I Dumped A Billionaire: Clickbait, #1

By Cassandra Johnson

Esther Mercier or better known as Estee Diamonds on her YouTube channel, is a young beauty vlogger and a workaholic with very little time to focus on forming new relationships. 

However, when her roommate, and best friend Nigella convinces her to come along to a Halloween party that is being hosted by their manager, Estee meets the dashing, forty-something self made billionaire, Maurice Humbolt.

From the instant that Maurice and Estee meet, fate has aligned to bring them into each others lives, but Estee isn't sold on the idea that Maurice is her Armani Prince Charming. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cassandra Johnson
• Release date: Oct 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393310334

Cassandra Johnson

Growing up in the deep south I was taught some precious life lessons; you should always answer with Ma'am or Sir, tea that isn't sweet and iced is blasphemy, and that you catch a lot more flies with sugar than you do with vinegar. I was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas but I was raised in the small town of Marion, Arkansas a short fifteen-minute drive from Memphis, the birthplace of rock and roll. While it may not seem like an accomplishment to some, I am proud to say that I was a published author before the age of thirty and I have many more books left in my head to share with the world. My first novel, LRR Hood is a twist on the classic Little Red Riding Hood fable, and I currently have two more books lined up for a trilogy series of the main character, Elle Marshal's dramatic encounter with werewolves, one of my favorite mythical creatures. My writing continued to evolve from the time I was a teenager, getting involved in text-based roleplay games where my friends and I would create storyboards where we each contributed to the story through the eyes of the character's we chose to write for. I also love fan-fiction and was an avid reader and still am to this day. I decided to throw my hat in the ring and write some of my own fanfictions until eventually, I wanted to work with characters that were my own. From those days I continued to write short stories that never reached the public until I was introduced to Kindle Direct Publishing because while I wanted to be a writer and I wanted to publish my work, I never truly believed that anyone would publish my writing and I now have a work in progress list as long as my arm, and it continues to grow every day, LRR Hood won't be the last you hear from me.

Book preview

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2019 by Cassandra Johnson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.

First edition October 2019

Book design by Cassandra Johnson

A picture containing indoor, person, sitting Description automatically generated

Also by Cassandra Johnson

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The Little Red Riding Hood Novels

LRR Hood Book One

Through the Woods Book Two

The Witch the Wolves and the Huntsmen Book Three

Bunny and the Bear

The Unexpected Boyfriend

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Clickbait Series

#1 I Dumped A Billionaire

Table of Contents

Recording

Invitations

The Party

It’s Just A Date

Fantasy Vs Reality

Realizations

Something New

Curveball

Surprises

Merch

Creative License

Taste

Burn Out

A Private Plane

The City by the Bay

Different Worlds

Vlog N. 127

About the Author

Recording

Good morning, and welcome back to my channel. Her voice was hoarse, and it was evident to every viewer that would be watching that Estee had gone to sleep with her makeup on, because she had racoon eyes and smudged lipstick. She hadn’t even taken the time after waking up to wash her face or brush her teeth. Instead, she stumbled into the kitchen of the apartment she shared and got herself some iced coffee from the fridge, gone back to her bedroom, turned her camera on and flopped down in front of it. I’ve got a little story time video for you guys today, Estee began, shaking up the bottle of Starbucks in her hand and unscrewing the cap before she took several long swallows, burped softly, and then sat it down between her legs, shrieking softly as the cold glass bottle touched her toned, bare thighs. Sorry headphone users, I’m still a little too hungover to think. The twenty-one-year old said into the camera as she moved the bottle and leaned over the side of the bed rummaging in her bedside table. I need about four aspirin and maybe hair of the dog to get through this, but. Estee paused and sat back up, popping the headache reliever into her mouth and swallowing it down with the rest of her drink, she looked at the empty bottle and frowned. I’ll probably edit all this out, but if I don’t, I’m sorry. Just bear with me. Pushing her two-tone waist-length dreadlocks from her face and shoulders, she got out of bed once more, leaving her camera running as she went back to the kitchen and made a proper pot of coffee at four in the afternoon.

Returning to her bedroom, Estee cuddled up in her blankets and took a sip from her Homer Simpson coffee mug and cleared her throat.

Ok. Estee started, sniffing and blinking to clear her sight and collect her thoughts. Maurice and I broke up yesterday. Blinking, from what little she could remember of the day before, Estee shook her head, feeling tears building up in her brown eyes. I can’t do this right now. Sitting up, she turned the camera off again and fell back into her pillows. Pulling the covers up to her face, Estee laid in her bed and cried until she fell asleep again.

Rolling over several hours later, Estee looked at her phone to see what time it was, she’d completely forgotten to plug it up to the charger and it was now running on twelve percent battery life. There were six missed calls from her mother and in total twenty-four text messages. It was now a little after three in the morning. Tapping out a quick response that she wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere, Estee leaned over the side of the bed and picked up the charger cord and plugged her phone up. She had slept all day and almost all night and she didn’t feel any better.

Esther Drozah Mercier or better known by her name on social media, Estee Diamonds, came from a rather diverse background which made her success on the video sharing platform Youtube so surprising; Estee was half Jewish, half African-American and the ratio of women of color to those that dominated the platform like Hannah Bibbles, Heartly and Heartly a twins channel and Johan Gambini –were all thin, blonde and white and that was just to name a few of the big names on the site.

Holding her head, she pushed the blankets off her legs and picked her up her phone again, going to the door-dash app. Estee needed food, desperately and she wouldn’t have counted on her roommate to have food waiting for her. Nigella had her own life to live and while she was Estee’s best friend and had been since they were little girls –Estee didn’t expect Nigella to take care of her. It was times like this, Estee wished that she didn’t live a plane ride away from her mom. Of course, there was something to be said about living in Los Angeles, where everything was open twenty-four hours a day, but then again, Estee had never lived anywhere that it wasn’t. Estee was born and raised in Queens, New York. Putting in her standard hangover order, the food would arrive in about twenty minutes.

