It Was All A Prank

Billie Bob Jones

My lips had been in an unattractive pout for so long that I was afraid that it would be stuck this way if I did not stop. Yet how could I stop? Benedito's scent still lingered in my house reminding me of the fact that the billionaire had just left ten minutes ago.

I raised my hand to my mouth as I stared at the ground with furrowed eyebrows. The conversation I just had did not feel real. It was like someone was pulling a sick prank on me and I was the laugh of it all.

Even though my thoughts were chaotic, my rumbling stomach took me out of my moment of confusion. I would not allow Benedito to once again get in the way of my dinner. I roughly sat down on the chair and shoved a forkful of salmon in my mouth as I chewed ferociously.

The flavour of the salmon was so good it almost made me forget my previous confusion until I looked at the untouched plate in front of me. A pit formed in my stomach once again but the more I thought about Benedito the less sense everything made.

Benedito did not look like someone who would be interested in men. Not that there was a certain look or anything. In fact he looked like someone who be interested in no one. He was such an arrogant and rude man that I was extremely sure no one was up to his standards but himself.

I was the last person on earth who would be up to his standards in fact, not that I wanted to be anyway but one got my point. I was convinced the man was messing with my head simply to disturb my weekend once again.

What he said was completely farfetched and his lack in emotion told me he was just trying to stir a reaction out of me once again. Who would confess their feelings to someone so casually and robotically? Not that I had a clue on how it was done but I knew it was not like that.

I stared at his plate still not feeling full and grabbed it alongside with his wine. It was not like he was coming back to eat it. Plus it would be a waste of food to throw it away. His wine although was way too dry and spicy for my liking so that would unfortunately have to go down the drain.

What did he and Pedro expect for me to do with the décor they had set up? I was too tired to try to attempt to clean everything up and decided to just head upstairs to get ready for bed. I had a massive headache before he had even called and now it was a full blown migraine.

I did not even bother to shower as I stripped down to my underwear then threw myself onto my bed.

"Bobby, did you have a date with someone?" Delilah screamed jolting me awake as I sat up and looked around confused.

"Delilah are you serious?" I groaned as I laid back down and covered my face with a pillow.

"There's roses in the dining room, candles and its evident there was dinner for two. What happened?" she shrieked like an excited teenage girl hearing the latest gossip.

"Benedito happened," I frowned after she had pulled the pillow of my face.

"Benedito," she looked baffled and extremely disappointed.

"It was some silly joke he pulled on me. It really was nothing," I sighed as I stood up. Delilah seemed to still not believe me as she stared at me with a pout, but before she could ask whatever she wanted to the doorbell rang. "I'll go get it."

When I got downstairs a delivery man holding a bouquet of blood red roses stood there.

"Hello?" I raised my eyebrow wondering what he was doing here.

"Good morning Sir, I have a delivery for-" he looked down to the clipboard he was holding, "Barbie?"

I rolled my eyes as he handed me the roses, "Thank you."

"My pleasure," he smiled before heading back to his van.

A small white paper with cursive handwriting said 'Meu coração – B.P' I had no idea what the hell that meant but by the hand writing and initials I knew it was Bobby.

"Son of a bitch," I growled and crumpled the note in my hand and threw it in the bin. I put the roses in a vase with water before stomping up the stairs.

Benedito was playing mind games with me and I was not having it. He wanted me to react to his foolish behaviour and I would bet he was waiting to get a call from me right now. I would not give him the satisfaction of knowing he had gotten under my skin even if it killed me.

I knew it would make his head two times bigger if he knew he had driven me to near madness. Today was Friday and I was determined on having a relaxing and calm weekend without any thoughts of Benedito.

"You'd think you'd suck at fishing after not doing it for so long," Rob muttered as he stared in disappointment at his empty hook whilst I had reined in a beautiful fish from our lovely dam here in the ranch.

"It's in the genes ol'son if you don't have you ain't got it," I grinned making JD chuckle who was sitting on one of the camping chairs behind us busy cleaning some of the fish I had caught with Ben.

"You're just good at everything," Rob pouted as he stomped back to the chairs, grabbed a beer before throwing himself on his chair.

It was a calm Saturday and just like how I had promised I had called the boys over to have a fun day at the dam. Cody unfortunately had plans with his girlfriend and Willie was up to whatever the hell Willie was always up to. Although it worked to our benefit since he brought chaos wherever he travelled.

The warm sun hit my bare skin as I was dressed in shorts, flip flops, a baseball cap and sunglasses. It felt incredibly good to not be confined by jeans and boots on a hot day.

"Bobby, I'm pretty sure we have enough fish," JD whistled. Rob and I packed up our things then placed them at the back of my truck. We sat with the other men immediately opening a bottle of beer and chugging it down.

"For a man so tough you really do love your print," Ben laughed eyeing my bright yellow shorts that had pink and purple horses on them.

"They're a few inches too short as well," Rob raised his eyebrows and smiled.

They were not wrong I often did invest in shorts that were a few inches shorter than what most men around us wore. It was a not purposeful decision but just what I gravitated towards.

"At least he has the legs to pull it off unlike you two with your twiggy legs," JD fired back making me beam. All my hard work exercising had most definitely paid off and I was happy someone was recognizing my efforts.

"You're just Bobby's cheerleader. Everything he does is holy grail in your eyes," Ben rolled his eyes.

"What can I say? I'm a Billie fan," he waved his hands sarcastically making us all laugh. "I'm just happy we can have a normal day without Bobby's new boss disturbing us every two seconds."

My stomach twisted at the mention of Benedito. I had told no one of what had happened Wednesday night nor would I ever. Even if it was just a prank I knew it would spread like wild fire and I was pretty sure the last thing Benedito would want is for people to think he was something he was not.

"How is he anyway? Like he seems pretty quiet to me," Rob shrugged.

"He is a man of few words. He tells you what he needs to tell you and that's where the conversation ends," I made sure to keep my face blank as I looked at the dam. I took a sip of my beer to break the slight tension that was caused by all the men looking at me.

"At least you two seem to get along," JD commented. I could tell he wanted for me to say more. To spill some dirty secrets about the new fella who had entered our small town.

"We're business partners, it's not like we have much of a choice," I grinned.

"I guess so," he responded. Conversation about Benedito ended there and we spent the rest of the day grilling, swimming and getting drunk.

Yet I found it hard to fully enjoy myself with everything that had been going on. Ben and JD's curiosity about the billionaire alerted me that they were looking into this a lot more than just him investing in our ranch.

It felt like everyone knew something around me except me. Benedito's actions struck a cord and people's questions made me uncomfortable. I found myself being guarded without knowing why and it disappointed me.

To know I was going back to my old ways.