Chapter 22 Bryce
When Dr. Martins arrived, I stepped out of my office to give Jada some privacy. Maya leaned against her standing desk and looked me over with her eyes that always saw too much. “Have you asked her yet?”
I glanced over my shoulder even though I couldn’t see her through the frosted glass. “No, I haven’t asked her,” I said quietly. A devastating feeling tore through my chest. “There’s no right way to ask a perfect stranger to marry you, not without making her feel like you were using her all along.”
Maya tilted her head to the side, letting a curtain of straight caramel hair fall over her shoulder. “I mean... You could...” She furrowed her eyebrows. “Oh, I know–” She frowned. “Nope, no good way.”
I gave her a dark look. “Don’t play with me, Maya.”
She gave me a sad smile. “You’re a good guy, Bryce. I’m sure you’ll find the right words when the time comes.”
Her faith in me seemed misplaced, but I didn’t say so. “It was scary this morning in the car. Seeing her get sick like that all of a sudden.”
“I’m glad I wasn’t there. I’m such a sympathy puker.”
“Sympathy puker?” I asked.
She nodded vigorously. “It’s a thing, look it up!”
“Your dad’s a doctor, so I’m sure you’re right,” I said.
“Yeah, because being related is the same thing as med school,” she agreed.
“Basically, but don’t tell him I told you so.”
She laughed, then winced. “Oh, what if he’s drawing blood in there?”
“Are you a sympathy bleeder too?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes at me. Then she sobered up. “Do you think it will work? All of you getting married?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean...” She glanced around, lowering her voice even further.
“What if you all get married and Simon doesn’t fulfill his end of the bargain?
Or what if four of you get married and Jude backs out?
You’re putting a lot of trust in these guys.
Especially someone who swears they’ll never marry or have kids. ”
“I trust Jude,” I told her, but I looked down at the speckled white stone of the counter we both leaned on. “He’s my best friend. He wouldn’t do something like that.”
“And Cruz?” she asked. “Gregory told me he was bragging about a threesome he had on last week’s recruiting trip.”
I winced. Sometimes I forgot how the assistants talked. There were no secrets in the Tower.
The door to my office opened, and we turned to see Dr. Martins and Jada approaching. There was a white bandage taped around her arm where he’d drawn blood.
“Everything okay?” I asked the doctor anxiously.
He looked to Jada for her consent, and she said, “Go ahead.”
“It’s looking like a blood sugar episode related to type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Martins said. “I gave Jada some ideas for high-protein breakfasts that should help. But I took blood to run some tests, just in case.”
My shoulders relaxed, proof of just how worried I’d been. “Thanks, Doc.”
He nodded and excused himself, walking past a courier who held two large brown bags stamped with the Golden Café logo.
“Looks like breakfast is here,” Maya said, going to the delivery person. “You two go sit at the table in the office. I’ll bring it in for you.”
Jada and I went back into my office, and I noticed her sweetly scented perfume as she walked by. Upon studying her a little closer, it looked like she was feeling better. There was more richness to her deep brown skin tone now, and her features weren’t so pinched anymore either.
We both tucked into the table as Maya set out plates for us, the same food from our brunch.
Once Maya left, Jada looked at me with surprise in her eyes. “You remembered my order?”
“I remember everything about the date,” I confessed.
“My dress?” she countered with a skeptical arch of her eyebrows.
“Floral,” I said with a smile. “Pretty.”
She suppressed a smile of her own. “My drink order?”
“Vanilla latte with oat milk.”
“Impressive.” She spread a cloth napkin over her lap and then started cutting into the stuffed French toast Maya had set in front of her.
I started eating my own breakfast. All the while, the question was swirling in my mind: Will you marry me?
There was no good way to ask. No good way to even touch the topic when we’d been on one, singular date. But I had to be straightforward with Jada because that was the right thing to do. I wouldn’t let business change me.
“Jada, there’s something I need to talk to you about, and it needs to be off the record.”
As she chewed her bite, she gave me a confused look. “Is everything okay? Did Dr. Martins say something?”
“Nothing medical,” I told her.
“Then what’s going on? You’re worrying me.”
Just say it, I ordered myself. Say it.
“It’s a long story, but I can’t continue running this company unless I’m married. And I like you. I want to date you. So will you marry me?”
A weak, awkward laugh brushed past her lips. “That’s not a good joke, Bryce.”
I rubbed my temples. “God, I wish I was joking.”
Her eyebrows pinched together, furrows forming in the middle of her forehead. “You want to date me, so we need to get married? You hear what you’re saying, right?”
“If you’re not interested, I understand. But I do have to get married in December, so if you’re not interested, we really can’t continue. I know it’s a crazy thing to ask—”
“It is crazy,” she said, shaking her head. “I barely know you. And you want me to marry you so you can keep your job? And likely with some crazy prenup that will have me paying you by the end of it? No thank you.” She stood up, dropping her napkin on the table.
“Actually... if we get divorced, you’ll have fifty percent of everything I own.”
She narrowed her gaze at me. “You should have had Dr. Martins check you out,” she said, and then she stormed out of my office.
After she was gone, I muttered to myself, “I’ll take that as a no.”