Chapter 60
Ilove her. Her humor, how she is taking this weekend seriously, how she fits into my life. I’m loving every minute I’m spending with her.
“Hello?” she asks, and I refocus on Dani, cuddling into her on the couch.
“Sorry, what?”
“What were you up to in your office?”
“Projections. There’s so much uncertainty right now.”
“Rising interest rates, the global economy,” she correctly says. “Nothing is giving you a break.”
“Excuses don’t solve problems.” I huff, upset we are not going to meet our mid-year targets ahead of our board meeting.
That will be two quarters in a row that we’ve missed targets, making us on pace for a down year.
“I am unfortunately coming to the realization that the board meeting on Thursday is going to be fucking terrible.”
“I’m sorry. I wish there was more I could do.”
“Why? This isn’t your stress to carry.” I immediately regret my sharp tone. “Sorry.” I need to keep my stress in check.
“I don’t like you being stressed,” she says, hugging me.
“I don’t know about you, but I was raised in a failure wasn’t an option kind of family, and I haven’t been able to shake that mindset.”
She nods, then takes a sip of her wine. “My upbringing was more focused on a month-to-month basis—were the bills going to get paid or not.”
I squeeze her leg. “Tell me more about that.”
She shrugs. “My parents didn’t go to college. My dad is a mechanic, and my mom has a whatever job. They have to work so hard. They still work so hard. I don’t know; I just see their life and want mine to be completely different.”
Both of my parents have PhDs, yet I feel the same.
“So, your parents didn’t have you in SAT Prep every summer?” I joke, thinking about my childhood.
“Definitely not. I didn’t even take the SAT. My school assumed everyone would stay local, so they only encouraged us to do the ACT.”
“You went to a good school. It worked out.”
“I still wonder if I could have gotten into a better school. I didn’t even consider applying to prestigious ones. It just seemed so unrealistic.”
“Look at you now, you’re killing it, and you’re smarter than most of the people that go to those schools. I went to three of them. I mean it.” I pull her in for a kiss. Dani is a very fucking impressive person, especially for only being twenty-six.
“You’re smarter than me,” she says as I pull back from our kiss. “And more successful.”
“I have a ten-year head start,” I remind, playing with her hair as she takes a sip of her wine. “In ten years, I can only imagine what you will be doing.”
“Hopefully you,” she jokes, and I squeeze her thigh.
“Hear me …” I study her before making my point. “You’re only twenty-six and on track to make half a million this year. When I was twenty-six, I thought I was crushing it at one fifty.” I stare at her. “You are incredible.”
“I feel like a nepobaby sometimes because of …” She trails off.
Adam.
“We all have different privileges. What matters most … well, what I find very attractive about you is that you make the most of the privilege you’ve received.”
Dani nuzzles into my chest, and I hold her tight.
“How old was your ex?” she asks after a thoughtful pause.
“Thirty-five.”
“What about the girls you hooked up with after her?”
“You’re saying it like there were so many. There were two.”
“You said you had sex, sex with two. That means you did stuff with others.”
“Nothing like the stuff we’ve done.” I breathe into her neck.
“How old were they? The ones you slept with.” She giggles as my tongue flicks along her neck.
“Twenty-two, which is way too fucking young for me.” I shake my head, thinking about that night. “I was partying too long, and it happened. The other one, she was about thirty.”
“You don’t know?” Dani whispers with surprise.
“Do you really want me to tell you about it?”
“Yes,” she says with too much enthusiasm.
“Chef Kurt had a house party. We were vibing, and we didn’t talk much.”
“So naughty! How come she didn’t get a second date?”
“Outside of being pretty, there wasn’t much else going on.” I pull Dani in for a kiss before asking something I’ve been wanting to know. “So, when was the last time you slept with him?”
“Pass.”
“You can’t pass, baby. You started this conversation.”
“We broke up in November. Then he kind of forced me to see him in January, and it happened, then happened again.”
“You are avoiding the question still.”
“Mid-February,” she says after a long pause.
“He did something sweet for Valentine’s Day?” I ask, but I really don’t want to know the answer. She shrugs. “Tell me I’m better.”
“You’re the fucking best.”
“Good girl.” I squeeze her in a hug, happy she is all mine. “You should work on being a morning person,” I tease, but I am also serious.
“Never going to happen.” She giggles.
“Waking up early … it’s what I do every day, you know.”
“Why? So gross.”
“You’ll see. It’s the best way to do it.”
“I disagree.”
I stare at her and then suggest, “How about you see what a day in my life is really like?”
“Okay?” she asks, tentatively.
“Stay here tomorrow night too.”
“Oh … you can’t get enough of me?”
“Never.” I breathe into her ear. “Every Monday starts at four thirty a.m.”
“I don’t want to see a day in your life that bad.”
“Dani …” I beg.
“Just this once!”