Page 30 of Awake in Cheshire Bay

I nodded. Sleep would be a good idea, but I needed to do some searching first.

“I’ll take your keys, Amber.” Mitch stayed a respectable distance but extended his hand.

I tossed him the keys and followed them out.

After they dropped me and my truck off, I curled up with my computer and searched the internet. I had to know. If I was a notch, then there would be dozens of pictures with him and some form of arm candy at every event under the sun, right?

I typed in his name.

Antonio Welsh. A dozen hits about a basketball player.

Mr. Antonio Welsh. More basketball, a few other sites leading to information on some governor out of the states.

Mr. Welsh. A million results but nothing that came to anything remotely similar, and an image search showed no one familiar.

My brain was foggy and figured I needed a location to go with the name. I typed in Antonio Welsh Italy. Yeah, that was a mistake. Nothing of relevance.

What was his sister’s name? Maybe that would help? And where was she from again? Not expecting anything, I typed in Maia Welsh Naples. The top ten results were interesting as most of them highlighted a Maya WELCH.

Hmmm. I rubbed my aching temples.

What about? Antonio Welch?

What if with the crew’s weak accents, and the way Antonio struggled to pronounce any hard ‘c’, it just came out sounding like Welsh? I hit the return button and a whole new listing of sites appeared, and these were more interesting with business names attached to the hits, and not just about the basketball star.

I scrolled through pages of images, finally spotting something that bore a resemblance. I clicked, and there he was.

At a ball in Cyprus, with a gorgeous redhead tucked in beside him.

On his boat with a rail-thin blonde in the tiniest bikini, as caught by some paparazzi and sold to the highest bidder.

Another in front of a fancy car, with yet another gal.

In front of a private jet, another redhead in a tight black dress hanging on his arm.

It had been an act. The whole damn thing. I wasn’t anything special. I had been played.

One night or not, I’d let emotions get tangled into the mess, and fell for the dream that a foreign hottie would find me worthy of wanting to be with me for more than a quick overnight.

Antonio had acted so kind and caring, and I ingested all his smooth-talk, handsomeness, and even had sex with him. I’d let him into me, and into my heart, and it was all for sport.

I was so messed up, somewhere along the way, I’d hoped it wasn’t a fantasy, but my mind played tricks on me. All along I’d spent the day with a billionaire jerk, who only confirmed that rich or poor, all men were the same – assholes not to be trusted.

And I hated myself for feeling what I felt. For caving to the ideal which wasn’t real. I’d been a way for him to pass time.

Reliving those magnificent hours shattered my heart. I closed my computer and grabbed a throw pillow to wrap my arms around as I cried myself to sleep.

I woke up in the mid-afternoon and begrudgingly readied for my evening shift. My phone had been silent – no word from Cedar, which likely meant she hadn’t found anything worth reporting.

I headed down to the pub and glanced around, hoping against hope to see him. Of course, he wasn’t there. He wasn’t coming back. Ever. He was likely already onto his next conquest.

“Wow, you look beat, Amber. Why don’t you take the evening off?” One of my shift managers stopped pouring a whiskey sour to study me.

“I’m fine. Honestly. I just have a lot on my mind, and I feel it would be better for me to be here.” Plus, I had inventory in the back room to count and scheduling to arrange around the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend and throughout the rest of the month. “I’ll be in the office if you need me.”

I plunked down in my chair and pulled out the staffing requests, going by who wanted what day off for the long weekend. It didn’t take long though, and the schedule was done. It probably helped I was closing the store for the actual holiday. I wished everything in life was as simple as that.

With a quick print out, I hung the new shift schedule on the staffing board and went into the back room with my iPad. Inventory wasn’t a whole lot of fun, but it was menial and required I concentrate on the task at hand. Something I desperately needed right now.