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Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire Subpar looks
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire . Chapter 68: Subpar looks . Isabella makes her way towards the closest bar, and Archibald trails behind her, doing the stereotypical boyfriend-in-a-crowd thing, one hand lightly pressed to her back, steering her gently through the empty spaces between mingling employees. A few people stare at them for a little too long. After all the buzz that her breakup with Alan created, Isabella knows the office busibodies must be thrilled to see her with Archibald. They maybe didn’t expected to see her actually confirm the news that the blogs had been spreading about her and Archie. And she’s happy to give them something else to talk about. After they order their drinks, they crane their necks to find Dara, and they eventually spot her all the way on the opposite side of the space. She’s sitting at a table with Jane, a woman from the finance department who Isabella is somewhat acquainted with, along with her girlfriend. As fate would have i
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire Cheesy
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire . Chapter 69: Cheesy . They arrive at the table, and Archibald pulls out Isabella’s chair before sitting down in his own. “I mean, I was trying to throw him off, but I still meant what I said.” “Wha—” “Wine!” Dara exclaims giddily, making grabby hands at the glass Isabella is holding. Isabella passes it to her, frowning. “You look like you need to start drinking,” Riven says to Bella. “Also, Jana is already two drinks ahead of us. We need to catch up.”Jana giggles from behind her half-empty wine glass. “I always try to get at least four drinks deep before the speeches start. You know how long-winded most of these knuckleheads can be.” “I know that better than anyone,” Isabella says, laughing. “So, I don’t think I’ve met your girlfriend?” “Oh, you’re right,” she says, beaming. She turns to the woman next to her, who’s very pretty—she’s wearing a fitted red dress with matching red lipstick. “This is Hazel. She’s a physiotherapist.” “Nice
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 70
Thankfully, as the sun slowly sinks below the horizon and the three-course dinner is served, the conversation starts to get a little easier, largely thanks to all the alcohol they’re consuming. The collection of empty bottles and glasses on the table has begun to accumulate into quite the impressive hoard.They’re all taking turns getting up and ordering rounds of drinks for everyone at the bar, and they even had Riven take an extra turn, stashing an extra round of beers at the table, since the bars will be temporarily shut down during any of the CEO's speech and the awards presentation.Isabella feels a deep pang of sympathy for all the employees hired over the past year who are attending the gala for the very first time and are unaware of this fact.The dance floor always opens up right after the award presentation is done—and seasoned professionals like maybe Alan, Dara and even Archibald are always well-lubricated enough in time to hit it right away.Luckily, it seems like Archiba
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 71
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 71:.The audience applauds, tittering nervously. Archibald leans over to Isabella, whispering: “These awards aren’t a big deal. Why are we still here?.” Isabella hits him lightly. “Getting one is pretty much the highest honor you can receive here. Plus, everyone who wins goes on a trip,” She whispers back. “Apparently it’s a lot of fun.”“I think you’ll win,” He says matter-of-factly.Isabella laughs. “No, I don’t think I’ve worked here long enough. Usually it’s people who have been around for a long time.”Dara dramatically shushes them from across the table.“As many of you already know, everyone who’s honored tonight will be awarded with an all-expenses-paid trip next month. This year, we’ll be spending four days at a resort on an Island.” The crowd oohs and aahs, and Hector smiles. “After last year’s experience on the mountaintop, we decided to go with something a little more traditional this year.”“Apparently people with a fear of
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire Compensation
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 72: .“You’re not in trouble,” Isabella says. “I just figured we should talk about the trip before we get too wrapped up in our—well, you know.”“Our scam?”“That makes it sound so unpleasant.”“Mmm. It’s not unpleasant,” Archibald says.“I mean—well, no. I guess not.”He reaches out and rests his hand on Isabella’s knee. He squeezes it a little. It’s very distracting.“I need you to explain something to me. Why don’t you have a boyfriend?” Isabella demands, keeping his voice low.Archibald laughs. “What?”“It’s suspicious that you haven’t been in a relationship for a while.” Isabella says. “It’s very weird to me that you’re single. With your… you know. All of you, and all of your… anyway. I want to know why.”“I should probably take this as a compliment, I guess?” Archibald asks, scratching his head.“I don’t care how you take it. I just want to make sure before I bring you along with me to this holiday and let you sleep in the same room
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire Flaws
