Chapter 2
Chapter Two
A stunning bouquet of roses arrived the next day. Lauren assumed they were from Andrea to congratulate her as they were a brightly colored mix of mostly pale-yellow roses with a splash of pink, red, and orange. But when she read the card, she shook her head and sighed.
“Heard you got the job! Excited to see you and work together, Lauren. Cheers to a fun Nantucket summer. Love always, Billy.”
The flowers were beautiful and her first thought was that maybe it was a nice gesture and that Billy was going to make an effort to behave. But she knew Billy better than that. When they’d first started dating, he’d love bombed her, sending flowers in between every date and they’d always been red or pink roses, never yellow. Yellow meant friendship. And even now, Billy couldn’t commit to that either. There were a few pink and red ones mixed in, which Lauren knew was Billy’s way of saying he’d love to pick up where they left off, if she was open to it.
And that was not going to happen. Billy was like a high energy, adorable puppy—hard to resist but after a while the charm wore off when it became apparent that he simply couldn’t be faithful. Billy loved women and as much as he’d told Lauren he loved her and that she was ‘the one’, after a few months, when the love bombing slowed, she started getting a sense that something was off. But she couldn’t explain why. Until she stumbled across a pretty blonde actress on TikTok raving about her newest crush and showing off the red roses he’d just sent her. They’d only had one date, but he’d told her that he was falling fast and that she might be ‘the one’. The girl was thrilled, just as Lauren had been when Billy had told her the exact same thing.
She’d ended it the next day when Billy stopped by when she wouldn’t answer his calls. She’d needed time to cool off before having a conversation with him. But he’d sensed she was upset and rushed over. So she let him in and wordlessly handed him her phone with the TikTok of the blonde girl. His big smile faded as he saw that he’d been caught. And he instantly started to backpedal.
“Okay, I screwed up, but it’s not what you think. My manager wanted me to meet her as we might be working together on an upcoming movie. It will be my first lead role.” Billy had fallen into being an influencer. He’d started out chronicling his efforts to land his first acting jobs and quickly built a following on social media. He was funny and not afraid to make fun of himself. And he was very good-looking. It didn’t take long before Hollywood took notice.
“Well, that’s perfect then. I’m happy for you, Billy. You should go. I have things to do.” She could barely get the words out. She’d believed Billy, and she’d been falling fast for the first time in ages. Billy had been fun to spend time with. He always found the humor in any situation and when they were together, he always gave her his full attention. He was charismatic and when those blue-gray eyes were focused on her, he was hard to resist. She was going to miss him.
“Lauren, don’t do this. We were so good together. Don’t you want to see if we can keep it going?” His eyes pleaded with hers, and she didn’t doubt that he meant it—in the moment.
“Billy, I really cared for you. But I can’t trust you. I can’t get past this. I deserve better. And I’m not changing my mind.” She spoke as firmly as possible and hated the wobble in her voice that gave away how shaken she was by it all.
Billy heard it too and sighed. “I’m so sorry, Lauren. I never meant to hurt you. This is all new to me and I don’t always handle things well. I wish I could turn back time.”
Lauren knew that he meant it. And she knew that having this level of attention was sometimes overwhelming for him. Billy had told her that it was only in the past few years that he’d grown into his looks and after discovering the gym, had gone from a tall, scrawny guy to filled out with washboard abs and he’d also learned that leaving a five o’clock shadow transformed his face and made his jaw look square and sculpted and his lips that he’d thought were too full, were actually irresistible to women. Billy turned heads, and once he took off on social media with his funny skits and witty observations, his following exploded and women began throwing themselves at him.
When Lauren first started dating him, his looks were actually a concern. She’d met Billy at a Hollywood party and he’d made her laugh immediately. He’d been introduced by her colleague Toby and while she’d felt a spark that night, she’d ignored it. Billy was too good-looking for her to take seriously. She was well aware of the type, as there were many of them in LA and she knew he’d have his pick of beautiful women. Still, when she went home, she looked him up and laughed at some of his funny videos. She also caught her breath at the ones where he was in the gym, working out without his shirt. That was her first glimpse of his abs and it was impressive. She quickly put it out of her mind, though. He hadn’t asked for her number, so she assumed she might not ever see Billy again.
But he’d called the next day. Toby had given him her number and texted her to let her know, but Lauren didn’t see the text until after Billy called. So it took her by surprise and when he’d asked her to dinner, she was so shocked that she just said yes.
She knew now that love bombing behavior was a red flag in a relationship. But she’d never experienced that kind of intensity or received so many flowers and she gave into it and enjoyed every minute. Until she felt his attention fading and saw the video. And she realized that she’d expected the moment to come, eventually. She’d researched Billy online and learned this was a pattern he repeated over and over with the women he dated. No one had a bad thing to say about him, except that he couldn’t seem to stay faithful. And that was a deal-breaker for most.
She glanced at the flowers and sighed again. It would be rude not to thank him. But she wasn’t eager to reach out to Billy. She didn’t want to give him the wrong idea that she might be open to reconciling. She’d noticed online that his fling with the pretty blonde girl was over and there didn’t seem to be a replacement. As she was debating texting him, her phone dinged with a text message from Billy.
Hope you like the flowers. Excited to see you soon.
She smiled. Typical Billy, like a puppy, anxious for approval.
She texted back.
Thank you. They just arrived and they’re beautiful.
He replied immediately.
Great! When do you leave for Nantucket?
Her heart sank. She hadn’t thought of that—that they might be on the same flight.
I’m not sure, I don’t have my tickets yet. When are you going?
I fly out Friday morning. Hopefully, we’re on the same flight.
Lauren did not hope for that. She thought Andrea had said Thursday, and she was going to call Marissa first thing Monday and make sure they were on different flights. It was a good six hours to Boston, at least another hour or so before she’d touch down on Nantucket as she would likely have a layover and change planes first. She wasn’t ready to spend that much time with Billy.
Billy have to go, have a call coming in.
No worries. See you soon.