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“Thank you, Manuel,” I say, as he disappears down the long hallway and out of the room, leaving us to it. Once he’s gone, we all squeal in unison.
“I can’t believe this. Mr. Bentley is fucking God!” Charlize laughs as she runs into the open bedroom door from the balconyand belly flops on the bed. Imogen soon follows, and they proceed to bounce up and down.
“This is so cool!” Charlize laughs.
“The man is insane.” I huff, still feeling a little bit weird about all of this… for free.
“Insanely rich, and he has impeccable taste,” Imogen singsongs. “If I do say so myself.”
“God, you look like you’re going to faint,” Charlize quips, assessing me as she sits up on her elbows. “Come and test the bounciness.”
“I can see from here.”
“Glad you got that wax now, aren’t you?” Charlize says, giving me a cheeky wink.
“Charlz, I’m not sleeping with Mr. Bentley to thank him for the upgrade! God, that’s so disgusting.”
She and Imogen belly laugh as I cast my disapproving frown at them. “Fight it a bit harder, princess.”
“She so wants it,” Imogen whispers.
I throw a pillow at her head. “I heard that.”
“Don’t be such a stick in the mud,” Charlize groans. “We just got this cool suite with all this free shit and anything we want, and you look like you just sucked on a lemon. Cheer up, it might never happen.”
I know. I am an ungrateful bitch. I should be feeling elated and over the moon. It is very, very generous. But a part of me feels weird about him thinking I’m some kind of pauper, which I am, but still. I’ve got principals.
“It was very generous, I just feel… you know, a bit weird, being he knows me and James broke up. This may be his way of feeling sorry for me.”
“Ugh, who cares,” Charlize groans. “Let him feel sorry. If we play it up a bit, we might just get shares in the resort. Can you act a little downtrodden, maybe turn on the water works?”
Imogen snorts as I throw another pillow. “Seriously, Ari, you need to chill,” she says. “It was a nice thing to do. You deserve it, so just enjoy it for what it is.”
She’s right. I do have a hard time accepting things without suspicion.
Every time fuckface bought me a bunch of flowers after standing me up, I should have smelled a rat, and I didn’t. More fool me.
“You’re right, you know how I get…”
Their faces soften.
“I’m sorry, babe,” Charlize says, leaping off the bed to stand in front of me. She brushes my arms with her hands. “But we still love you. You were too good forhim, and this is the way the universe is delivering what you truly deserve. Okay, it’s through fuckhead’s dad? So what? The world works in mysterious ways.”
Of that I know to be true.
“You know, you’re right,” I say, a small smile playing on my face.
“Where are you going?” Charlize calls when I go over to the nightstand and press 3 on the telephone.
“Hello, Manuel. Could you bring up a bottle of champagne, along with the cocktails, please?”
I watch as my friend’s grins split across their eager little faces.
“Yes, Miss Michaels, it would be my pleasure,” he replies.
“Thank you so much.” I hang up and then I run toward them and do one better, I yell out ‘weeeee’ like a five-year-old as I flop in the middle of the bed and splat onto the mattress facedown.
If you can’t beat them, join them, right?
