Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“I thought you said you didn’t want me to do that?”
Her eyes narrow. “If it means everyone else gets a big boost, then I can handle that you’re going to the top with them. I care about the people here. They’re real people with real problems, real hearts, real families, and real lives that have stresses and financial obligations. If you do that, then I’ll continue to pretend I’m your fake girlfriend. For like…two months. However silly I think it might be, this place is more important. The people here matter more. I knew I loved my job, but I didn’t even realize how much until I thought about losing it. We’re a family here. You’re not allowed to walk in and break it up just because you have issues in your own family.”
I can’t keep my face from doing funny things. I don’t even know how to feel about this right now. “You thought all this up on the spot?”
“Your mother is very sweet and absolutely terrifying, so I panicked. But while I was panicking, and she was taking my hand and looking for all the world as though I’d just made her entire life by existing, I made a decision. It’s all or nothing. You give the company back to us and make it the world’s best place to work, or I walk. It’s entirely up to you.”
“So you don’t think I’m entirely ball-less.”
She huffs. “Whatever. Your mom is nice. Lots of moms are nice. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have the courage to tell her the truth.”
“But you didn’t either.”
She stiffens. “I’m a pushover, okay? We can both agree on that. I’m not trying to say I’m not. I didn’t want to destroy a lovely woman’s heart. But she’s not my mother. I’m real with my family. If they don’t like some of my decisions, I own it. You need to own it, too.”
“You’re right.”
She gapes at me. “Excuse me?”
“I will. I’ll own it. After this. After we break up from our…uh…fake relationship, I’ll put my foot down and say no more,” I say.
“That’s not owning it. That’s just part of the scheme.”
“We’re both knee-deep in the scheme now. There’s really no way to backtrack.”
“You could tell her the truth about all of it. If you went to these crazy lengths just to make her happy over telling her the truth, I think she would understand that she needs to back off.”
“Or she would be so heartbroken that she would never talk to me again.”
“Or that.”
“It can’t be that,” I tell her.
“Then I guess you’re left with only one option,” she replies.
“It would take time, a restructuring of that size.”
Those sharp green eyes of hers get even sharper and narrow into tinier slits. “Then let it take time. No one here is going anywhere.”
“Does that include you?”
“If it’s Option A, then it includes me staying.”
She’s right. I’ve boxed myself into a corner. I’ve been ridiculous and taken the coward’s way, the liar’s way, the ball-less way. It all looks so silly from the outside, but living it is another thing entirely. I can see why she has so much scorn for me. I have scorn for myself, too. But we’re here now. I’ve made the choices I’ve made, and I can’t undo them. I can’t break my mother’s heart by telling her this was all a scam. She won’t understand. She just won’t. To her, there is nothing better in life than love, and she wants it so badly for me. She just…she won’t understand. She won’t forgive me fully.
There will always be a part of her that remains broken, and I’ll have done that because I couldn’t act sooner. The only option I see now is riding out this mess until I can clean it up and then grow a set of balls and tell my mom no more. She won’t have to know, and I’ll just move on and live my own life. The dates will stop, and the endless push for me to find someone will stop. I’ll have my freedom, and my mom’s heart won’t be shattered. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best I’m going to be able to do at this point.
There’s a very real chance I need to evaluate my life up to this point. While I’m rather successful in business, I’ve been anything but in other areas.
Evilla knows what choice I’m going to make before I even tell her. She nods at me like she doesn’t approve, but she understands. One thing is clear. She might not like me, but she clearly loves this place and the people here, so much so that she’s willing to do this with me even though she detests everything about it. Even though I’ve gone about this the wrong way and probably appear completely unhinged at best or a mega asshole at worst. Wait, maybe it’s the other way around. Well, whatever. I don’t look good, and I’m never going to look like a good person to her.