “Turn the damn light off.”
She was indeed a hard girl to handle. This was going to be harder than I thought when I planned this lie. I didn’t expect to have a woman that was disgusted by me. Most women flocked to me because of my money, but she wasn’t. Yeah, she only came on this trip because I was paying her, but it was different. I needed to be kinder to her if I wanted her to stay on this trip. I didn’t have a choice at this point. Be nicer!