Chapter 5

• CLAIRE LEBLANC
• "You did what?" Ethan exclaimed, causing several people around us to look in our direction. "I can't believe this, I leave for a while and you get engaged to that jerk Collins, and then you sleep with some random blond guy?"
• "I got cheated on, okay? What did you expect me to do?" I huffed, rolling my eyes while grabbing my frappuccino. "He was blond, handsome, and... had those golden eyes that... heavens..."
• "Okay, okay, I got it, no need to go into too much detail about your type," he said with some annoyance, his hand going to his own face. "Last time you started with this, I found out the size of a human's dick."
• I gave a mischievous smile, and Ethan already seemed to know what was coming.
• "Claire, I love you, but... there are things I don't need to know. If I'm not going to bed with them, I don't care," he was completely honest, and I just sighed.
• "It's hard when you don't have the same taste as me," I crossed my arms over my chest, my face getting sullen.
• "It's because my taste is good," he said before putting that stuffed croissant in his mouth. "Because honestly, Collins? Out of all the options and rich boys, Collins?"
• "He was sweet, okay? He started bringing me flowers and chocolates as soon as it seemed like he was starting to like me," my gaze went to the floor at that moment, a mixture of shame and sadness taking over me. "He even seemed like... a prince."
• "Claire, wake up!" Ethan exclaimed, without any mercy or sweetness in his painful words. "Everyone's a prince charming, it's the easiest way to get laid."
• I took a deep breath at that moment because, as much as I knew he wasn't wrong, a part of me also didn't want to admit that George... had only done all that because of something so superficial and stupid.
• "He couldn't have done all that just for that, no one would go to so much trouble just to screw me," I said.
• Ethan rolled his eyes, and he sighed with such anger that I was sure he was trying not to hit me.
• "Dear..." he took one of my hands, as if trying to organize in his head how to say it in the most didactic way possible, "you're Claire Cecile Leblanc! Have some self-respect!" He clearly couldn't hold back at that moment, which made his fingers intertwine with his platinum and root-uncut strands, to throw them back, "of course he did it to screw you! Do you know how much an idiot like Collins would gain from it?"
• My eyes widened.
• And as much as that didn't sink into my head, I understood what Ethan was trying to say because, as he himself has told me several times... the higher a woman's standard was, the greater the conquest, and the greater the morale for the asshole to brag about; and that? Made me feel like a complete idiot.
• ALEXIS GALLAGHER
• When I returned home, I couldn't stay still because of my indignation and restlessness with what had happened this morning, which made my body pace back and forth.
• I even went to take a shower to see if that would pass, but I continued in that state, and moving around my own house? It wasn't helping at all. And when I noticed, I was already changed, with cologne, and leaving the house after asking my driver to take me to a restaurant for my first meal — because, breakfast time had long passed.
• "She didn't even let me take her out for breakfast," I thought with some anger, because I had planned a whole morning with that wretch — because I knew she was devastated by the breakup — but no! She had to dump me like I was some whore!
• But I wouldn't let that shake me, right? No... I'd just have my damn lunch and try to figure out how to show that beautiful black-haired, gray-eyed being... what she missed.
• "Gallagher?" I heard a voice call me as soon as I walked through the restaurant door, and... was this serious?
• I started to wonder when luck chose to stand by my side, because right in front of me was Lewis LeBlanc.
• "Mr. LeBlanc," I ended up responding with a slight arch of my lips, "what a coincidence to find you here."
• "Please, just call me Lewis," he said as he approached, extending his hand for a handshake to occur, "I wanted to have this conversation with you last night, but I couldn't find you anywhere."
• "Oh, really?" I responded, shaking his hand, "but... what did you want to talk to me about?"
• "Ah, yes. But first, why don't you sit with me?"
• "It would be an honor," I replied, which made him guide me to his table and take a deep breath.
• He explained to me that he wanted a partnership with my company, and even admitted that he had been looking for me for almost the entire event — so much so that he even thought I hadn't shown up, and that led to one topic after another, so to speak.
• "You're an interesting young man, Gallagher," he said with laughter, and when the bill came, he had already handed over his own card before me, "why don't we go to my house to discuss the negotiations better?"
• "Wouldn't that be inconvenient?" I ended up asking because as much as I wanted to see how Claire Leblanc's face would look when I entered her house again, I also wouldn't throw my manners in the trash because of that.
• "No, quite the contrary," he said with a smile, one that reached his eyes, "and I'm sure the only person who's probably at home right now is my daughter Claire."
• "I see," I held back from smiling at that moment, "in that case... I don't think it would do any harm to continue our conversation there."