Getting out of bed, she took the hair elastic from around her wrist and tied back the dreads that framed her face on her way to the bathroom, twinkling fairy lights lighting the way for her through her messy bedroom. Now, she didn’t even want to think about Maurice, but Estee knew she would, but for now, she focused on the necessaries.

Estee initially joined the platform when she was dating her ex-boyfriend Hannibal, he recorded walk-throughs of the latest video games whether they were PC based or they were playing on a console device. Hanni had made decent money doing it and while Estee had no intentions of ever boring her subscribers with watching how terrible she was at video games, Hanni helped walk her through all of the ins and outs of filming, editing, audio, uploading and most importantly, how to set up her account so that ads played on her videos which in a very short period of time, helped Estee make up the difference from losing her job at Ulta.

In a little over a year she’d amassed a small army of loyal viewers on her channel, reaching one million subscribers in what Estee felt like was a short period of time, especially for someone who didn’t look like the perfect Barbie dolls with thin waists and butt-crack length blonde hair who were already making hundreds of thousands if not millions a month off Youtube sponsored videos and while her content ran the gambit of beauty tutorials, story times, hobbies and daily vlogs. Everyone who kept up with Estee’s channel on YouTube knew who Maurice was by Estee talking about him.

Flipping the bathroom light on, she looked at herself in the mirror, Estee looked like she felt. A bag of smashed assholes.

Happy twenty-first birthday to me. Estee murmured to herself, it was officially December second now, and she was all alone in her apartment without anyone to wish her a Happy Birthday. Taking a makeup wipe from the package on her vanity she began her routine for taking off her makeup while her mind drifted back three months prior to the party where she’d met Maurice for the first time.

Invitations

But it isn’t even Halloween, Estee began when Nigella asked her about coming along with her to the gathering. It was October twenty-fifth, and while the big ‘spoopy’ day was creeping closer, Halloween it was not. Los Angeles was a party town and everyone in their social circle had already been to at least two parties already. Tonight, Nigella and Estee’s manager, Scott Penfield, who was hosting a viewing party of his favorite Stephen King novel’s turned movies, on the list were Cujo, The Shining, the Pet Cemetery, Silver Bullet and one of Estee’s personal favorites, Salem’s Lot. The original, not the Rob Lowe reboot.

So? Nigella perched in the doorway of Estee’s bedroom. It’s not like you aren’t going to be sitting here, at home, watching the same movies. Come on, it will be nice to get out of the house. You’ve been filming and editing non-stop since July. It’s time for a break Estee, you’re going to burn yourself out.

It has not been non-stop. Estee countered as she closed the lid of her laptop and looked at her best friend. The whole reason that Nigella was in Los Angeles was because of Estee, she didn’t want to move across the country alone and Estee was helping Nigella build her own channel on YouTube.

Folding her arms over her chest, Nigella came into the bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed. How many videos have you filmed, edited and scheduled for upload just today alone? Nigella was making a point here and Estee wasn’t happy about it.

Five. Estee admitted quietly as she looked down at her laptop, using the tip of her fingernail to slightly dig at a Stranger Things sticker that she had slapped on her Mac.

See? Nigella exclaimed. You need a break; you need to see something besides these four walls. Nigella told her, reaching out and taking Estee’s hand. Please, come with me to this party. There will be food and drinks and cute guys. You don’t even have to get dressed up, we’re all just going to hang out and eat junk food and watch some scary movies. Take the rest of the night off, Estee.

Pressing her lips together, Estee looked at her laptop. Estee was tired of staring at her computer screen. She’d filmed three videos this morning, and then two more this afternoon and she hadn’t even begun to go through all her vlog footage for her daily vlog to edit it. It was six pm, Estee hadn’t eaten since this morning and she had vlogged during that.

Ok, but I am bringing my camera with me to document the experience. Estee told Nigella as she stood up and stretched, feeling the muscles in her thighs scream after being cramped up for hours while she was editing.

Nigella rolled her eyes softly but nodded. I’ll take it. Smiling, Nigella stood up, pecking Estee’s cheek. I am going to finish getting ready and then we can leave.

Ok. Estee resisted the urge to return to her laptop the second Nigella left her room. Instead, Estee got ready to leave the apartment. Taking off the over-sized sleeping shirt, she had been in most of the day except for when she was filming two different makeup tutorials, she wiggled out of her panties and tossed everything into the dirty clothes basket beside her dresser.

Nigella said that she didn’t need to dress up and Estee didn’t think she had the energy left in her to fully think out a whole outfit.

Putting on what Nigella called her tuxedo leggings because of the sheer strip of material that run up her leg and a cropped Thrasher T-shirt, she didn’t even know what a Thrasher was. Estee was pretty sure that it a skater thing, but the brand was big and a lot of people wore it, that was the only reason she had it, plus it was also, as Nigella would have said, ‘Hella comfortable’, Estee looked a little more put together for a casual movie party.

As she went into her bathroom to put on a little concealer and mascara it occurred to her that, when Estee started uploading videos to the platform with her ex-boyfriend Hannibal, people didn’t realize how much work it really was unless they were in the business themselves.

Everyone thought that it was so easy or that she was slacking off. Common themes of family conversation were, ‘So, are you still making those little videos? What exactly is it that you do for money? You really get paid for this? You need to go back to school, this whole vlogging thing isn’t going to last forever.’ And of course, the one that Estee hated the most. ‘When are you going to get a real job?’ In truth, being a vlogger/internet personality