His Perfect Woman: A Friends to Lovers Romantic Comedy

by Lauren Wood

  I passed my car and driver parked in front of her building and stormed off down the sidewalk. I needed the walk to clear my head. The air was brisk and cutting, colder now than it had been the night we devoured each other in the gazebo over the lake. God, I wanted to relish that memory, but not if it meant we wouldn’t have the chance to make more.

  I had never known a more infuriating woman in all my life. No one could make my blood boil the way she did. That’s how I knew I loved her and would for the rest of my life. She was the only one who could get under my skin like that.

  And I wasn’t about to let her go without a fight. I was determined not to lose her and the baby, especially not after seeing that glimmer of doubt in her eyes—the one that told me she felt the same.

  By the time I was back on my side of town, near my apartment building, I was more fired up than ever about making this right. My body was still burning from that last heated kiss and my blood was pumping with adrenaline.

  That’s when I saw the papers in the newsstands featuring Victoria posing with Camille and Jada in the cake shop. They were smiling widely and Victoria was being crowned “the bride of the year.” I stared at her picture and could tell by the look on her face that this wasn’t just about some arrangement for her. She could lie to herself all she wanted, but a picture was worth a thousand words, and it told me everything she was refusing to say just to prove a point.

  My phone started buzzing in my pocket, pulling me away from the newsstands. I pulled it out and answered, listening to Jack’s voice on the line.

  “What’s this about a press conference?”

  “What!?” I barked.

  “I just got an alert that Victoria called an urgent press conference regarding your engagement? What the hell is this about?”

  I laughed and shook my head. She wasn’t wasting any time. “Unbelievable,” I groaned.

  “We don’t need this right now, Lucas,” he warned. “I don’t know what’s going on, but if she’s flying off the handle...you need to do damage control.”

  With the phone to my ear, I stood there cluelessly, glued to the sidewalk. But then a window display of sparkling diamonds pulled me in. I stepped closer, studying the bands and engagement rings. Victoria was right. So was Camille for that matter. I wasn’t wrong for proposing something, I’d just proposed the wrong thing. I understood that now more than ever.

  “Don’t worry, Jack. I’ll handle it.” I hung up before he could argue. I couldn’t blame everyone for questioning my judgment lately. But for the first time in months, I felt like I finally had it right.

  I looked back through my phone to catch the same alert Jack had been sent, but the sneaky little vixen had carefully left my name off the invite list. That was okay. I knew her like the back of my hand, and it wasn’t going to be too hard to figure out where she was holding this conference.

  Victoria may be a stubborn, intolerable woman, but she was my stubborn, intolerable woman—always had been. And if I had my way, she always would be.

  21

  Victoria

  The second Lucas walked out my door, I flew into my bedroom and changed into a suit. Next, I had to fix my face and hair. Within a half hour, I had my makeup done and was summoning the press while I curled my hair.

  The nerve of that guy! Lying for as long as he did only to try and turn the tables back around on me! I’d show him. I didn’t love him. He was just a friend...and a sperm donor. It wasn’t my fault he harbored some unrequited love for me.

  I was fuming to myself as I raised the lipstick to my reflection in the mirror and stopped. Licking my bottom lip, I was hit with the surging, heated memory of that kiss. My mouth still tasted like his, and my lips still burned with the longing for more. I almost didn’t want to let the sensation go...because after this press conference, there would be no going back. This would be the last time I would ever taste him on my tongue.

  I couldn’t be in love with him. I would never be so foolish as to fall for someone so unexpectedly—against my will. So why did it break my heart to think of burning that bridge between us?

  My stomach started to turn with the pregnancy nausea I was becoming all too accustomed to. It was just the reminder I needed. Lucas could have done a million different—better—things. He could have told me how he felt and let me choose for myself. Or just let me go and stood back while I had my own baby my way, without his help.

  But no. He’d tricked me into getting all tangled up with him, and now I was hurt, angry, and distracted. All because of him. I hated feeling that way, and I was convinced the only way to put a stop to it was to end this arrangement once and for all. It should never have started to begin with.

  I stared down my reflection, painting on my lipstick with a determination to cover up every trace of him. I had already gotten used to living life without him after he started pulling away from me. I could do it again.

  Feeling more defensive and determined to assert myself than I ever had in my life, I grabbed my things and marched out of my apartment.

  It was the same auditorium where it had all begun—where Lucas first decided to will his own desires into existence, whether I felt the same or not—and it was buzzing with cameras and reporters by the time I arrived. They snapped pictures of me as I headed backstage to wait in the wings.

  I could see Camille, Jada, Jack, Joshua, and even Trent filing into the back of the room. They looked on edge, afraid of what a woman scorned by Lucas Meadows might do. I wished I could tell them this was my own score to settle and that I wouldn’t let their company go up in flames just because its CEO was a jerk.

  My gaze rested on Jada for a minute as I remembered what she’d said at brunch. How absurd to imagine a young Lucas pining away in his room. All those times we hung out, he never gave a single hint of how he felt. Or...was it that I’d been so afraid of getting thrown off course from my plans that I’d refused to see it? Because if I’d seen it, I might not have been able to stop myself from admitting I loved him, too.

