The Billionaire’s Over 40 Love

“You’re so beautiful, you know that?”

She looked down at him where he’d taken a seat at one of the desks. “Thank you, that’s sweet.”

“No, I’m serious. I don’t think you understand. You are really the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. It’s more than just your body and your face—which are perfect—but it’s a lot of other things. Your eyes, your hands,whew, those hands. Your personality, I mean truly amazing. Funny, smart, the whole package. Like, how did I get so lucky?”

She walked over to him and sat down on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You had a niece that loves pink, that’s how. Without Ruby, we never would have met.”

“Oh, I think we would have. When we both went to get tacos the next day, we would have met there.”

“Except I would have thought you and Sophia were together and probably never would have talked to you.”

“True, but we were bound to run into each other when we both opened our new locations only blocks away from each other.”

“Right,” Faydra said. “But that could have been five years from now and we would’ve been really old.”

“Nah, as long as it happened it wouldn’t matter how old we were.” She smiled and kissed him. “Should we get out of here?”

“Actually, there’s one more thing I need to do. You’ve got to trust me, coming?” She walked towards the door, unlocked it and waited for him to catch up.

“You’re going to keep me on my toes aren’t you?” She nodded and led him out the door.

*****

The one more thing she had to do was going to be a big move, but she knew it was something she had control over and something that Cal would be over the moon to hear. She knew this would be the best way to show Cal that she was serious about forgetting the drama of the last couple of weeks and starting fresh.

However, this big move would get to Sophia—and that was an added benefit. She considered just letting her one conversation with Cal be enough humiliation for the day but the horrible things that Sophia had said floated around in her head.

As a strong, independent woman there was no rule about standing up for yourself except the obvious. You had to do it.

Doing it by humiliating someone else was the more empowering but not the classiest option. A subtler but slightly more effective option might be better. This was her choice.

“Okay, I have to run and do one thing. Then I say we have a drink and then get out of here,” she said while wrapping her arms around his waist. “What do you think?”

“Sounds perfect, where are you going?”

“It’s a secret.”

He squinted his eyes at her in concern but smiled, watching her walk away. Faydra scanned the ballroom, searching for a couple of faces she recognized. Not finding the one she was looking for she moved towards the back of the room—the tech booth. On her way back there she drained an entire champagne flute for an additional boost of confidence.

The booth was dark and as she peaked through the small window in the door she could only see a few white and red lights that illuminated one man’s form. She knocked quietly but then cracked open the door and slipped inside.

It took her about half an hour to explain her situation to the man, convince him and the man in charge to make the announcement, and make her way back to Calvin.

“God, I was starting to get worried. What took so long?” She found him pacing back and forth at the bar on the opposite wall of the ballroom.

“You can’t rush things like this, just trust me—okay?” His face still held a lot of concern. They ordered two more drinks and stood chatting quietly for a moment before the lights on the stage began to illuminate. The high-pitched squeal of the microphone feedback and the announcer from earlier walking on stage quieted the audience, and everyone turned to face him.

“I hope everyone is enjoying their night. Remember the bar is open until midnight so help yourselves, and there should still be food circulating as well. Now, as our night is coming to an end, I have an exciting announcement to make. Not the kind we usually make, but equally exciting. I think it goes to show how important these events are in bring the best and hardest-working companies to the front for the next year. And this announcement is a great example of that.

I’d like to remind you of Mr. Calvin Dennison, the CEO of Queens Media Group—given the award for best new media group earlier tonight.”

Faydra had pulled them closer to the stage and after his name was called, the spotlights began to circle the crowd before closing in on the two of them. Calvin’s face held a forced smile but his eyes shifted back and forth, trying to get a better idea of what exactly was happening.

“What’s going on?” he whispered into Faydra’s ear.

“The start of something new, just listen,” she said sweetly into his ear. He wrapped his hand around her waist almost in a need of support and squeezed. She reached out to counter him, “It’s a good thing!”

“Tonight, two local businesses, based here in Atlanta, have expressed a written interest in contracting Queens Group for their services. The first company is a previously well-known town car service which has recently taken on a new, modern look and name, “Above Ground” and is  run by Mrs. Dwella Townes. Mrs. Townes states that she was moved by Mr. Dennison’s speech, his desire to help connect people and not take advantage of his customers or the people they serve. She looks forward to working with him as they set themselves up to service all of Atlanta, not only with town car and taxi services but also by providing applications that connect users with an easy means of analyzing their transportation options and picking the best for them.” The man was reading off a sheet of paper until a slide popped up with the Above Ground logo and a few statistics about the company.