A Very Bad Billionaire (BWWM Contemporary Romance Novel) by Vivian Ward

on?”
     
    “Well, me and your father are going to be in town this evening and we were wondering if you’d like to get together for dinner. Maybe we could go to that little French place you’ve been raving about.”
     
    “I’d love to mom, but tonight isn’t really good for me. I have a ton of work to do and not a whole lot of time to do it.”
     
    “That’s a shame. Your father and I haven’t seen you in so long. Are you sure you can’t get away for just a little while?”
     
    “I’m sure mom. Are you and dad only in town for the night?”
     
    “Yes, we’ll be leaving tomorrow morning.”
     
    “I’ll tell you what, why I don’t see if my cook wants some overtime? You and dad can come over here and we can have dinner together without me having to take too much time off from work.”
     
    “That will be wonderful. About six o’clock okay?”
     
    “That’s fine. I’ll see you guys then.”
     
    My cook created a four-course meal. For the appetizer he made wild mushroom and Foie gras terrine with toasted hazelnuts, Chioggia beets, and brioche toast. The second course featured seafood risotto with ruby red shrimp, calamari, Jersey tomatoes, pancetta, wilted arugula, and Calabrian chile. For the main course, I requested Maine lobster and beef short ribs with Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, potato leek puree and a white port emulsion. As if we would have any room left after eating all of that food, the cook insisted on making a dessert of raspberry soufflé with vanilla ice cream. My parents wouldn’t get to eat at the French restaurant they wanted to try, but I could almost guarantee the food would be as good if not better than what they would get there.
     
    Lupita had been in the kitchen while I was planning the menu with my cook and overheard our conversation. She knew that it was a big deal for my parents to be coming by for dinner. She also remembered from previous visits how particular my mother is about things so she offered to stay past her shift to help serve the meal for me and my parents. I accepted her offer and asked if she could ask Natalia to help as well. I didn’t necessarily need her to help serve the meal, but I wanted to be able to talk to her after my parents had left for the evening.
     
     
    §
     
     
    As the cook prepared the evening meal, the aroma of the food made the entire house smell amazing. I still had so much to do and no time whatsoever to get it done. As usual, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I still had hours and hours of research to do but with my parents coming in, it would have to wait.
     
    Still going through mountains of research, I heard the doorbell ring. As was customary, my parents were exactly on time. I’ve always wondered how they had the uncanny ability to always turn up exactly when they’re supposed to. I like to picture them sitting in their car with a stopwatch, waiting for the precise moment to exit their vehicle and make their way to the front door, only ringing the bell the moment the second-hand hits twelve.
     
    Lupita answered the door and ushered my parents into the house while I saved what I was working on. I met them down in the foyer and accompanied them into the formal dining room where we sat to talk while waiting for dinner to be served. I’ve never been one for idle chit chat, but my mother loves to gossip. I’m pretty sure that if talking about other people was a paying career, it would have been her full-time job a long time ago. As I listened to her rag on her neighbors and gossip about our family doctor’s lawsuit, I continuously nodded my head as I poured us a glass of wine. Hopefully I have enough in the cellar to get us through the evening.
     
    For my mother, one glass of wine was followed by another, and then another, and so on. The more she drank, the more she talked. Typically, once she’s on a roll, her disrespectfulness begins to kick in. I was starting to think dinner was going to go