The Belated Billionaire

by Elana Johnson

  Ten minutes later, she was annoyed.

  Twenty minutes passed, and she’d texted Theo three times. He hadn’t returned her messages at all. And sometimes he seemed to know what she was going to ask and when before she even started typing.

  When a half an hour had gone by, she started to worry. Maybe something had happened to him. Maybe Ben, who she still had never met, had rushed him to the hospital in the back of one of his luxury sports cars.

  Surely he’d call any moment. Let her know he was safe, and then he’d apologize and say he was just running late.

  No messages through GBS, no texts, and no calls came in. She checked her phone to make sure she had service.

  After an hour, Katie got up to leave. She didn’t have time for a two-hour meeting now. She hadn’t gotten the time wrong, and she was tired of wasting her time. If there was one thing she absolutely didn’t have any to spare, it was time. She felt like she was dealing with Mrs. Chu, and she honestly deserved more respect than that—from both her client and Theo.

  At least Mrs. Chu was paying her.

  “Theo’s doing you a favor,” she muttered as she walked toward the exit. Which was true. But her time still meant something to her, and if she hurried, she could get through a lot of the chores at Claire’s before she had to be at her next job.

  She almost expected to run into Theo in the hallway or the elevator, but she made it all the way back to the lobby of the building without encountering a single soul. She drove much faster over to Claire’s, thinking she’d rummage through her friend’s closet for something to wear to clean in, because she was severely overdressed to vacuum and mop.

  Her anger turned to sadness somewhere along the drive from Theo’s condo to Claire’s bungalow. When she pulled into the driveway and saw Claire’s beat up, white car there, tears pricked her eyes.

  She got out and went up the steps to the front door, opening it at the same time she called, “Claire?” just like she had at Theo’s.

  Footsteps sounded on Claire’s non-bamboo floors, and she appeared at the end of the hall, wearing a pair of yellow cleaning gloves. “What are you doing here?” she asked, striding forward. Her eyes broadcasted her worry, and she walked faster when Katie just shook her head.

  She finally managed to push out the words, “I came to clean. Why are you doing it?”

  “I figured I could do my own for a week,” she said. “Jamie canceled again.”

  Katie seized onto the information, because it was something she could deal with. A concrete problem that she could solve. “We need to put her on a sub route,” she said. “I’ll assign you one of our regulars and put her with Rhonda. She likes to have time off.”

  Claire nodded, a soft smile touching her lips. “I think she actually encourages her clients to cancel.”

  Katie gave half a laugh. “Probably.”

  “Why do you look like someone just told you you’d have to eat pumpkin pie for every meal?”

  Katie’s tears made an instant reappearance. Only Claire knew her so well. “Theo didn’t show up for our meeting.”

  “Oh, no.” Claire stripped the gloves off her hands and put one arm around Katie. “Come on, I’ll make apple cider.”

  “Ew, no,” Katie said, but she stepped with Claire, and they walked down the hall and into the kitchen.

  “Tell me what happened.” Claire moved around the spotless kitchen, and a twinge of guilt stabbed Katie right beneath her ribs.

  “You really didn’t have to clean,” she said. “I was going to bring Heather and start teaching her a few things.”

  “It’s fine,” Claire said. “Theo?”

  And Katie knew she wouldn’t let it drop. “Just what I said. He didn’t show up. Didn’t call. Didn’t text. Nothing.”

  “Do you think he’s okay?”

  “If he is, he won’t be after I talk to him.”

  Claire flashed her a smile, but Katie wasn’t joking. “Maybe he got the day wrong.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Did you try calling his business number?”

  “Why would I do that? I was sitting in his office.”

  “Maybe he thought you were coming to his apartment.”

  “Then why didn’t he pick up the phone when I called him? Three times, Claire.” Katie wanted to be mad; it actually felt good. Because now she knew Theo wasn’t perfect. Everything had been so rosy and wonderful between them, and Katie knew that kind of romance simply wasn’t real.