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 73: Flaws .“Don’t you think I deserve some compensation for all the hard work I’ve been putting into this relationship?”“Well you do put in much hard work for a fake relationship.” Isabella says admitting it. Archibald pushes a finger to Isabella’s lips, shushing her. Her eyes go wide. “You can’t say that here,” He says, scolding.“But we need to talk about this,” Isabella hisses. “Nobody we know is even going on the trip. Does it mean that we will or we won’t keep up the charade, then?”“You heard what Riven said earlier. Since the blogs outed us then Everyone at the company has to buy it—otherwise my dad will find out. And now that my mother is back, she’s obviously keep tabs on me too. So, yes, it would be weird if I’m supposedly your boyfriend and I don’t come with you. I mean, unless you want to tell everyone we broke up.”The thought of doing that sends a weird and unpleasant pang right through the center of Isabella’s chest tha
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire Dance
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 74: Dance .Archibald frowns a little. “Don’t make fun of me. People really have been bothered by those things.”“I’m sorry,” Isabella says, and she is. She can’t help it—she reaches up, tucking a lock of hair behind Archibald’s ear. “I think those people must have been pretty silly. You seem great just how you are.”He smiles sadly. “You’re playing the role of over caring girlfriend impressively well right now.”“I’m not playing anything,” Isabella says, shaking her head. “I meant what I just said.”“Oh,” Archibald says, his face softening. “Okay.” “You’re the one who’s best at caring, anyway, not me.”“I have to be the best at everything I do,” Archibald says seriously. “It’s a complex.”She glances over Archibald’s shoulder, eyes roaming over the rest of the dance floor. She spots Dara and Riven swaying together prom-style, Dara’s arms looped around Riven’s neck. Several feet behind them, she is shocked to see Alan is slow-dancing
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire Flight
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 75: Flight .“You better hurry up. You’re going to be late,” Dara calls from the bathroom, voice garbled as she brushes her teeth. Isabella glances up from where she’s wrestling with her tiny carry-on suitcase on the bed, her body flung halfway on top of it, trying to squish it down enough that she’ll be able to zip it closed. “Who are you to lecture me about being late? You’ve never been on time for anything in your life.”“I think I was on time for a doctor’s appointment once,” She says. Dara hears her spit her toothpaste into the sink. “Seriously, though, I’m just trying to help. Didn’t you say you needed to leave by 10:30?”Isabella grabs her phone, tapping the screen. It’s 10:35. Shit.“It’s later than I thought,” She says, zipping up her suitcase with a final grunt and hauling it off the bed. It hits the ground with a loud thud. “You’re right, I gotta go.”“Do you have everything you need?”“I think so.” Isabella wheels her suitca
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Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 143
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 143: .It happens by accident.Archibald’s out of town again for work but tries to call in the evenings when he can and Isabella, consequently, does her best to be available despite the three-hour time difference. Dara can roll her eyes all she wants — and does — but keeps her smart remarks, if not to a minimum, then to an average.(“It’s part of our arrangement!” Isabella protests noisily as if the forty-five minutes she spends holed up in her bedroom have anything at all to do with those initial terms of their relationship and aren’t simply because she misses the man like a limb when he’s gone.Dara makes an unflattering snort and digs her elbow into Isabella’s side, stealing a pretzel out of her bag while she’s distracted.“Uh-huh,” she says, “Is that what we’re calling it now, Ms. Codependent?”“I don’t think I like you anymore.”Isabella, among other things, is a liar. A bad one.)It happens by accident because Isabella’s bundled up
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 142:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 142: .See, if Isabella’s life was a movie, this is where it would end.A great romantic conclusion tied up with a neat little bow, roll credits, and scene.But this isn’t a movie, and this isn’t where it ends.“I’m thinking about going back to school,” Isabella says one afternoon during a lunch date. She doesn’t stop stirring anxiously at her gelato until Archibald reaches out to physically stop her before it turns to soup, and she won’t like it as much.“I think that’s a good idea,” he replies.Isabella is still basically unhireable, further blacklisted professionally by the drama that came out of her father’s quick but messy trial that put him in jail for years and ruined any good reputation any of them might have had.(The man left a single furious, frothing voicemail on Isabella’s phone that could be summed up as three straight minutes of death threats that included everyone from Isabella herself to the cat to the goldfish that had o
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 141:
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 142: .“You know, I almost broke up with you last night.”Archibald’s steady calm, the largest holdover from last night, holds up even as he nods in agreement. “I know.”Isabella scowls at him.“How’d you know? I barely knew until I’d decided not to.”“Because I know you. You’ve been given precious few people in life who haven’t broken your trust, and I did that by going behind your back. It would have been an understandable reaction, and I wouldn’t have begrudged you—“Isabella slams that ocean blue tumbler down on the table with a clatter. Her eyes are bright with emotion, and her lips are turned down in an irritated scowl.“Maybe you wouldn’t,” she snaps, “but I’d sure as shit begrudge you if you just, what, let me break up with you without so much as asking me not to? What the fuck, man.”“You are an adult who can make your own decisions—““Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I want you to just let me go when I’m about to do something stupid!
