The Heart Wants What It Wants

“Di?”

“I… No, it’s nothing.”

“Diana, tell me.”

“I… Well, it’s not a fling, Alex. It’s not like he’s my sugar daddy. I can tell him anything and he makes me feel so… cherished. He makes me feel like I’m precious. I’ve never felt anything like this before. I don’t think I could ever feel anything like this again.”

Alex frowned.

“You’re serious about him? I mean, you said all that stuff about how he’d been married, and how he felt about falling in love…”

“I know. I know all that, but things can change, can’t they? People can change. Just because he didn’t fall in love then doesn’t mean that he won’t fall in love now. Maybe it’s meant to be. It does happen, Alex. Sometimes people do belong together.”

“Di…”

“I know. I know, I don’t know him well enough, and it’s too soon, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this before. I’m not going to try to stop my feelings. I don’t think I could. I want to be with him, for as long as I can, and I think… I think maybe he might feel the same about me. He wants to see me again. He said he’s never flown anybody to Japan before. It’s special for him, too.”

“Special for him might not mean marriage and a family, Di. You want all that. You want the white picket fence and a house in the suburbs and a small law firm of your own. I don’t think that’s the kind of life he wants.”

But Diana shook her head stubbornly.

“Life is about compromises. You make compromises.”

“I don’t think billionaires who can have whatever they want are the best people to make compromises.”

Diana frowned, but she refused to listen. She was sure. She felt it in her heart.

“You’ll see. Have a little faith, Alex.”

Alex smiled, but Diana could see the worry.

“Of course I have faith, Di. I have all the faith in the world in you. Now tell me about everything else you did all weekend. I don’t want you to leave a single detail out.”

Glad for the change of subject, Diana told Alex, in as much detail as she wanted, about everything she had seen and done and eaten and drank, and she slowly stopped noticing how worried her best friend was.

Because it was obvious to Alex that Diana had gone and done the stupidest thing she could possibly have done.

She had fallen in love.

And there was nothing Alex, or anybody else, could do about it. But if George Hemsworth broke her best friend’s heart, billionaire or not, the man was going to find himself in trouble – big trouble.

Diana found herself settling into a comfortable pattern that straddled two different lives. In one, she was George’s girl and companion. He travelled for business quite often, and he managed to schedule his trips so that his business was done by Saturday morning. She found herself agreeing to travel to meet him. Heidelberg was as beautiful as he had told her. Seoul was as bustling and full of life as he’d described.

She experienced more in the next few months than she had before in her life.

It was like having a boyfriend, but an adult one. There was nothing of the man-child about George. She loved spending time with him, and she still wondered at how he liked spending time with her, too.

After a couple of months, as George promised, his traveling took less time, and she began to understand his life there in San Francisco. She’d barely seen his home before that, but now she found herself spending nights there whenever she could.

They went out to the more exclusive restaurants, and occasionally, she was photographed with him.

But after another month, the life began to wear on her, and he noticed.

“Bored of me, are you, Diana?”

Diana looked up at him, so handsome that he still took her breath away, and shook her head, smiling.

“No, of course not.”

They were at a French restaurant where ordinary mortals had to reserve a table months in advance, and she was wearing yet another dress that he had bought for her. She had stopped fighting that, too. George was not ashamed to be seen with her even if she wasn’t wearing a designer label of any sort, but she was ashamed of what kind of impression she must be leaving with the people who saw her and made a snap judgment.

So she let him buy her clothes, and hoped that she would be able to pay him back.

“Penny for your thoughts, Diana.”

Diana smiled. It made her smile to hear him say that. It reminded her of that first weekend when they had bumped into each other, and her whole life had changed.

“I was just thinking that we spend so much time going out for dinner. We eat out all the time.”

“You’re right, we do. How about if you spend this weekend with me at home?”

“What?”

“I’ll cook for you.”

Diana chuckled.

“You can make more than breakfast?”

“You can find out. How about it?”

They had never done that – never spent a weekend at home together. She’d spent the night many times, but never the whole weekend.

It was a step forward, wasn’t it? It was a step she wanted.

“I’d love to,” she told him, full of hope for the future she was beginning to see, for both of them, together.