  She didn’t need Theo to be bad at something; she just needed him to not be so darn good at everything. And what he was now that he’d ghosted her, she wasn’t sure. But it wasn’t perfect, and she couldn’t believe it, but she actually liked him more because of that.

  She sighed, some of the fight leaving her body. “Do you think I should call the cops?”

  Her phone rang before Claire could answer, and she flinched. Then she scrambled to get it out of her purse, hoping with everything in her that it was Theo.

  “It’s him,” she said, seeing his name on the screen.

  “At least he’s not dead,” Claire called after her as she headed for the front porch.

  “Hey,” she said, nowhere near as friendly or flirty as she usually did. “Where are you?”

  “Are we not meeting today?” he asked in response.

  “I waited for you for an hour,” she said.

  Silence came through the line, and she gave him the time he needed to come up with the apology. “I thought we were meeting at ten,” he said instead.

  “No,” she said. “Nine.” And besides it was almost ten-thirty. He’d waited a half an hour to call her? “I rearranged my whole schedule to meet with you this morning.”

  “I guess I got the time wrong.”

  Obviously. “Look, I know you’re really busy. You don’t need to worry about my website or app. When I’m ready, I’ll hire someone.”

  “What? No, I’ve got the file right here.” He sounded extremely distracted, as he said something to someone obviously in the room with him. Probably Ben.

  “I’m thinking of moving back to Kansas,” she said.

  Four heartbeats of silence came through the line before he said, “Okay, but let’s reschedule.”

  “Sure, yeah,” she said, her heart dropping all the way to her toes.

  “Great, I’ll see you later.” The call ended, and Katie watched in disbelief as her screen darkened. He hadn’t heard a word she’d said.

  She stood, her fury back with a vengeance. Not only that, but she remembered all of the reasons she’d broken up with Theo in the first place. The man worked too much—and he liked it. And these businesses were actually profitable, so there was no way she’d come between him and them.

  And Heather?

  How could she subject Heather to a man like Theo? Someone who would choose work over her every time?

  She couldn’t.

  She went back inside Claire’s house, gripping her phone with too much force. “Hey, I have to go,” she called, especially glad she didn’t have time to stay and chat when she caught the scent of warming apple cider. How anyone drank that stuff, she’d never understand.

  “What did he say?” Claire came out of the kitchen again, this time with a mug clasped in her hands.

  “Nothing. I have to go.” She flashed a smile. “I owe you big time for doing your own cleaning.”

  “That’s right, you do.” Claire gave her a wide smile, and Katie got out of there before her best friend could see that she really wasn’t okay, and that Theo had really said nothing. Absolutely nothing.

  Fourteen

  Theo stared at his phone, perplexed and a little annoyed. Why hadn’t Katie answered him? For three days now, all of his messages, no matter how he sent them, had gone into a void where she wasn’t responding.

  He needed to call her. Their missed meeting on Wednesday had likely upset her, though Theo couldn’t even really remember what had happened this past week. Everything had been a blur since
the phone call from Dallas on Monday about one of their leading metropolitan areas getting reports of abuse through the singles app.

  Theo’s phone rang before he could move a muscle toward it, but it wasn’t Katie. “Hey, Ben,” he said after swiping open the call. He almost didn’t want to ask. “What’s up?”

  Noon had just come and gone on Saturday, and Theo was hoping for a nap. Then maybe he’d go figure out what he’d done wrong with Katie and make it right.

  “Boston PD would like an official statement,” he said. “They’re holding their statement until they have your statement.”

  Theo looked at the email he’d been composing for the last hour. It only had one sentence in it. “I’m working on it,” he said.

  “I’ll be up in a minute.” The line went dead, and Theo exhaled heavily as he set his phone back on his desk.

  His official statement was that he wasn’t responsible for how people used their apps. Of course there would be people posing as something and someone they weren’t. They’d been doing that online for decades.

