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#Chapter 29 Celebrate
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Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 30 What Does He Want
I met Arthur at a fancy Italian restaurant downtown at eight o’clock. He ordered clam linguine, and I had pasta Bolognese. We both opted for water since we had to drive home.When we received our main courses, Arthur insisted on a toast.“To you, Anna,” he began, “and to your budding career. May it know no limits. Cheers.”“Cheers.”We clinked out glasses and sipped our water. Then we dug into our meal.I found that I had to force myself to eat. The food had suddenly lost all its flavor. Arthur must have noticed, too, because he put down his utensils and looked straight at me.“Is something wrong?” he asked.“Oh, it’s nothing. It’s just…the last time that I was included in a toast, it ended in my husband’s mistress announcing that she was pregnant.”Arthur cringed.“And everyone at the party congratulated them, as though they were the celebrating married couple.”My stomach twisted in knots. It was as though I were living the event all over again.“I’m sorry. That’s horrible. At least
Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 31 Here We Go Again
Bob didn’t know when to give up. I always hated that about him. That didn’t change with the divorce.Even after I refused to see him, he kept calling me and trying to change my mind. The texts were more annoying than the phone calls. Somehow, he got even more desperate in writing.I thought about blocking his number. In hindsight, I should have. After all, what use did I have for staying in contact with him after the divorce settlement, other than to ensure that the house got sold?Something inside me couldn’t do it, though. Something too polite or too sentimental couldn’t burn that bridge, despite everything Bob and his family had done to me. And I wanted so badly to beat that side of me into line with the rest of me.Instead, I finally took another of his calls.“What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?” I all but yelled at him.“Please, Anna, just hear me out,” he said in the most pathetic tone I had ever heard from him. “My mom thinks it would be a goo
Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 32 Cold Shoulder
I was too busy the rest of the day with clients to think about Bob and the reporter. By the time I got back to my apartment, I was just too worn out to remember seeing them. All I wanted was to get to bed and forget that lunch with Bob had even happened.The next day, it felt as though a reset button had been hit. All the anger from my encounter with Bob had dissipated, and I was ready to embrace whatever challenges came my way.Then I got to the office.It was rare for me to see Barnett there. It wasn’t as though he were never there, but it was so big that I didn’t even know where in the building his office actually was. Whenever I did see him, though, I made sure to go out of my way to greet him, and he would greet me back.This morning, we happened to be the only two in the lobby except for the receptionist herself. As soon as I saw Barnett, I raised my hand and started waving to him.“Hi, Barnett!” I said cheerfully.Barnett’s eyes narrowed at me for
Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 33 Everything is Not What It Seems
“What are you talking about? I haven’t been on a date with Bob!”Barnett pulled out his phone and, after a few angry swipes, shoved it in my face.“Then what’s this?”My jaw dropped at the headline running across the top of the webpage:FITNESS VLOGGER AND CELEBRITY STYLIST ANNA LEONARD CAUGHT ON DATE WITH EX-HUSBANDBelow the headline was a picture of Bob kissing me at the café where we had lunch the day before. What the picture didn’t show was how I tried to reach for my pepper spray or pummeled him with my purse for touching me.Now, the entire incident made sense. The kissing, the hand-holding, Bob meeting up with the reporter afterwards. He had set me up.I pushed the phone back at Barnett.“All of that…all of that is taken out of context,” I said as I struggled to choke back tears.Barnett must have noticed because some of his anger seemed to cool.“Then what is the truth?” he asked.“He told me that Outer U wanted
Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 34 The Note
I stared at the headline for several minutes before registering the fact that Lily was calling me. I sighed and answered, patching it through the car’s speakers. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Lily practically screamed. “Tell you what?” I screamed back out of annoyance. “That you and Barnett are together!” “That’s because we’re not!” A laugh mixed with a sigh as I tried to pull myself together. “I’m relieved that you jumped to that conclusion, though, rather than the alternative.” “That you got back together with Bob? Ew, no! Of course I didn’t think that!” We were silent for a moment, and I contemplated starting the drive home. “Well, if you aren’t together, then what’s with the pic? The one with you and Barnett all cozy with the
Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 35 The Meeting
In hindsight, my first move should have been to call the police. If I had been thinking straight, I would have called the cops. Instead, I ran over to Barnett’s apartment and started pounding on the door, hoping he had spent the night there.To my relief, he opened the door. He looked as though he had just been about to leave and was surprised to find my fist in front of his chest.“Anna? What’s wrong?” Barnett asked.I couldn’t say anything. I only dragged him by the hand to my door, where I showed him the red X and the note.He stared at the note for a long time.“Well, that is her signature,” he finally said. He didn’t sound overly worried or even mad, more…resigned, as though he weren’t too surprised this had happened but was tired of all of Julia’s shit.I, however, was still freaking out. The more that I stared at it, the more that the red on my door and on the note looked like blood to me. It made my mind go to a m
Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 36 Shopping Day
I was getting ready for a shopping day with Lily when I received the call from Barnett.“Hello?” I answered as I juggled outfit options.“Good morning, Anna,” Barnett said in his smooth, confident voice. “I have good news for you.”“Oh?”“You won’t have to worry about Julia or Bob anymore.”I froze.“Really? You took care of both of them? How?”“You let me worry about the how. Just rest assured that they won’t be bothering you anymore.”I hesitated.“You didn’t do anything to hurt them, did you?”Barnett sighed.“Anna, do I really seem like someone who would do something like that?”“No.”“Then I think you have your answer.”“Well…thank you.”“You’re welcome.”I hung up, still unsure about what Barnett could have done to get both Julia and Bob off my back.•* *Since I had the entire day off—no clients scheduled—Lily and I took our time perusing the highest-end shops we could at the richest mall we c
Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 37 Branching Out
Arthur did not let up over the next couple days. In fact, any time we weren’t talking about his own styling, Arthur steered our conversation towards why I should take up Freyja on their offer. Finally, he wore me down. I called the people at Freyja, they faxed me a contract, and we arranged to film the first commercial over the next week. Arthur was so excited that he offered to come with me to ensure that everything went down without a hitch.I couldn’t really think of a reason to say no. It was his world; he would know how best to navigate. Besides, it would be nice to have a friend there with me, at least on the first day. So, I let him come with me. On the first day of the shoot, we took the gold Aston Martin from Arthur’s office to the studio. Gremlins started to tear at my stomach as we parked. I had been to studios before when a client ne
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- Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 80: The Hat Trick
- Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 79: Journey's End
- Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 78: The Father
- Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 77: Lovers Meeting
- Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 76: Setting Things Straight
- Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 75: The Nursery
- Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 74: Unhealthy Obsessions
- Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 73: Miscommunications
- Hockey Billionaire's Hat Trick #Chapter 72: Anna’s Letter
