Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
I’m so excited for the future. No matter what we’ve been through, we’ll make it. You’re incredible, you’re amazing, and you’re like the world’s best, mysterious, magic gravy. You’re absolutely everything too.
EPILOGUE
Van
I have no idea exactly when Nanny became such a master of gravy, just like I had no idea when she became such an avid lover and collector of spandex, but now that I’ve been back home for a year, I’ve become used to seeing her brightly clad self bouncing around from here to there like a lithe young gazelle.
Kimmy and I might both be in the investment business, but I’m not her competition. She keeps herself confined to the States rather happily, making a killing and a name for herself, and I keep my interests in Europe. It wasn’t easy running a company from the other side of the world especially with all the staff I have there. I rather fearfully approached Remi six months ago, when I was drowning in more work than I could handle, and offered her a job. She accepted, rather less fearfully. Little did I know she’d already talked to Kimmy about the possibility of coming to work for me to help me out. Of course, Remi saw how I was struggling since I never tried to keep it a secret from her, and here she thought she was going to have to twist my arm to convince me to accept the help.
For all those people who don’t understand how you could live and work with your significant other…well, here’s the secret. It’s easy. But it does take an open mind and a heck of a lot of patience, and…oh, who am I kidding? For me, it hardly takes any of that. I love working with Remi. Somehow, we’re a good fit in that department too. Any hardship involved at all would be on her part, having to put up with me, but she assures me regularly, with laughter and huge smiles, that it’s not so much of a burden. When you work and live from home, things can be a heck of a lot spicier, that’s for sure. I can’t say how many times Remi has surprised me by walking in with something sexy on when I should be crunching numbers or when she takes off her regular work clothes, which are also sexy, especially when I should be answering emails. To all those who think the office should only ever be used for office things and that under no circumstances should one’s desk double as a bed, I’m sorry. I’m profoundly sorry. But also not sorry at all.
I never realized before how I wasn’t really living at all. I was trying to prove a point and make myself into someone I thought someone else needed me to be. I was never really me. I kept hoping I could be a son to my father, a husband to Tina, and a success at work, but I didn’t realize that none of those things mattered because if you love someone, you forgive them. If you love someone, you take them as they are. If you love someone, you don’t hold things against them that aren’t their fault. And if you love someone, you want them to be them and only ever them, but that also includes better versions of themselves, just not other, non-authentic versions.
I’m not saying I’m perfect. I’m definitely still learning, but this time around, I can enjoy the ride.
“You’ve been very naughty, my love.” Remi strolls into the expansive room that serves as our workspace.
I found a charming mid-century house that was, for the most part, still quite authentic. It’s nowhere near my mom’s old gated community, and it’s a lot closer to Nanny’s regular old subdivision. I like being regular despite all the money I have. Turns out my mom likes it too since she bought the house down the block after selling her old one, and now we all live close by. Kimmy is the furthest away because she wasn’t ready to give up her new build and take on a fixer-upper, but she’s still only a twenty-minute drive across the city.
“What have I done?” I ask in mock horror and a little bit of confusion.
Remi holds up a folder bursting with papers sticking out every which way. “You were supposed to take care of this last night, and here I find it still sitting on the to-do pile, not done. You know these budgets are very important.”
She’s grinning, and I can’t keep a straight face. “Yes. Yes, that’s right.”
“Hmm. I think naughty CEOs need to be punished by their secretaries when they misbehave. Wouldn’t you say so?”
Oh! Note to self: misbehave more often. I like this game. “Absolutely. You’re absolutely correct.”
Remi tilts her chin up and sets the file down on my desk. Then, her eyes flash with warmth and amusement. “You don’t think I’m just maybe being a little bit impertinent right now? That you might have to, I don’t know, take off that belt and spank my bottom with it while I bend over your desk?”