  I shook it off. It was too late to let Lucas win now. I had called everyone here, and now all there was left to do was to finish it.

  Clearing my throat and bracing myself, I marched up to the podium and microphone, straightening my jacket along the way.

  “Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for assembling on such short notice. As most of you know, I’m Victoria Sloan. I was called in to do PR for my friend’s company, Heartstring. And, as you’ve all reported on, we decided to announce our engagement in the process. But…” I paused for a moment. It was my last chance to change my mind.

  “But...I regret to inform you today...that I have been dishonest about something.”

  “No kidding.” A guy’s voice rang out from the back of the room.

  I squinted my eyes against the lights to see Lucas leaning in the entryway, looking suave as ever. If I could have breathed fire in that moment, I would have sent flames shooting clear across the room until he was a blackened crisp. But something in my heart still fluttered at the sight of him, which was horribly annoying...not to mention, inconvenient. He had me all off track of what I was going to say. I looked back down at my notes and tried to recompose myself.

  “But what you were dishonest about...what you’re still being dishonest about,” Lucas persisted, strolling up to the front of the room, “is nothing compared to the lies I’ve told.”

  He stopped in front of the podium and addressed the crowd. “You fine people were right about something. I was a playboy who was trying to sell love when I had no desire to obtain it and keep it for myself. And oddly enough, you calling me on that was what brought Victoria back into my life.”

  He briefly looked back at me over his shoulder and continued. “You’re the real matchmakers. Because I have loved Victoria for twenty years. I was just too much of a coward to admit it. Impulsively, I lied to all of you and said we were engaged. She had no choice but to go along with it for both of our sakes.”

  The crowd erup
ted into whispers and murmurs while I leaned over and hissed at him through clenched teeth. “Lucas, what the hell are you doing!? Stop it! I have this under control.”

  “No, honey.” He smiled. “For once, you don’t have it under control, and that’s what has you all shaken up.”

  Everything in me soared at the sound of him calling me that little pet name. It was such a small, stupid thing. But the look in his eyes...the sound of his voice...it was him. The one. And whatever part of me that had been running from it all was quickly fading away, right when I needed it the most.

  He leapt up onto the stage and addressed them all again. “The way we’ve come together may not be picture-perfect, but it turns out...this is as real as can be.”

  I was finding it hard to breathe as he dropped down on one knee in front of me. I had made a point to take off our “fake” engagement ring before coming, which it had pained me to do. Another sign—another warning that I’d just stubbornly blazed right through.

  But it didn’t matter. Lucas pulled out a brand-new ring, even more beautiful than the last, and presented it to me.

  “You don’t have to answer me right away,” he said, “because I’m not doing this for them.” His eyes cut over to the reporters. “Or for the company. I’m doing it because I love you, and this is the question I should have asked you to begin with: Victoria Sloan, love of my life...mother of my child...will you be my wife? For real this time?”

  Tears started streaming down my face as I laughed, and I was hit with the sudden, overwhelming certainty that he was what I wanted more than anything else in the world. I couldn’t run or hide from it anymore. The realization had been slowly creeping over me from that first kiss he’d sprung on me, and no matter how many walls I tried to put up...he kept tearing right through them all, one after the other.

  But I was still me and he was still Lucas. I couldn’t let him off the hook that easy. I sniffled and wiped away my happy tears, donning a stoic, unmoved expression.

  “Fine,” I answered in an indifferent tone. “But only under one condition.”

  He half-rolled his eyes at my usual defiance, but smirked and said, “Anything. You name it.”

  “To make up for keeping your true feelings from me for all these years, I think you should stand up and regale all of us with a reading from one of those love letters you tried to write me back in high school.”

  His eyes grew wide and he smiled tightly, shaking his head. Surely he knew I wasn’t going to let him get by without making him squirm a little.

  “Or maybe if you can’t remember, Jada could help us out,” I suggested with a coy smile.

  “I’m more than happy to do that!” she sang out from the back of the room.

  “You’re insufferable,” he murmured.

  “I’m kidding, you dummy. Get up and kiss me already.”

  He breathed a sigh of relief and shot up, lifting me into his arms as our mouths crashed together again in a blissful reunion.

  “I really will try to remember those stupid love poems and recite them for the whole world to hear if that’s what you want. If that’s what it takes,” he insisted.

  I stared deep into his eyes, reveling in my overwhelming happiness. “All I want is you.”

  He kissed me again and asked, “So, this is a yes?”

  “I never seem to be able to tell you no. Of course it’s a yes!” I smiled wide, feeling tears stream down my cheeks all over again. So much for me appearing “cutthroat” in front of the media.

  He held me tight, pulling back just long enough to slide the new ring...the real ring...onto my finger. The cameras erupted in incessant flashing as all the reporters cheered and clapped.

