A wig? It would be the easiest solution, though the thought of sweating under it made me nauseous. A hat? On a whim I had purchased a big floppy hat that, I guess, was fashionable. But it just wasn’t me.

In the end I grabbed a scarf that complemented the colors of my dress, went to the mirror and tied it in one of the ways that Sonia had showed me. It was what she had called a tichel knot, used by Orthodox Jewish women to cover their heads for religious reasons. It looked glamorous when done right and I’d practiced it enough. It looked almost as good as that black lace scarf I’d worn on that magical first night in Paris.

I studied myself in the full-length mirror in the bathroom. Okay, I didn’t look terrible. But I did look like a bald woman who was hiding her baldness under a scarf. I fisted my hands at my sides, stared at my reflection. “You’ve got this,” I said. It felt ridiculous but it also gave me some courage. I slipped on my shoes and before I could have any second thoughts, I went down the stairs and plunged myself into public sight as quickly as I could. The sooner I was seen, the sooner that whole awkwardness would be over with.

There were a few people inside downstairs, ambling through the rooms, but no one whom I recognized so I slipped out the back door toward the beach side of the house, where Adam had been standing with the redhead—still—the last time I’d checked.

My first obstacle proved to be a difficult one. A cluster of the dreaded interns from Draco—okay, there were only two, the two who had rich enough daddies to buy them the pricy tickets to the charity function. They drove BMWs to work and wore designer clothes and were only there to finish their internships for their résumés. Cari and April were two of my biggest nemeses in the marketing department, where I’d worked for months before quitting that awful day of the pregnancy test in Adam’s office.

While I’d worked with them, they’d had no idea that I was in a relationship with “the boss.” They had proceeded to openly gossip and drool over Adam during every spare minute of their time. They even had a scale where they rated how good he looked on any given day based on what he was wearing. It was usually a nine or ten or even a ten plus.

Ugh. I hated them.

And right now, they were on the porch staring at Adam where he still chatted with the redhead, their heads pushed together. I halted, putting a big potted tree between them and me, trying to sum up my courage to walk past them.

Standing this close, I couldn’t help but overhear what they were saying. Surprise, surprise. They were gossiping about Adam. “Oh, God,” Cari said. “If he looks over here again with those sultry dark eyes, I think I’m going to spontaneously orgasm.”

“He’s so hot,” April concurred. “That chick he’s talking to is a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model.”

“Well, considering that his girlfriend now resembles the walking dead, I don’t blame him. But—shit—I need to find a way to get under that man. Now that I’ve seen his house, I think I’ll die if I don’t get into his boxers.”

“He’s very lickable but also pretty loyal. They are still together.”

“Loyal,” Cari snorted. “For now. A dog is loyal. A young, hot man like that? He’ll want a woman who can suck the paint off a—”

“Maybe that’s why he keeps her around—like maybe she’s just really good in bed.”

Okay, I’d been mortified before but now I was just downright pissed off. With a deep breath and my hands fisting at my sides, I moved out from behind the tree.

“Hey Cari, hey April.”

The spun, both sets of eyes widening and mouths dropping at the same time. Cari nervously twitched her huge mane of blond hair over her shoulders and glanced at April. “Hey, Mia! You’re here. We were wondering where you were.”

April had the decency to just stand there and look completely mortified.

“Uh huh,” I said, then pretended to inspect my nails, which looked half decent, considering they hadn’t grown in forever, but I’d had an expensive manicure recently.

I turned and glanced in Adam’s direction. “Ten plus today, I think. Of course, I think that every day.” Then I threw them a wide shit-eating grin. “Maybe it’s ’cause I have the advantage of getting to see him naked.”

They exchanged uncomfortable glances and Cari was about to say something when I interrupted her again.

“Oh, and with regards to what you were just discussing…I do more than blow a guy’s dick, girls. I blow his mind.” I gave them the once-over. “Excuse me. The walking dead like to feast on the brains of the living and there doesn’t seem to be much of a supply of those here, so… ta-ta.” I threw them a smirk and a mock salute and April’s face went scarlet.