Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,2
his car and directed the driver to his hotel. He needed a massage, a hot tub, and a beer, and then maybe this growing tension would ease.
He doubted it, but was always hopeful.
It was just he never knew how to handle ugly breakups. And his were always ugly. One day she was happy, the next day she was crying. He always seemed to miss the middle. The part where she realized he wasn’t what she thought he was. The part where she decided that even if he wasn’t quite as perfect as she’d thought, marriage would fix it. How would that fix anything?
It wouldn’t. But she didn’t really want to marry Ethan. She wanted to marry Ethan Howell O’Connor.
Ethan rolled his head, trying to loosen the knot in his neck.
Alyse had cried. Cried so hard he’d thought her heart must be breaking, and he hated that. Hated tears, hated her disappointment. He kept thinking she didn’t really love him, she didn’t really know him. She’d only loved the idea of him.
He could tell himself that all day long, but he still hated himself.
He was a piranha, preying on young women. He built up their dreams and then dashed them to pieces without ever realizing he was doing it.
Ethan leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Tomorrow he’d find a way to fix the mess with Alyse. He just hoped he could do it without marrying her.
He was awoken early the next morning by alternating knocks and bangs on his hotel door. The massage had eased the stress in his neck and back, but the empty beer bottles had left his head fuzzy. He stumbled to the door, cursing whoever it was. And blinked a few times when he looked through the peephole.
“Mother? Grandma?”
He opened the door cautiously. His mother took one look at him and moved forward to hug him.
“Oh, Ethan. Why didn’t you tell us? I thought you and Alyse were getting along fine.”
He groaned.
His grandmother handed him a tabloid and said, “This is a fine pickle you’ve landed in this time. I warned you about that girl; always had to have her own way.”
His mother patted him on the back, frowning at the beer bottles. “It does seem you were right, Ellen. I’m sorry I was so friendly towards her.”
His grandmother snorted. “You’re nice to all the women your son brings home. You need to stop thinking about grandbabies and start thinking about the divorce rate in this country. He needs a woman who can handle him. He needs to stop dating these socialites and models. Worthless.”
This was an argument he’d heard many times over and he ignored it to read the paper.
Prince Charming Really A Frog?
Ethan Howell O’Connor, the man voted most charming eligible bachelor four years in a row, is reportedly not all that charming behind closed doors. His girlfriend of nine months, model Alyse Ryan, told this reporter that he “is a workaholic and has commitment issues. We’ve been dating nine months now and let me tell you he isn’t so pretty in the morning. It was time to take our relationship to the next level and he broke up with me instead. You can ask any of his old girlfriends and they’ll tell you the same thing– as soon as a girl starts thinking he might be the one, he starts sabotaging the relationship. Late nights working, flimsy excuses about not moving in together, sit down talks where he tells you he’s nowhere near ready to get married. Well, when is he going to be ready? I guess my mama was right, why buy the cow when you’re getting the milk for free?” Or why commit to one model when there’s another right around the corner?
It wasn’t the first time he’d been in the gossip column, and it wasn’t the worst article they’d ever written about him. It was the first time someone close to him had been quoted. The first time any of his ex-girlfriends had felt the need to go public.
But he had to admit, Alyce didn’t sound all that heart-broken anymore. Angry, but not heart-broken.
He looked up at his anxious mother and disgruntled grandmother and smiled. “It could be worse.”
The next day it was. Another quote from a former girlfriend, this time attacking his bedroom technique. It was a little harder to shrug that one off, but he consoled himself with the thought that she hadn’t complained while they were together.
It didn’t help all that much.
His grandmother simply shrugged. “I