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me to think that. You implied I would get a job if I pretended to be your girlfriend.”
    “Which you couldn’t even pull off,” he muttered.
    She turned to face him. “Oh, I pulled it off, all right. Your family thinks we’re great together. I think Patricia’s exact words were, ‘Such a happy couple.’”
    He scowled at her. “Don’t bring my family into this.”
    She paused, staring at him. “You’re a Taurus, aren’t you?”
    “What?”
    A smirk crossed her face. “When’s your birthday?”
    He rolled his eyes. “Oh. You’re one of those people.” He shot her a sideways glance. “That explains a lot.”
    “Funny. Let me guess. You were born in May. Maybe around the 5th?”
    She was eerily close, but he didn’t want to admit it. “I don’t believe in that baloney.”
    “Then just tell me.”
    “No.”
    “It’s May 5th, isn’t it?”
    He sighed. “May 7th.”
    “Ha! I knew it.” The smug expression on her face made him grimace.
    “Lucky guess.”
    Her blue eyes bored through him. “You’re stubborn, a classic Taurus trait. You’re a CEO of a successful company, which shows your determination to go after what you want and not stop until you get it. Your life is boring, but you don’t care because you like consistency and stability. You like the finer things in life, and you’re not afraid to go after what you want. All these things point to Taurus.”
    He snorted. “That could describe almost anyone who strives to achieve. Plenty of successful businesspeople weren’t born in May. Astrology is a bunch of hokum.”
    Madison raised her chin defiantly. “You surround yourself with material things to fill the void in your life. You resent your father for his string of wives. You’re jealous of your half-brother because he got to grow up with his mother, the one thing you wish you had but didn’t as a child. Your father felt guilt over this and compensated by throwing money at you. Your aunt is the only mother figure you’ve had, so you cling to her approval.”
    Her words stung, hitting too close to home for him to admit. “You get all that from looking at the stars?”
    “No,” she said, her tone soft. “I got that from watching you. It’s written all over your face. You never got over your parents’ divorce.”
    She’d jumped to a wrong conclusion, and he grabbed onto it with both hands. “My mother died when I was a child.”
    The words hung between them, and her face flushed. “Oh.” Her gaze fell to her lap. “I’m sorry.”
    The silence stretched, until Jared couldn’t stand it anymore. “Don’t be,” he said quietly, feeling bad he’d used that against her. “It was a long time ago.”
    She fiddled with her hands. “I shouldn’t have said those things. Sometimes my mouth gets going and my brain hasn’t had time to put up a filter.”
    “Yeah, I noticed.”
    “Well, I’m filtering now, let me tell you, because this is not at all what I’d like to say.” Her cheeks were pink and she looked like she could bite the head off a boar.
    He laughed. He couldn’t help it. “You’re something else.”
    “Um, thanks?”
    They fell into a silence, which was all right with him. He flipped on the radio to his favorite station, and Mozart filled the car. The rest of the drive home passed quickly.
    As they neared her apartment, Madison wiped her cheek, the movement catching Jared’s attention. Tears streamed down her face.
    Instant guilt flooded him. Was she crying because of him? Sure, he’d been a bit rude to her earlier, but she had no reason to cry over it. “What’s the matter?”
    “It’s just…I…I don’t know how I’m going to pay my half of the rent. It’s due this week and without a job…” Her voice trailed off and she sniffed.
    Oh, sure. This was about the money. He pushed down his annoyance. “Look. I’m not paying you after what you pulled. All you had to do was to pretend to be my girlfriend and I would have given you a thousand dollars.