  But he thought of the ride share fiasco, and he knew he’d have to put out a strong statement that showed his disapproval of any type of sexual misconduct or abuse through the use of his app.

  He frowned at his computer screen and started typing.

  “Let me see it,” Ben said as he walked through the door. He wore full business attire as if it was normal for him to dress in such a way on Saturdays. Theo couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a shower, let alone a full meal.

  Ben set a pastry box on the desk. “Eat something while I look at it.” He came around the desk, and Theo got up and switched him places.

  “Did you bring coffee?”

  “Did you see me carrying coffee?” Ben threw him a glance, and the statement summed up the stress level for both of them.

  “Sorry,” Theo mumbled, slouching in his chair and ignoring the doughnuts.

  “This is good,” Ben said a moment later. He tapped, backspaced, and typed something else in. “I’m sending it.”

  “Go ahead.” Theo would read it about fifty times in the dozens of articles that were sure to come out over the next couple of days. “Have you heard anything else from the police department?”

  “They said they’d call you once they had the statement. Then we’ll get the whole file, and someone will go over it with us.”

  “Then we’ll know what we’re dealing with,” Theo said.

  “This might cost some money, Theo.”

  “I’m aware.” He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, where a headache had been plaguing him for six straight days. “I looked up that thing with the ride sharing.” He opened his eyes and looked at Ben. “What did legal say? Our language is compliant?”

  “One hundred percent,” Ben said. “We could fight any litigation that comes and have grounds.”

  “We’ll wait and see.” Theo reached for the doughnut box. “Maybe this story will just splash all over the front pages for a few days and then be done.”

  Ben looked at Theo’s computer screen. “They’ve responded already.”

  Theo practically launched himself out of his chair and around the desk so he could see the email. “Open it.”

  Ben clicked, and the words came up. He read out loud, “Thank you for this statement. We’re going to release it at seven p.m. Eastern time today, and I’d like to talk to you before then. Is now a good time to call?”

  Theo’s phone chimed at the same time he said, “Tell him yes, please call.” He looked at his phone. “Oh, this is him, asking the same thing. I’ll text him.”

  He tapped out a quick text that said, Call anytime, and looked at his best friend. “Here we go.”

  Sure enough, a moment later, his phone rang, and Theo swiped open the call from the Chief of Police in Boston. “Hello, Chief Wisehour,” he said. “Can I put you on speaker so my partner can hear everything?”

  “Sure,” the other man said. “You’re in a conference with me, my secretary Monica, and my first Lieutenant, Bryce Watson.”

  Watson was the man who had first alerted Theo to a problem, six days ago. “Great,” he said, switching the call to speaker. “It’s me here, and Ben Brown, the second-in-command at Singles Network.”

  Their eyes met, and Theo felt as much worry cascading through him as he saw in Ben’s expression. His stomach flipped, and he pressed his eyes closed in a long blink.

  “Monica is sending the file to your email address now,” Chief Wisehour said. “No charges have been filed, so I want to be clear about that. I, nor is anyone on this call, am not a lawyer. We’re recording the call.”

  Theo nodded to Ben, who reached for the cord and plugged it into Theo’s phone. “We are too, so we can send it to our legal team in Dallas.”

  No charges have been filed rang through his head. So far, so good. “So tell us, Chief. What’s the exact complaint?”

  “A woman came in and said she’d been assaulted on a date with a man she’d met through Boston People & Singles, or BPS. Our initial officer was Sergeant Bethany Howser, and the case was quickly moved over to our sexual crimes unit.”

  Theo swallowed, wishing he had something nearby to drink. Something to fiddle with. Something to get this nervous energy out of his system.

  “It turns out, however, that after questioning the victim, as well as the accused, and a few other people—they’re all in the report—there was no assault that happened. A better term would be ‘taken advantage of.’”

  Theo watched the computer screen and nodded toward it as another message appeared at the top. “We just got the case file,” he said. “And what does ‘taken advantage of’ mean?”

