Chapter 41
EDEN
The bitein my tone is clear as day, but I’m careful to keep my voice low, despite wanting to scream. As angry as I am, I have enough decency not to cause a scene at my parents’ anniversary party in front of all their friends and colleagues.
“I’m sick of hearing how I’ll never, ever measure up in your eyes.”
They react with dual stunned stares.
“Honey, hang on a sec?—”
“Let me make this very clear: I love you both, but I’m done letting you make me feel like trash. Yeah, I have tattoos. Yeah, I have a nose ring. Yeah, I don’t care one bit about the corporate world or making a crap ton of money.”
Suddenly I feel dizzy. I can’t decide if that’s a side effect of the adrenaline coursing through me currently or all of the anger and frustration pent-up inside of me.
“You’re so obsessed with appearance and college degrees and important-sounding jobs. How many times do I have to tell you that those things don’t matter to me? They never will. I just want to be happy. Does that matter to you?”
Both of them wear disapproving frowns as the gaze at me.
“Eden. Keep your voice down,” Dad says.
“Seriously, Eden. My goodness. We’re in public.” Mom aims a worried gaze around the room. I almost laugh. She doesn’t even care that her own daughter is upset, only that I’m causing a scene.
A tense moment of silence between us passes before Dad speaks. “Honey, we understand that your passions are different from ours. But that doesn’t change our agreement.”
“Fine if you want to stay in a humble sector for your career,” Mom says. “But you need to finish your degree, remember? That was our agreement in exchange for helping you out financially.”
My jaw drops. Here I am baring my soul to them, and all they can focus on is that I stay enrolled in college.
I let out a crazed-sounding laugh. I pull my hand through my hair. The longer I stare at my parents, the clearer it becomes: I no longer give a fuck about what they think of me.
“You know what? I don’t need your money. Not anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I make plenty of money on my own. I lied to you. I don’t work for a nonprofit. I made that up because I know that you’d hate if you knew what I really did for a living. I created my own app—a dating app called Dream Guy where women can hire men to go on fake dates and real dates with them. It’s a huge success.”
“You what?” Mom practically shrieks.
Dad’s expression twists, like he’s swallowed poisoned. “Eden, are you serious? That sounds so undignified.”
Their mouths are hanging open and their expressions are pure shock. I may as well have told them I traffic black tar heroin for a living.
I roll my eyes in full view of both of them. I was wrong. This is the most disappointed they’ve ever been in me. Their daughter runs a salacious dating app, and they couldn’t be more humiliated.
There’s an ache in my chest. It feels like it’s cracking in half. The laugh I let out this time is pure defeat. And despair.
“I knew it,” I mutter, tears stinging my eyes. “I’ll always be a huge disappointment to you, won’t I?”
The way I say it is more like a realization than a question. I start to walk off when I hear Danny’s voice behind me.
“You’re not a disappointment, Eden. Far from it.”
I spin around to see Danny standing in front of my parents.
“With all due respect, Mr. and Mrs. Shaw, the way you treat your daughter is appalling. Eden is a genius. She single-handedly designed one of the most successful dating apps in use right now. People love her and her app so much that she’s been featured in Buzzfeed. She has tens of thousands of social media followers who think she hangs the moon because of what she’s created. She’s helping to revolutionize modern dating. She’s a visionary. It’s sad you refuse to see that.”
I take in how Danny speaks with conviction as he defends me, how his gaze has turned hard, determined, and fiery.
“I lied to you both too,” he says after a second. “I’m not just an art professor. I’m a Dream Guy for Eden’s app. I’m one of the fake dates women can hire, and it’s the best job I’ve ever had. And if you think poorly of Eden’s profession, then you should think the exact same thing of me. But you’re wrong. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with what Eden or I do for a living.”
Mom shakes her head like she can’t believe this is happening; Dad is pursing his lips like he’s never been more disappointed in his whole life.
Danny’s gaze bounces between the two of them. “Parents would kill for a daughter as brilliant and hardworking as Eden. You two should be ashamed of yourselves.”
I touch his arm. “Don’t bother, Danny. I’m done with them.”
I walk out of the ballroom, Danny following behind me, and turn the corner until we’re at the far end of a darkened hallway.
When I fall against the wall, my heart is racing and I’m lightheaded. But the weird thing is I don’t feel pissed or angry or hurt or frustrated anymore. I feel bold. Enlivened. I feel like I could fucking fly.
“Are you okay?” Danny cups his hands around my face and aims a concerned stare at me. I nod.
“That’s a little hard to believe,” he says with a sad smile.
A sad smile of my own tugs at my mouth. “I know but, it’s the truth. What happened back there, what I said to them, it felt so…freeing.”
Danny’s expression turns thoughtful.
“Yeah, I’m still upset that my parents refuse to support who I really am. All I ever wanted was for them to accept me—to approve of me. But it felt good to finally be honest with them about my work. And to know that I don’t need to rely on them for anything. I can take care of myself. I don’t need their money or their judgment anymore.”
“I’m so sorry, Eden.” He pulls me close to him. I close my eyes, savoring the feel of his body. His arms wrapped around me feel like a safe haven. I’ve never felt so protected, so defended, so comfortable.
“I’m not sorry. Thank you for what you said, for defending me. No one has ever done that.”
“That’s fucked up, Eden. You’re incredible. The fact that your own parents don’t see it blows my mind.”
“But you see it. That’s all I care about.”
This time when Danny smiles, there’s not a trace of sadness. Just pure adoration. And something else. Something I can’t quite put into words.
But before I can think too hard about it, his lips are on mine. I reach up, tugging my hands through his hair moaning into his mouth.
“What the fuck?”
We break apart and turn toward the voice we just heard. And then I gasp. Because standing there is Cruz, staring at Danny and me, looking shocked and pissed.