Free The Billionaire Boss by J.A. Pierre Page B

say.
    “Where’s your next meeting?”
    “On Wisconsin Avenue.”
    “Okay. That’s just a fifteen minute drive west. D.C. traffic isn’t too bad before 4 p.m. I’ll send another journalist to the meeting if I don’t hear from you in an hour. Getting Nolan to open up for this interview will be a gold mine for the magazine. I sent you because I know you can do it. Was I wrong?”
    “Of course not.”
    “Well then, later.” Matthew hung up the phone.
    Savani put down her phone. The waiter came over and refilled her glass of water. Savani took a sip and smiled in disbelief. Some people had all the luck. She shook her head.
    Nolan Reynolds was a popular NBA player. He also stood out because he was a white boy from the Midwest with a distinct accent. Savani would say he was built to be an athlete. Tall with broad shoulders and a physique that would make any woman double-take.
    Savani appreciated a man with a nice body. Her ex had played in the NFL. She sensed Nolan looked amazing undressed. But Savani was no groupie. She’d met her ex in college and their relationship had left a bad taste in her mouth. She was done with athletes. Though she couldn’t say for sure that her ex had been unfaithful, she didn’t understand why he was reluctant to marry her. Athletes had too many women to choose from , she thought.
    She was glad she had an education and ambition. Otherwise she’d probably be stuck as an ‘athlete’s girlfriend’ right now. Sure, her bills would be paid. But her bed would probably be cold. Her ex often went MIA and claimed he’d been out practicing late, working out at the gym, or partying. Dealing with the bullshit had become too much.
    Savani’s belly grumbled. She scowled. She was hungry and irritated. If Nolan thought he could show up late and charm her into saying “it’s okay” when he apologized for being late, he was wrong.
    ***
    Nolan Reynolds parked his silver Lexus into a parking space at The Palm, a popular Washington D.C steakhouse . He turned off the ignition and braced his head against the headrest. He wasn’t interested at all in the interview he was about to do. But his publicist, Reese, had convinced him that he had to it.
    “You’ve already got a great image. This interview will only cement it in people’s minds,” she’d explained.
    Nolan was a star athlete. He’d become a businessman after watching accountants and other dubious persons take advantage of teammates. But Nolan tried to avoid the limelight as much as possible. Being voted MVP a second year in a row only spurred on the paparazzi when he left D.C. He was glad, in a way, he didn’t live in another state, like California, where photographers easily snapped photos, where there was a fever pitch interest in celebrities .
    Nolan knew his friends on other teams were regular people like everybody else. Still, they were stalked online, in magazines, and on TV. People just couldn’t get enough of celebrities’ personal lives.   
    He got out of his car and headed to the entrance of the restaurant.
    Nolan had a plan. Though he would have to answer some of this interviewer’s questions, he would stay away from certain topics.
    1. His personal life. Though he didn’t have much of one, he wasn’t into talking about whether or not he had a girlfriend.
    From his observation, if he admitted that he was single, it’d only spur on the women looking for a baller or a millionaire. And if he said he was in a relationship…well, many women did not care. It was groupies for the taking in his world.
    2. He would not divulge too much about his personal history. He’d revealed once that his single mother had raised him and his two siblings on welfare for a time. That had led to a nosy reporter knocking on his mother’s door.
    Nolan didn’t need to feed the fire. If he revealed anything to the public about himself, they only craved more. And having a private life was paramount to Nolan.
    3. He wouldn’t talk about any other