The Secret Billionaire

“Here’s one, Cait,” Amy said from the couch, holding up Cait’s phone as if Cait could see it from where she stood at the kitchen counter chopping carrots for their dinner. 

“Amy,” Cait said to her best friend and roommate, her tone slightly annoyed, “I told you. I can choose my dates myself.”

“Too late,” Amy said with a giggle. “I swiped right. Besides, he’s super hot.”

Wearing a bemused smile, Cait shook her head. If the man reached out to her, Cait could just ignore him. She didn’t know why she’d signed up on that dating app in the first place. Scratch that. Yes, she did. Because Amy had pressured her into it. “Put my phone down before you do something I’ll regret.”

Amy laughed, but at least she complied. “Thanks for making dinner tonight, Cait.”

“No problem. You’ve been working a lot of overtime, so I’m happy to step in.”

“I’ll clean up, of course,” Amy said.

“Yes, you will.” Though Cait got home earlier than Amy, she still had a lot of homework to review from her second grade class. She loved teaching those little seven and eight year olds, but it was also exhausting. Still, she was grateful to have a good job. Growing up, she’d seen her mother struggle to support her and her sister after their father had left when Cait had been a pre-teen. Ever since, Cait had made it a top priority to make sure she could support herself, and as long as she earned enough to meet her extremely modest needs, she was satisfied.

Amy got up from the couch and came into their tiny kitchen, then leaned against the counter. “At least all this overtime is giving me extra money.”

Cait nodded, wishing she could get paid overtime for all the extra hours she put in, but that’s not how teaching worked. Didn’t matter. She loved what she did and she was frugal. Though money had its place, it wasn’t the most important thing to her. No. The most important thing was doing what she loved and finding happiness among life’s challenges. 

She considered her challenges and knew the biggest one was her love life—or lack of a love life. Smiling, she shook her head as she put the carrots into a steamer and turned on the heat under the pot.

* * *

Luke Mills stretched his back as he stood in front of the floor to ceiling windows in his office, which overlooked downtown Los Angeles. He’d just finished an extremely important conference call, one that hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped it would. As founder and CEO of Mills International Holdings, a billion dollar company he’d built from the ground up, Luke was frequently under a tremendous amount of pressure. Pressure which made the muscles all over his body knot up in protest. To mitigate that, he made sure to spend at least an hour each day working out. It was amazing how much that physical exertion helped him reduce his stress. When those little endorphins flowed through his veins, he felt invincible. Too bad he wasn’t.

He shook his head. He would figure things out.

A knock sounded at the closed door of his office.

“Come in,” he called out as he turned around.

“How’d the call go?” Brad, the COO asked as he strode inside.

Luke sat behind his desk and Brad sat in one of the two chairs in front of the desk.

“Not great,” Luke said, before giving him the particulars.

Brad frowned. “Not to pile bad news on top of bad news, but TZK is talking about pulling out of the deal.”

Luke frowned deeply. Just what he needed. One more problem to deal with. Well, that’s what he did. Like a fireman, he was always putting out fires. Trouble was, if he didn’t extinguish his fires quickly they could turn into conflagrations that could burn his business severely.

They discussed how they could handle the issue, then Luke thanked Brad and Brad left, closing the door behind him.

Trying not to feel overwhelmed by all that he had on his plate, Luke clenched his jaw, then picked up his phone. He needed to get out of his head for a minute and he knew the perfect way to do it.

He opened the dating app he’d joined on a whim the night before. Okay, maybe it hadn’t been a complete whim. He’d been thinking about it for a couple of weeks. Now, as he pulled up his profile, he softly chuckled as he read the fiction he’d created.

Name: Luke

Occupation: Chef

Interests and Activities: Bowling, biking, hiking, camping, fishing, really anything outdoors. 

Tired of dating women who seemed to be interested in him only for his bank account, Luke had decided to create a fake profile. Well, mostly fake. The picture he’d posted was really him, and he really did enjoy those things he’d listed as a hobby—although he rarely had time to do any of them. Picturing himself as a chef made him smirk. Yes, he enjoyed cooking, but he couldn’t imagine doing it full time. Then again, maybe that would be an awesome job. Had to be less stressful than running his billion dollar corporation.

He wondered what woman would be interested in the person he’d created in his profile—a man who wasn’t a billionaire, but rather a man who lived a regular life. He was intrigued by the thought, actually. In a way it felt as if he was infiltrating the dating site as a way to do some research. Kind of like those shows where the boss pretended to be an employee to see what it was really like to work at his own company. Luke wanted to see what it was like to date a woman who was interested in him for him, separate from his financial worth. A woman who had no idea he was a billionaire but instead believed he was a regular Joe.

The app notified him that several women had shown interest in his profile since he’d created it the night before. He skimmed through the profiles of the women who had apparently swiped right on him. One in particular caught his eye. Cait. Honey blonde hair and an engaging smile. Enjoyed outdoor activities. Taught elementary school. 

He stared at her picture for several long moments, then on impulse, he sent her a message.

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