Page 7 of Jesse

I know it’s a little bit sad, but I can’t help it.

I really, really fell for him. And so even though I knew the other girls had already moved on, I took a chance and presented them with this one last way to put him behind us forever.

They said yes. Now maybe I don’t have that wicked tongue for sales like Natalie does. And maybe I can’t market like Mila or cook things up like Hannah. But I sold the hell out of this plan.

And they bought it.

Anyway. I know this is pretty much a done deal and at the end of the night he will come home with me, because I’m in charge of numbers and I managed to find a way to spare one million dollars to buy Baby Boston for this date. For charity, of course.

For the kids.

And yes, even though I don’t regularly wear makeup, I do know how to apply it. I do own one-fourth of the world’s fifth largest cosmetic company, after all.

But I hired a stylist anyway. Because this is my last chance to see this man and tell him all those things I’ve been wanting to say all these years.

Not how I fell for him. Or how he hurt me.

But how much I hate him.

Hate him with a passion.

I don’t care if he’s the one indirectly responsible for hooking Nat, Mila, Hannah, and me up into this mega-woman company, I want revenge.

I want him to look us in the eyes and repent. I want him to feel as horrible about what he did to us that week as we felt after he used us up like things and threw us away.

Not only that. I want him to want me.

I want him to fall for me the way I did him.

And then I want to walk away. Forever. Vindicated that I was not trash to be thrown away. He is the trash. He will be thrown away. He is the loser now.

So I get glammed up to the nines. I went shopping after the welcome ceremony this morning for the most fabulous dress.

Red, of course. Long, with one slit up each thigh. Strapless. Hand-sewn crystals on the bodice.

My dark hair is piled high up on my head. My makeup is exquisite and the color on my lips…

Not Bright Berry Beach.

But Woman Scorned Red.

Glossy with an all-night wear guarantee. Courtesy of Bright Berry Beach Cosmetics Heat line.

“Wow,” Natalie says when I get in the limo. “You look… just… wow.”

“Oh, honey,” Mila says. “He does not deserve you.”

“He’s gonna die when he sees you again, Emma. Just die!” Hannah squeals.

“Please,” I say, taking a champagne flute from Natalie as the limo pulls away from my building. “I’ll bet you a million dollars each that he has no recollection of us.”

“Well, I should hope not,” Mila says. “Once we get to the estate no one takes off their ski masks. Got it?”

“Got it,” we all say.

“This will be the most efficient kidnapping in the history of kidnappings,” Hannah says.

“We’re not kidnapping him,” I correct. “We’re buying him.”