My mouth dropped open. It couldn’t possibly be true! But there it was in black and white—a picture of the very hunky Harve Adamson. Underneath his photo was the caption ‘Eldon’s regional manager opens new store – expects big business’ in bold font.

“Harve Adamson! What the fuck?” I snatched the paper from Susie and stared at it. “I can’t believe it.”

She looked at me curiously. Then, a flash of realization hit her.

“That’s who you’ve been dating, isn’t it—isn’t it? You’ve been dating this Harve Adamson person—the hottie from the coffee shop!”

“No…yes…I…arrgh!” I thought I was going to lose it right then and there. Here I’d been dating this man, and all along he’d probably been using me for information about my business. And I knew why. He was all about winning. He wanted his store to beat me…to do better than mine…he wanted to drive my store completely out of business.

“Wow, you’ve been dating him?” Susie asked. Her eyes widened with surprise. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well…I…I…”

Susie pursed her lips. “So that’s why we stopped going Renee’s Café.”

I nodded. “I just didn’t want to run into him there with you. I wasn’t ready to tell you. I know you Susie. I love you. But I know you’d be planning my wedding already!”

“Ok, ok, I get it. But what the hell did he tell you he did for a living?”

“Well he told me…he told me…that he was…” and then it hit me. He’d never actually said what he did. We’d never talked about it.

“What did he tell you?” Heather asked, frowning.

“He—he never said.”

“I guess we know why,” Heather responded bluntly.

“He’s a jerk!” Susie cried out.

“Yes,” I swallowed as I fought back tears. I thought I’d found a loving, kind man that was right for me and for my children. Instead, I’d found a user loser. “He just wanted to pump me for information so he could knock out his competition—my jewelry store, Courtland’s Gems.”

“This sucks,” Susie shook her head.

“Well, I didn’t tell him a whole lot.” The truth was that after I’d unloaded that first night and spilled my guts to him, I had gone out of my way not to talk business. I wanted to escape from work and just enjoy his company. When he’d ask me something or bring it up, I would always switch the subject.

“Let’s go for a walk, Sam. Fresh air will help you to clear your head. You need to get away from here, and away from that,” she pointed her finger in the direction of Eldon’s. “Heather, can you watch the store?”

Heather nodded. “Of course.”

I put my hand to my forehead. I could feel a pounding headache coming on. “I’m going to go rest in my office for a few minutes.” As I walked to the back, I felt sick to my stomach. I should never have allowed him into my life. I should have known better.

I glanced around my office. A stack of bills was piled on one corner of my desk and a list of phone calls I needed to return was sitting by the computer. I just couldn’t be here right now. Susie was right. I needed to get away from here—far, far away. I grabbed my jacket and walked back towards the main floor of the store. Heather and Susie were deep in conversation and didn’t hear me as I approached.

“It’s sick that he tricked her into thinking he liked her just to get information,” Susie said.

“Honestly,” Heather shook her head, “she should have known. I mean, since when is a hot guy like him interested in someone like her?”

“What do you mean, exactly?” I asked, interrupting them.

The two abruptly broke from their huddle. As their faces turned towards me, I could see Heather’s face flushing.

“Shit! I’m sorry…I meant…” her voice trailed off.

“Yeah, what exactly did you mean?” Susie raised her brows.

Heather groaned.

“Explain!” I demanded.

“Well, it’s just that…honestly…it’s just that…the umm…the two of you are cute…but you…you both are bigger and, like…most hot guys are more into, umm, model types.”

“You mean slim girls, like you? Right, Heather?” Susie pressed.

“Let it go, Susie,” I said. I knew Heather was right. I was on the bigger, curvier side. Though I enjoyed my curves, I realized a lot of men were into the air brushed, super skinny, big breasted women that stared out at them from the pages of men’s magazines.

“I’m sorry, I was just being honest,” Heather bit her lip.

“Sorry, but that’s just not the way it is,” Susie said firmly. “More and more guys are recognizing that girls with curves are hot and juicy. They don’t all want skinny girls with no meat on their bones,” she gave Heather a stern look.

“Now, just wait a minute,” Heather protested, wagging her finger in the air. “There is nothing wrong with being skinny! Men like a woman who…”

Susie interrupted her, “…men like a woman who—what?”

“Whoa—the two of you—just stop it right now!” I put my hand up. “There will be no body shaming here. Curvy, skinny, tall, small…everyone is different and is beautiful in their way. But you know what is not beautiful?” I could hear my voice rising as anger took over. “What is not beautiful is lying to get ahead. And that, my friends, is why I am going to go give Mr. Harve Adamson a piece of my mind! Right now!”

Heather let out a gasp, but Susie was right with me.

“Go for it! The man is a turd!”

“I will!” I gave them both a hard stare as I briskly walked to the front door. “Take care of the store,” I said, opening the door. I let the door slam shut behind me as I strode the short distance to Eldon’s.

There were a lot of cars parked along the street in front of Eldon’s. Customers were spilling out the door, most likely to grab one of the ‘free’ with charm purchase silver bracelets. It made me so angry. Didn’t I tell Harve on our first date that I would have to give jewelry away to stay in business? Now he was using the idea at Eldon’s by giving away free bracelets. As I approached Eldon’s, my anger grew even stronger. How dare he use me to further his company’s business!