  Epilogue

  Tech_Gossip_Daily: The Heartstring dating app has skyrocketed to the top of the charts, becoming the nation’s leading matchmaking service overnight. What should have been the downfall of the company and CEO Lucas Meadows’s reputation turned into what many are coining ‘the most romantic proposal they have ever seen.’ It has sent millions of new users flocking to the app in hopes of finding the same thing for themselves. The only thing better than the overnight success boost for Meadows is that he finally has the love of his life—his childhood crush and fiancé, PR agent Victoria Sloan...for real this time, as he said in his public proposal. Their second, more authentic engagement party came just in time to couple up with the company’s third anniversary, which was the event of the year. Here’s hoping for many more years of love for both the company and the happy couple. Congrats, you two! Or should we say...three? It appears the two jumped the gun a little and are expecting! Even more to celebrate!

  I smiled as I read through the morning’s articles, still raving about Victoria’s and my breakthrough. Unfortunately, Jack didn’t look quite so happy and neither did my siblings. They’d corralled us all together for an urgent breakfast meeting at Jack’s apartment, but I couldn’t imagine that anything they had to say could put a damper on my good mood.

  Once the table was spread with food and everyone’s cups were filled with coffee, Victoria hobbled over from the bathroom. Her six month’s pregnant belly jutted out in front of her, but she hadn’t lost that glow from her first trimester. She was one of those lucky women who somehow looked more beautiful when she was with child, and I had never loved her more.

  “Sorry to call you all here like this.” Jack frowned, turning to Vic. “I know you’ve been taking more time off to get ready for the baby and all, and that you’re not really sure if you’re going to stay on with our company, but I’m afraid I have to implore you to at least help us out one more time.”

  “Oh, no. What has Lucas done now?” she quipped.

  “Actually, believe it or not, it wasn’t Lucas’s fault this time,” he explained, pulling out his phone to press several buttons. “I’ve just sent each of you the latest reviews and reports on what appears to be our latest scandal.”

  We each paused for a moment to review the link that had popped up in our inboxes. Camille skimmed it the fastest and was the first to comment.

  “A troll?” She laughed. “Surely an internet troll can’t be that big of a deal. Should be an easy fix. How does the competition handle this sort of thing?”

  “This isn’t your average internet troll,” he argued. “He seems to be hellbent on bringing Heartstring down, whoever he is. He’s luring women onto dates only to make them totally horrible and awful. Whatever he’s doing, it’s working because it’s causing customers to file bad reviews left and right. We’re estimating that the number of paid memberships we’ve lost over this guy alone is upwards of three percent.”

  “Three percent doesn’t seem so bad,” Victoria suggested.

  Camille’s face turned pale. “That’s ninety thousand customers.”

  “Oh.” She blushed. “Okay, so that is pretty bad.”

  “Ninety thousand customers and over three hundred thousand dollars lost...monthly,” I clarified, swallowing hard.

  “But wait.” Vic’s face wrinkled. “How could one guy going on physical dates manage to sway that many people? It seems physically impossible.”

  “I don’t know, but we need to find out. Can you help on the press side of things while we get to the bottom of this?” Jack asked her.

  “Sure, I’ll think of something.”

  “I’ll look into the troll and see what can be done to stop him,” Camille offered.

  Jack, the master of crisis control, nodded in agreement. “Great. That’s settled for now, then. It needs to be our top priority until it’s ironed out.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” she affirmed.

  “With that out of the way, let’s eat.” Jack sat back down and started buttering his toast.

  I reached under the table for Victoria’s hand and squeezed, flashing her a smile. I was right. Having her by my side made me so happy that not even some internet troll, even though he was draining hundreds of thousands of dollars from our profits, could bring me down. I felt
more certain than ever that whatever came our way, we’d get through it.

  “Maybe we should invite the troll to our wedding,” I joked. “Think that’d calm him down?”

  “We’ve had enough drama in the media around our relationship. Let’s not give this weirdo a chance to ruin our wedding in addition to our bank accounts.”

  The rest of breakfast was nice and calm. We chatted about regular things going on outside of work—a luxury that we had only recently been able to afford, now that our finances were back on solid ground. It was official, more so than ever before—I had rebuilt a huge chunk of the empire that was ripped away from us after Dad died. And I had the love of my life to boot.

  After eating, everyone parted ways to enjoy the rest of their weekend, and Victoria and I took the car back to our apartment. It was a penthouse, similar to the one I owned before, but this one had a cozier, homier feel thanks to Victoria’s decorating.

  We walked inside, tossed down our things, and floated over to the nursery door—as we had been making a habit of doing lately. We’d just put the finishing touches on the room. Everything Vic had been saving up in that trunk of hers was now hung up on display on the yellow and light gray walls.

  “You still sure about the whole letting the gender be a surprise thing?” I asked her.

  “Yes.” She nodded confidently. “I just want to focus on thinking happy thoughts about the baby’s health. The rest doesn’t matter, and it will be an awfully fun surprise when it comes time for the delivery.”

  “Okay.” I smirked, shaking my head.

  “What? What’s that look for?”

  I smoothed my hand down her back. “You hate surprises. And you’re normally not so calm about letting go of control.”

  She flashed a breezy smile and shrugged. “I guess that’s something I’m getting better at. Thanks to you. If I tried to cling to control with you around, I’d drive myself crazy.”