Artificial Love (The Goodbye Trilogy #2) by Alisa Mullen Page A

rather loudly, as she continued to vacuum and animatedly talk to herself. What the hell was she wearing? It looked like old grandmother pajamas. I looked down at my worn by design jeans and Love Sick Ponies hoodie. I had a tan beanie on to make sure that people didn’t notice me when I was being carted from limo to bus to limo. I usually sported a pair of sunglasses but it was night time. That was too much.
    I walked into the kitchen and Emily still hadn’t noticed that I was there. I opened the refrigerator to find it fully stocked with beer and food. I almost shit my pants. I had never seen that much normal food in my house since I lived in my house – with my mom.
    There, on the top shelf, was a big silver pan of spaghetti, covered in Saran Wrap. A large Post-It note said, “Do not eat.”
    So why had she kept the concoction? I pulled out a bottle of wheat ale and stood up straight to see that Emily had stopped vacuuming, but was standing still with the thing still on, staring at me in shock.
    I waved and smiled a little. She did nothing. I smiled brighter and waved a little wider. That did the trick and she shook out of her haze long enough to turn the machine off.
    “Hi, Emily,” I said with genuine pleasure.
    “Hi, Mr. Rock Star,” she answered. “You look…um…you look really nice.”
    I looked back down at my clothes again and took my beanie off, letting my wild blond hair breathe.
    I heard her audibly gasp at my action. She was attracted to me. I suppose that shouldn’t have surprised me but she was clearly going through a life altering time currently. I dismissed fucking her against the wall and focused on her small grin.  After the very odd reunion between me and Emily, I honestly couldn’t think of anything to say because her orange hair and ridiculous clothes were too fucking distracting. What the fuck was she thinking?
    I opened the fridge and popped another bottle of wheat ale out and placed it on the kitchen table, motioning for her to come join me. Her proper manners were still there, in the way that she waited for me to pull out her chair and politely put a napkin under our beers so the condensation didn’t ruin the wood. Yet she tried to cover her true self with a poor attempt at a Halloween homeless woman costume. We kept our eyes on one another while we each took a turn sipping our beers. It was the oddest interaction I had ever had with a woman in my entire life and I didn’t want to be anywhere but right there. She was a force of something. She was so confused and skittish but held her head up high because she had been trained to. It was all so fascinating.
    “Did you eat the spaghetti?” I asked finally.
    She shook her head and winced as she took another sip of the beer.
    “Because you didn’t want to trip?”
    “I’ve never eaten mushrooms before. I didn’t think it would be a good idea. That and they did cost money so I wrapped it all up and hopefully, I didn’t ruin them. I looked it up on the internet for an hour today and I think they’ll still be okay for you to eat but unfortunately the sauce is going to go bad unless I freeze the container all together but then…” I cut her off by placing my cold hand over her very warm one. Her hand was so small and silky. She was small, silky, and such a chatty Cathy.
    “It’s okay, sweetheart. You didn’t know. If you would like to eat them, I would love to trip with you. It is more fun with another person and I promise nothing bad will happen. If not, we can toss them.” I shrugged. I didn’t care about the money. Didn’t she know how much money I made?
    Yes, my brownstone was a one bedroom but that was because I was hardly here. Jules and I had talked about a house but I loved the city. I could upgrade to a better place anywhere I wanted but I liked the normal feeling. I wanted to be a regular guy some days and this place sort of kept up with that façade.
    Of course, no one needed to know that my bodyguard, Beck, lived on