We were playfully battling when someone called Corsica's name. Her blonde head snapped up and her whole expression changed. It settled into that perfect and still smile that made me want to roar in frustration.
The cool, collected, and primly aloof Corsica turned to greet her friend. "Kara, how nice to see you. What are you doing in Monterey?"
"I was just going to ask you the same thing. Everyone on campus seemed to think you'd gone off to the city." Kara tipped down her Ralph Lauren sunglasses with a perfectly manicured hand. "I thought you had to work all summer."
Corsica tittered. "No, not at all. Unless you call staying there work."
Kara's head snapped around to study my house on the shoreline. Her plumped smile thinned a bit, but she turned back and kept her voice friendly. "Out doing a little shopping?"
I opened the bag for the nosy woman to see. "She treated herself to a Versace dress. Or maybe she's treating me to the view of her in it."
Kara slipped her sunglasses off and batted her eyelashes at me. "You look so familiar. Have we met before?"
"You might know his father, though I'm not certain you run in the same circles," Corsica said. "Nice running into you again. We'll have to get together while you're in town."
She waved over her shoulder as she dragged me away.
I waited until we reached the end of the block. "Back to pretending?" I asked.
Corsica dropped my arm. "Like you're one to talk. What's this about an engagement party?"
"That's to make my mother happy," I snapped. "What was all that about?"
"Kara always thinks she's better than everyone else. I just wanted to knock her down a peg or two." Corsica frowned. "And, you don't get to make a big deal out of it. You're the one lying to your parents. All I did was let some snob make the wrong assumptions."
"Fair enough," I said. And, it was.
Corsica was only pretending because I had asked her to, but it bothered me how far her desire to appear rich reached. What did she care what some snob from her college thought? It made me think I had been right about what Corsica was really after.
"So, how about paddle boarding?"
I glanced at my phone and saw a lifeline. "Sorry, but it looks like I'm meeting Phillip for drinks. Are you okay heading back to the house on your own?"
Corsica's eyes skimmed away from me. Then she squared her shoulders and smiled, though not at me. "Probably better that you go to happy hour. I was planning on practice the piano for a while and it doesn't sound too pretty yet."
Watching her delicate fingers dance over the black and white keys while her voice soared above the notes was very tempting, but I shook it off. "Ten to one Phillip's got girl trouble. You'd probably just sit there and roll your eyes at us, anyway. Good luck with the piano."
We went our separate ways, and I didn't look back until I reached the end of the block. I had hoped I felt her eyes on me, but when I looked over my shoulder, Corsica was halfway up the sidewalk towards my house.
It took all I had to pull out my phone and keep walking. "Phillip? Yeah, I'm on my way. Order me a whiskey."
Phillip pushed the double shot towards me when I slumped into the seat across from him. "Why do I think you could use this more than me? I thought I was the one that just got dumped."
"You got dumped?" I tossed back a heavy gulp and let the whiskey burn my throat. "I thought it was usually the other way around."
"Nah," Phillip said. "I only dump the ladies that are just after my family jewels. Or my fortune."
I gave him a wan smile. "So what happened?"
"Turns out she wasn't after anything but me. And, I turned out to not be good enough."
I flagged down the bartender and ordered another round. "So, what's the plan? Find someone with longer legs and a lower IQ that only wants what you have?"
Phillip laughed but it was short and harsh. "No. I'm sick of gold-diggers. Maybe I'll take your route and pretend I'm poor until some nice girl actually falls for my bullshit."
"Not fair," I said, but punished myself with another burning gulp. "Besides, I think Corsica might be a gold-digger. The subtle, smart kind, but still the same species."
"Or are you just paranoid? You think she's finally figured out who you are and how much you’re worth?"
I shook my head. "She's more interested in outlining her little, multi-million dollar ideas."
Phillip snorted. "Sounds like the perfect match for you. Until she finds out you lied. That's how I got dumped. She found out I lied about remembering her birthday. She wasn't impressed by how good my personal assistant is, even less so when she found out how much I pay him."
"My problem is that Corsica will probably be over the moon when she finds out my lie. She'll think she's Cinderella and I'm Prince Charming."
Phillip hiccupped and sipped his whiskey. "No one's going to make that mistake with you, my friend."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "So, what do you think will happen when she finds out I'm loaded?"
"She'll be mad. Probably throw something. See this cut on my forehead? It was a vase. Ugly damn thing and I'm glad it's gone, but it hurt like hell."
Phillip swirled the last dregs of his whiskey. "But then I bet Corsica will relax. You said she's scrambling to take care of herself; maybe she'll relax when she realizes you can take care of her millions of times over."
The thought of Corsica letting me foot every bill made me laugh. "She won't go for that. I bet she'll storm out and not come back until she's worth more than double what I am."
She really wasn’t a gold-digger like I had said. Emotions had just overtaken me.
Phillip's eyes swam. "How's that a bad thing?"
"Come on," I sighed. "You're drunk, and I'm calling your driver."
"Just admit it, Penn," Phillip said as we wove our way outside. "You can't predict what Corsica will do, and that just proves she's not like all the others. You should give her the benefit of the doubt."
That sage advice from my drunk friend kept my spirits up. The whiskey didn't hurt, either. I trotted up the front steps in the mood to make up and hoped to find her singing over the piano. Instead, I found her on the phone and the first words I heard out of her mouth made me cringe.
"The best part of the day was the dress. You should see it, Ginny. It even made Kara jealous. Yeah, Versace, can you believe it?" Corsica sat on an armchair facing the ocean and didn't hear me come in.
"That was the best part of your day?" I snapped.
Corsica jumped and swiveled around in the armchair. "Gotta go, Ginny. Yes, and thank you!"
I didn't wait until she hung up her phone. "Sounds like you’re more excited about some blue dress with a fancy name than you are about your singing gig. And who got you that audition? Doesn't matter unless it costs money, huh, Corsica?"
"I only tried on the dress because you made fun of me for looking at it in the window." Corsica jumped up from her chair and marched to the kitchen. "I didn't ask you to buy it for me, so don't come whining to me about your depleted bank account."