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 manage to look confident in my decision until I’m outside, with my back to the coffee shop. I don’t look back because I know if I turn around, Mont will see how rattled I am. He’ll see how much my heart hurts.
Doing the right thing isn’t easy for a reason, but I’m strong. I’ll get through this.
I literally have no other choice.
Chapter six
Mont
I’ve bungled this right up.
I didn’t think Evilla would quit, which probably makes me sound like a terrible asshole.
I wanted the fake girlfriend thing to be an agreement, not blackmail, but it came out sounding and looking an awful lot like it. I wanted to find a solution that works for both of us, but that was after I tore her world down and replaced it with my arsehole-y presence. Plus, I called her company bougie. She was correct. I had no right. I had no right to buy the place, and I had no right to ask her what I asked her. I had no right to ask that she help me out. Half of what I did was because I was desperate, but the other half?
It’s a number I can’t define, but it’s wholly because I can’t get this woman out of my head.
I don’t want to be intrigued by her. I don’t want to be awed by her feisty spirit. I don’t want to find myself unexpectedly attracted to her. I don’t want to want her, but my body does.
Hence, it’s the reason why I’m shoving back from the table and quite literally sprinting out of the coffee shop while trying to hide the fact that I have a very visible problem in my pants at the moment.
Half visible, I hope.
She’s making time in her heels. They’re more of the functional, basic kind, suitable for walking around on them for long hours, not the sky-high, fashionable, liable-to-break-your-ankle variety. Her outfit screams business casual, from her black pencil skirt to her cream colored knit sweater. And god, that hair. Her natural hair. It looked lovely under the coffee shop lights, but outside, it now looks like copper-gold lightning crashing down from the sky.
Shit, no, that’s real lightning.
There is no sun out here. The sky is beyond steel or slate and straight into furious gray-black.
“Evilla, wait!” I’m chasing after her for a different reason now.
She’s powerwalking down the sidewalk, and she doesn’t seem to be taking any note of the gathering storm. I notice immediately because there are jagged lightning forks up in the cloudy, dark-as-midnight sky.
A loud clap of thunder roars through the sky, bouncing off the buildings around us, and Evilla practically jumps two feet in those sturdy heels. She yelps and stops dead. I reach her right as the sky opens up. I’ve heard that saying before when it comes to rain, but I don’t think I’ve ever been in a downpour like this one. Roaring? That was the thunder half a second ago, but now, this rain is roaring like an industrial monolith. It doesn’t happen gently. It comes all at once, like unabated grief.
“I don’t want you to quit your job. That’s not why I came to get coffee with you.”
Her eyes flash with lightning of their own. This woman is all sass and also do me a favor and kiss my whole freaking ass, douchebag. And honestly, I would. I would kiss her ass if she wanted me to.
Fuck. I don’t need to sport a full-on hard-on right here in the middle of one hell of a storm.
“You didn’t come to coffee with me. You bought the place where I work because you wanted to make good on your threats. But I’m not here to play that game. You’re sick and twisted and…I still maintain that you are quite nutless when it comes to your parents. You’re how old? Grow up. Do it fast because you’re the one manning this pudding ship now, and there are many people here, good people, who depend on you.”
She tries to shove past me, but I put a hand gently on her arm. “Please.” If she quits, I might never see her again. Anything I do to try and produce another meeting will likely only result in a restraining order. “You’re right. There are good people here, and they deserve to have this company be every bit as successful as it ever was and more. That’s my goal.”
Her frown could split me in half if it were an axe. You know, good old axing frowns. Off with my head right here in the street. “You wanted me to quit. You mucked this up. You’re a royal mucker. I might add you’re also something else that rhymes with that word, but I promised myself I’d take the higher road here. You already think I’m some uncouth individual, but I’m not. I’m not, and this is proof. I’m going to do this in a dignified manner. I wish you luck with your new acquisition. I hope, for the sake of all the people who make this their living and their passion, that everything works out. I wish them success, if not you. Specifically, not you, but I think the company and you are tied together now, and there’s nothing I can do about that. You don’t deserve this place. That’s all I’m going to say. Pudding was a dream for so many people. It was more than just a living for me. That’s something you’re never going to understand. So, good day, bad sir. Have the life you deserve.”