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 140
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 140:.There is coffee, kept hot in the kind of insulated tumbler that costs too much and coordinates with the beachy colors of the house. Isabella has a suspicion that it was bought specifically for her, because Archibald is a crazy person who thinks about that kind of stuff. It doesn’t stop her from drinking it.“Tell me what you did,” Isabella orders before she can talk herself out of it and in spite of the very large part of her that doesn’t actually want to know. “Something something something about buying out the board?” she elaborates with a pointed stare. Because Chantelle, of all people, wouldn’t be bailing unless the ship is sinking. The ship might already be sunk if she’s that willing to abandon what she sees as her birthright. A birthright that she’s always seen as a competition, even though she’d won right out the gate and Isabella’s so stupid that it took literally being disowned to see that she never stood a chance.“Oh, th
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 139
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 139: .Isabella and Alan had settled many a disagreement with an angry tussle in bed that was worth the drop afterward for being able to get a little of her own back, to feel seen and heard. Except that Archibald already makes her feel seen and heard, and right now Isabella just sort of wants one of them to hurt, and she’s not sure who.“Stop, stop, enough,” Archibald orders, kinder than Isabella deserves, and wipes the beginnings of tears out of the corners of Isabella’s eyes before she even realizes that she’s about to cry. “I know, baby. I know.”“You don’t know anything.” It comes out way less cool and way more pathetic when Isabella’s voice cracks on what is definitely an overtired, strung-out sob. “You don’t know anything.”“I know that you’re exhausted and running on fumes and that you’d rather have the kind of sex that’s not good for you and that you don’t even want than get what you need,” Archibald tells her. “I’d say I know pl
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 138
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 138: .The only tears Chantelle’s ever shed have been of the crocodilian variety, as purposeful a tactic as any insult. Even after she’d forced herself to learn how to stop, she’d never managed to wield emotion like a weapon. At times like this, Isabella sort of wishes that she had.Isabella trembles and wraps her arms around herself, chilled even underneath the blanket. The edges are getting wet with saltwater and crusted with sand, and she would bite anyone who might try to take it from her.Archibald doesn’t touch her, but Isabella can feel him practically vibrating with the way he wants to. Right now, Isabella would be happy to bite him, too.“I don’t think you’re stupid.”“Well, it sure feels like it.”Archibald literally wrings his hands in open distress, and even now, it doesn’t feel remotely like a win. Isabella’s gotten exactly what she’s asked for—space and someone else being the one to hurt, but it doesn’t lessen her own, not e
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 137
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 137:.It's still pitch black outside, but Isabella finds herself at the edge of the water anyway. The ocean doesn’t give a damn about Isabella’s battered foundation and rolls happily up the night-cooled sand, leaving only foam and bits of seashell behind.Isabella sits at the shoreline and tucks her knees up under her chin.She wonders, miserably, where Chantelle plans to go.God, she hopes her sister gets as far away as she can.Isabella's spent her whole life loyal, but Chantelle? She’s fanatical to a degree that Isabella could never quite manage, and she wonders if putting her loyalty into a cage match with her relentless drive to protect herself finally did what nothing else could—crack that fanaticism. She’ll never know; it’s not her place now, and even if it was, Chantelle would never let her.God, she hopes Chantelle got as far away as she possibly can.Mai, with much derision, refers to it as Isabella's "better place theory." Mom
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 136
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 136: .“Oh, please. Because your boytoy just woke up and bought half our board and their corresponding shares out from under us for some weekend summer fun? I didn’t think you had it in you, but I guess you had to grow a spine sometime.”Isabella’s brain goes blank. Chantelle’s words land with all the delicacy and grace of anvils, pinning her down under their weight like a butterfly in a box.“I didn’t—you’re wrong,” she protests.“Sure, okay. Keep telling yourself that. Anyway, don’t bother saving this number; I’m ditching the phone once my plane boards. Congratulations on your win, Izzy. We always knew you’d ruin the family, but I didn’t think it’d be like this. Have a good rest of your life, I guess.”There’s a click and then a dial tone. Isabella tries to call back, but it goes straight to a generic voicemail that she knows won’t ever be checked. At best it’s a burner phone; at worst it’s Chantelle’s regular phone that she’s willing t
Ditch the Ex and Date The Billionaire CH 135
Ditch the Ex. Date the Billionaire .Chapter 135: .There’s the temptation after breakfast to go back to bed and find another way to entertain themselves, but Archibald shuffles her to go shower instead.“It’s about ten miles to get into town,” he says when Isabella protests in an appropriately dignified manner, definitely not pouting at having to put pants on. “You’ll like it.” Isabella does pout, then, and is rewarded for her bad behavior by being hoisted up onto the bathroom counter and thoroughly kissed until she’ll say yes to just about anything. And she does say yes, eventually, and delays the inevitable by about ten minutes by sticking her hands down the back of Archibald’s pajamas.Isabella’s never had this kind of domesticity in a relationship before, and it should feel strange but it doesn’t, just scaffolds its way up the norms built in by months of getting to know each other. It doesn’t feel weird at all for Isabella to snag Archibald by the wrist and tug him into the sho
