New Beginnings (The Billionaire’s Baby #4)(15)
Author: Helen Cooper

“Like?”

“Sexing?”

“What?!?!”

“I’m joking girl. Like dinner, maybe ice-skating, bowling, you know fun stuff where you can be close.”

“Haha, I see.” Ella sipped some water. “Okay. Here is my standard response. Tell me how it sounds.”

“Okay.”

“Hi insertscreennamehere, thanks for your message. I was happy to see that someone as accomplished and funny as you would be interested in getting to know me. I am new to the online dating world and really hoping to meet a nice guy to get to know. I would love to grab a coffee this week if you are interested. Goldengirl.”

“That sounds okay.” Capri paused. “Though, it does sounds kinda generic.”

“I’ll add some more personal stuff for each guy in there. But overall it sounds good, yeah?”

“Yeah, it sounds good.”

“Yay me.”

“Girl, those guys are going to think they won the lottery when they meet you. Cute, blond, funny.”

“Aww, thanks Capri.”

“Don’t thank me. Thank your parents.” Capri laughed.

“Ooh. I just got an instant message from likestolisten,” Ella squealed. “Should I accept it?”

“Yes.” Capri sighed. “Look girl, I gotta go. Leroy is getting on my last nerves. I’ll speak to you tomorrow?”

“Sounds good. Thanks Capri.” Ella hung up and clicked accept on the chat link and laughed at the message likestolisten had sent her.

Likestolisten: Hi Goldengirl. I hope you don’t mind me messaging you instead of waiting for your reply. I’ve been checking my inbox all day for a response.

Goldengirl: Hi Likestolisten. How are you? I was just about to send you a reply message.

Likestolisten: Well, there you go. You just made my day.

Goldengirl: Well, I do like to please.

Likestolisten: I am not going to take that in the perverted way. I promise.

Goldengirl: Perverted way? Huh?

Likestolisten: Read your sentence back again.

Goldengirl: Oh, oops. Haha. That is not what I meant.

Likestolisten: Do you want me to hold on while you send me my message?

Goldengirl: I was just going to say that maybe we could grab a coffee sometime.

Likestolisten: Is tomorrow good?

Goldengirl: Wow, you’re fast.

Likestolisten: I guess that’s why I have a gold medal from the Olympics.

Goldengirl: You do not!

Likestolisten: No, I don’t! But wouldn’t that have been awesome if I did.

Goldengirl: Haha. Yes. It would have been pretty awesome. So why do you like to listen so much?

Likestolisten: It goes well with my job.

Goldengirl: And that is?

Likestolisten: Something I’ll tell you about later? It’s quite boring.

Goldengirl: Okay.

Likestolisten: So what do you do?

Goldengirl: Just finishing up my bachelors degree and looking for a job.

Likestolisten: Aw. Good luck with the job search. It’s a hard market these days.

Goldengirl: Thanks. I’m fully prepared to be a barista at Starbucks if need be!!!

Likestolisten: I’ll have a grande soy caramel macchiato please.

Goldengirl: Coming right up kind sir.

Likestolisten: Do you want to meet at a Starbucks tomorrow? That way you can grab an application as well and kill two birds with one stone.

Goldengirl: How thoughtful you are. We can meet by Union Square?

Likestolisten: Awesome. Around 7pm?

Goldengirl: That’s great!

Likestolisten: Awesome. I’ll let you go so you can respond to my message now!

Goldengirl: Haha. Bye.

Likestolisten: Bye.

Ella exited the instant message with a huge grin on her face. Likestolisten sounded like a really cool guy. She felt a bit bad that she had deceived him but she didn’t want him to know that she was an heiress and loaded. She wasn’t looking for a guy that was more interested in her fortune and family business than in her. She looked at his photos again and sighed. He was gorgeous. He said he was six foot with blond hair and brown eyes and from what she could see, he could have been a Hollywood star. She felt her body warm at the idea of going on a date with him. She ran to the bathroom to study herself in the mirror. She stared at her reflection and sighed. She knew she was pretty but she was so sad at her haircut. The pixie cut didn’t take away from her looks but she missed her long flowing blond hair; she felt like a boy without it.

Her ringing phone made her run back to the living room, she didn’t want Jacob to wake up and start crying again. Taking care of a baby was proving to be a lot harder than she ever thought and while it was kind of fun, she was already frustrated at how much he cried. She looked at the screen and saw that it was Joseph who was calling her and she quickly pressed end. She didn’t want to talk to him, didn’t want him to drag her down the path of pain again. But she couldn’t stop herself from listening to the voicemail that he left.

“Ella, it’s Joseph. I miss you. I wish you were here to kiss and hold me. Call me, please. It’s important. If you love your brother and you want to make sure his life isn’t ruined. Call me.” And then the message ended. Ella was confused and scared. What was Joseph talking about? Did he have something on Max that could get him into trouble? Ella bit her lip and sat on the couch. She needed to make a decision. She may have to contact Joseph to find out exactly what was going on.

Chapter 9

Sophie

Sophie was more excited than she wanted to admit. In fact, she felt like there was something wrong with her for being so excited to visit a sex club. She didn’t want Max to know that she felt kind of turned on. She didn’t even want to acknowledge it herself.

“So are you sure you want to go, Sophie?” Max looked at her with a worried look on his face as he drove. “I don’t want you to be shocked.”

“I’m not going to judge you, Max.” Sophie smiled at him softly, studying the lines on his face. He looked like he had aged years in days. Oh her precious Max; she would do anything to wipe those lines away but she needed to know. She needed to see what his life had been like before her.

“It may be hard not to.” He made a self-deprecating face. “It’s a seedy place, Sophie.”

“Why did you go there?”

“I wanted to get away from my everyday life.”

“Why?”

“There were a lot of reasons why, Sophie.” He sighed. “You know—part of me was angry at myself for loving you, for wanting to be with you. I thought it was wrong. And then Alexis kinda swooped in and she showed me a different side to life.”