  “Quite simply, she was robbed,” the Chief said. “She met a man for coffee—a man she met through your app—and according to witnesses, he did yell at her for a few minutes. Then he got up and left, apparently with all of her cash and credit cards.”

  Ben had the file open and the printer started whirring. “Printing it,” he said softly.

  “So does my statement fit with a robbery?” Theo asked. “I thought we were dealing with something of a sexual nature.”

  “I thought so too,” the Chief said. “I still think your statement fits. You don’t condone any use of the app where someone is dishonest or uses it to meet people with the intent to commit a crime.”

  Theo started nodding, glad Ben had been able to make that clear in the mess Theo had started. “That’s right. Honestly, Chief, I’m not sure what else we need to do.”

  “Well, right now, nothing. We’ll put the statement out. You understand why we have to. Social media and app abuse is a hot button topic, and we feel it’s better to address it than let the public speculate.”

  “I understand.”

  “We give no details on active cases,” the other man, Bryce Watson, said. “So all our statement will be is that we have received the complaint and are following up with all witnesses and leads. Then we’ll say we’ve reached out to you and read your statement. There will be no questions. It will last probably thirty seconds.”

  Thirty seconds. Theo could weather thirty seconds of bad publicity. He hoped. He’d actually had businesses fail with less than that. He pushed those thoughts away, choosing instead to focus on this problem. Here, now.

  “Will it be aired online?” Ben asked. “We’d like to watch it.”

  “We’ve invited all the major news networks,” the Chief said. “It starts in twenty minutes.”

  Ben stood and headed for the door, probably to go get the TV on so he could find a news channel broadcasting out of Boston. “Okay,” Theo said. “We’ll find it.” It wouldn’t be hard after the story hit the air. Then all the Internet news websites would have it up too. Heck, Theo could probably get on Facebook and find the video only seconds after it went live.

  “Thank you for responding so readily to our requests,” the Chief said. “We’ll be in touch.”

  “Thank you,” Theo said, an
d the call ended. He collapsed in his desk chair, utterly drained. He just needed a few seconds to think, to figure things out. But his mental energy seemed to be completely gone.

  “Theo,” Ben called from the other room, and up Theo got. He found his friend standing in front of the huge television in the living area of the condo—the reception area if clients ever came—the clicker in his hand.

  “CNN has it on the ticker at the bottom of the screen. They’ll be cutting to a live feed of it at the top of the hour.”

  “Great,” Theo said, though it felt anything but great. “I have time to go get coffee, don’t I?”

  Ben looked at him like he’d gone off the deep end. “I guess.”

  “Be back then.” Theo swiped his keys off the kitchen counter and almost ran from the office. He didn’t go down to the beach and make the two-block walk to Roasted like he’d done many times over the months he’d been in Getaway Bay.

  Instead, he took the stairs up one floor to his house and set a pot of coffee to brew in his kitchen. His place didn’t hold much more comfort or the feel of home than the office did, but he was finally able to breathe.

  And after he did that, with the room filling with the scent of liquid caffeine that he desperately needed, he called Katie again.

  “Please pick up,” he muttered to him. “Please, please pick up.” For some reason he wanted to talk to her before the story hit the public headlines.

  Just when he thought the line was going to go to voicemail, she said, “Hello?” as if she didn’t know it would be him on the other end of the line.

  “Katie,” he said, relief painting all the letters in her name. “I know we have a lot to talk about, and I want to do that. But I just want you to know that….” He wasn’t sure how to phrase it. “My Singles Network has come under scrutiny in Boston. There will be a live public announcement about it at one. Like, in fifteen minutes. And…and…and I guess I wanted you to know.”

  He wanted her there at his side, reassuring him that everything would be okay. He wanted her there at his side, so he could hold onto her and steal her comfort and safety. He wanted her there at his side, because that was where she belonged and he needed her to do hard things.