Page 35 of Billionaire Retreat

“That was all a misunderstanding.”

“Really? Your mother didn’t seem to think so.”

“My mother? You’ve met my mother?”

“Unfortunately, I’ve had several run-ins with your mother!”

“What?”

I shook my head. He really had no clue about what was going on outside his own little world. That realization just served to piss me off even more.

“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I need some answers. And I don’t know how my mom’s involved in all this, or why she’s involved in all this.” He placed his hands on his hips and stared past me in deep thought. “I need to get some answers.” He turned away from me and walked away, leaving me staring after him.

“Miss Charles! We’re ready for you!” called the production assistant and I hurriedly made my way to set wondering what answers Griffin might find.

* * *

To my surprise, there was no sign of Griffin for a few days after our confrontation. I didn’t know what to think about that. My feelings, whenever Griffin was concerned, were always conflicted. I thought about him as I sat on the couch eating fancy cupcakes with Kenny on the edge of the couch watching me.

“Girl, like really, girl... you haven’t stopped eating since you got here. Can you slow down? You do want to fit on the plane when you head back to Georgia, right?”

I punched him in his thigh. He was wearing really short shorts so my punch actually hit skin.

“Ouch,” he said giving me a hurt look. He was lanky and wasn’t very muscular, so maybe my half-hearted punch had hurt a little. “I’m just worried about your blood sugar level,” he complained. “You’ve eaten two pints of ice cream and four cupcakes and it’s only been one hour.”

“I’m depressed.”

He sighed. “Honey, you shouldn’t eat your emotions. You beat them up instead. Come on. I have to sub a kickboxing class. You’ll love it. You can beat your emotions away or pretend to be beating up a certain someone who shall remain nameless.”

He knew all about Griffin and had volunteered to have his car booted. Kenny liked to think he knew people in high places.

I felt like throwing up suddenly. I’d had one cupcake too many. He was right. I put the cupcake down and said, “Alright, let’s do this.”

We rode in Kenny’s car and on the way there I filled him in on my most recent encounters with Griffin.

“Oh, my God, so he’s just playing stupid. You can’t trust them. You just can’t trust men, Nina!” He said hitting the steering wheel really hard.

I gave him a long look. “Having trouble with Cyril?” I hadn’t seen Cyril since I’d arrived, but I’d been so wrapped up in my own problems, I hadn’t asked Kenny about what was going on.

“Trouble... girl, you don’t know trouble,” he growled.

“Alright tell me everything. What’s going on?”

“He wants to move. He wants to leave L.A. and go live somewhere in nowhere Texas and own a winery.”

“What? There are wineries in Texas?”

“Exactly! That’s what I said!”

“Why would he want to do that?”

“Nina, I don’t know. Apparently, he’s lost his mind. He doesn’t even drink wine! How can he own a winery?”

“So, is that why he’s not around?”

“Yeah, he’s looking at property.”

He pulled up to the gym and took out his cellphone. He started scrolling through photos that Cyril had recently sent him. Most of them were of Cyril wearing cowboy hats, standing in rows of vines. It was actually really pretty, completely unexpected. I hadn’t visited Texas before and part of me just assumed it was mostly flat land and desert. The pictures proved me wrong.