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CHAPTER1
Carina
Ipush the salad around the plate with my fork, hunting for pomegranate seeds and toasted almonds as I listen to my mom drone on and on about her favorite topic: the most eligible bachelors in the Boston area.
In the last two years or so, she has been relentless no matter how much I've tried to stop her when she launches into a tirade like this. Still, since it never works, we decided on a compromise. I ceased complaining and trying to have her change the subject, and she has sworn she will limit her matchmaking conjectures to a specific allotted time.
So now, once per week, I have lunch with her and sit through the recitation of the long litany of names without grumbling, and there's peace again in the Preston family.
Today we are having lunch in the little seating area off of my office space, so at least I can go back to work when she’s done prattling about all these dudes I don’t have the slightest intention of ever even meeting.
I sigh. I know she means well, and when she is not trying to set me up with some snotty member of the upper echelons of society, she is great. So, really, I shouldn't get all pissy about this, but I can't help myself. I reallyreallyfreaking hate it.
I wish both my parents would accept that dating is just not for me and let me go on with my life as I see fit, but maybe I'm unrealistic in my expectations, and loving parents who mind their business don't really exist out there.
“Carina, darling, are you listening to me?” she asks, spearing a steamed asparagus with her fork.
I contain the eye-roll dying to escape because I know only too well that if I let it free, she'll just add another twenty names to the portion of the stupid list that she deemedjust perfect for me, and I try again to focus on her. "Sure, Mom…"
My mother narrows her dark green eyes —practically identical to my own— at me to gauge the veracity of my words.
“Don’t bullshit me, little lady, you might be CEO around here, but you’re still my baby girl.”
I laugh a little. Of course, she would know I wasn't paying attention. There's no lying to Angelica Bunter-Preston. She is a shrewd businesswoman and can sniff BS a mile away.
I look down at my plate. “Sorry, Mom. I have a lot on my mind.”
She purses her lips, making her coral lipstick wrinkle a bit. "Sure you do, sweetie! You always do, but it's always work, work, and more work with you. I just want you to live a little. I know you are a very career-oriented woman, but you're only twenty-nine."
I drink a bit of my cold Perrier and smile at her. "I happen to love my job, Mom, you know that. Work, work, and then work some more is exactly what I want to do right now."
She takes a sip of her chilled grapefruit juice, making the ice cubes tinkle in the tall glass. “Did I tell you that Julian Lowson just got divorced? Such a charming man and with a good head on his shoulders!”
I shrug. I have no idea who this guy is, but then again, I never know who all these men she talks about are. Unless they are in my league business-wise, I'm not interested. I don't follow the local gossip, nor I read a single page of those ridiculous tabloids my friends —if I can call them that— love so much.
“I don’t think I know him, Mom…”
She nods. “Well, like I said, charming. Also, Nick Colton –Maxwell’s son– just moved back. He made theMMBB List, too you know… such happy manners he has! So handsome…"
At the mention ofThe List,I actually do roll my eyes. I can't help myself.
I think it's ridiculous that such a thing as the Most Marriageable Boston Bachelors' List even exists in this day and age. Still, for most of the women I know it might as well be the Bible. Every month, when it comes out, they practically hear angels singing.
“Don’t know him,” I mutter and shove some more crunchy leaves of arugula and curly endive in my mouth.
"It's too bad… oh, and, of course, Derek Anderson is on itagain! No surprise there. You know, there's talk about him joining Avalon, too. I wonder at a guy like him —from such a prominent family, so debonair, so good-looking, and so very keen on charity— being still single…"
I sigh. “Yeah, it’s a mystery,” I say.
Well, not really, I mentally add.
If these guys are so great, then how come they’re still single or already divorced?
Not that I need to wonder about it, to be honest. I can guess why. They must be nothing but a bunch of perverted jerks. Downright psychos, probably, or most assuredly, cheaters at the very least. Bastards, and mean-spirited liars one and all. Men, basically.
“Alright, Mom. Your time’s up,” I tell her, showing her on the screen of my phone that theMMBB Hourhas thankfully reached its end. “Can we please change the subject?”
My mother scoffs. “Really, Carina, setting an alarm on your phone when conversing with your own mother…” she tuts, shaking her head of short auburn hair.
