Chapter 60 Lexi
LEXI
My disagreement with Jonah about his Dad was quickly replaced by nervousness about the final week of my internship.
“And that’s my proposal for the developer tool that lets engineers trace coding bugs in user workout sessions in half the time,” I said, addressing the few people in the conference room, clicking to the final slide titled Q&A.
I turned to face the leadership team. Maria Witherson, the head of Developer Experience, and Gregory Fisher, who led Product Engineering for the consumer-facing fitness app, in addition to Brian, Stacey and Rafael.
My hands felt cold even though the room was warm, and I gave what I hoped was a confident smile.
Brian and Stacey had been optimistic and encouraging, but Rafael had sat tight-lipped through it all, stealing angry looks at Stacey occasionally. I hated that he couldn’t let their past go.
“Any questions?” I asked, forcing myself to stay focused on the presentation I was giving.
When I’d told Jonah I was intimidated about this presentation, the final milestone of my internship, he had told me to keep it short.
“Just a walkthrough of what you’ve done,” he’d said like it was no big deal.
But standing here, in this glass-walled conference room, I felt every ounce of the pressure.
It helped a little that Jonah had come to the meeting, standing at the very back and listening without uttering a word.
Maria had barely glanced at me the entire time. I’d only seen her once during a meeting over Zoom, and now here she was in person, arms folded, quietly evaluating me. Her expression didn’t give anything away.
I risked a glance at the screen again: graphs of the current duration engineers took to debug code without such a tool and ones after my tool was used. One of the staff engineers who’d tested it had told me it had saved him three hours over a week.
Gregory leaned forward. “Is this compatible with both iOS and Android builds?”
“Yes,” I said. “It is.”
Maria finally looked up. “You built this alone?”
I nodded. “I asked for feedback from QA and DevOps, but yeah, the coding and integration was all me.”
A beat passed. Maria raised one brow slightly and looked at Jonah. He didn’t respond, but something in his posture shifted, and he looked a little more relaxed.
The moment the others began standing and collecting their things, I let myself exhale. I’d made it through without any glaring mistakes, and hopefully, it would earn me solid references when I left. I knew there’d never be a full-time job available for me here.
Soon the room cleared out, and it was just Jonah and me.
I exhaled deeply, glad to have it over with, when I felt Jonah’s gaze on me. I looked up at him. We were alone in the room, and unlike the others, he wasn’t eager to leave.
“That was a fantastic presentation,” he said, leaning away from the wall and walking over to me. The door had fallen shut, and he held me tight as he kissed me.
I could tell he’d been fighting the urge to interrupt during my entire presentation. He knew I was nervous, and his first instinct would be to step in take control. But he’d promised me he’d stay back and let me speak on my own.
We broke apart and I rested my head on his chest, feeling relaxed.
“To celebrate, I’ve made plans for the three of us to go see a musical, and after that, we’re having dinner at Per Se.”
I guessed that was a fancy upscale restaurant whose name I should have been able to recognize, but I was more intrigued by something else. “Is that an order or a request?” I asked, with a knowing smile at him.
He huffed. “Well, I suppose it’s a request that I’m not letting you dismiss.”
“So, an order then?” I said, cocking my head.
He nodded. “I don’t think that part of me is going to change, honey.”
I grinned and tipped up my face. “Thank goodness I don’t want it to change,” I said before standing up on tiptoe for a second kiss.
“I should get back to work before people start wondering where I disappeared to,” I said, straightening his tie.
“And didn’t you mention last night that you have an appointment with the investors today? ”
His jaw clenched involuntarily. “Investors,” he muttered. “I used to be one of those. Now I just sit across from them making presentations instead of evaluating theirs.”
I paused, studying his expression. “You could always reschedule the meeting if you want to.”
For a moment, the idea must have been tempting because I saw temporary relief on his face before he shook his head. “If only I could reschedule my entire career back to when I was actually happy.” He paused, adding, “See you at home.”
I walked out of the meeting room, feeling troubled by the knowledge of Jonah’s discontent, and made my way down to the break room.
When I stepped inside to get coffee, people in there suddenly stopped talking as soon as I walked in.
Weird.
My phone had three missed calls by the time I reached my desk with my cup. I saw that it was Dylan and called him back reluctantly. It had been a while since we’d spoken and I felt I should update him on the progress I’d made with Jonah.
“Have you seen the news?” he asked the moment he answered my call.
“What news?”
“There’s an article about you and your boyfriend in the newspapers. Evie’s picture is in it.”
Shit. What the hell?
“It’s an article about how you’re the perfect Cinderella story,” Dylan continued, while Stacey spotted me, and looking around, pulled me quickly into an empty meeting room.
“Going to get hitched to billionaire Jonah Walkers, who you’re now living with, apparently.
And how Evie’s life is magically going to change for the better.
” He paused, and I could hear the bitterness in his voice.
“He’s perfect Dad material, apparently. Oh, and there’s a picture of you, Jonah, and Evie in the playground near your apartment. ”
My heart sank. Stacey pulled up the news article, and my jaw dropped at the pictures of me and Jonah and Evie.
“That’s us,” I muttered, seeing a picture a bystander had stealthily taken of us in the playground.
Evie didn’t know better, but I had a bad feeling about this.
“You said you wanted a life of stability and safety for Evie. Is this what it’s going to be like now that you’re with Mr. Billionaire? Evie’s going to make it to the news every other week?”
I hung up the call, my eyes pricking with tears while Stacey shook her head and squeezed my hand.
“It’s okay, Lexi. It’ll all be okay,” she murmured. I took a few steadying breaths, then stood and pushed open the meeting room door. As I stepped out, I caught the flicker of a few intense gazes landing on me. They quickly averted their eyes when they caught me watching.
Word had spread through the office like wildfire. Damn it.
I stepped back into the meeting room and grabbed my phone, hoping for a message from Jonah. Nothing.
I sent him a quick text.
LEXI
Do you know what’s going on?
Then, setting the phone down, I took a breath and forced myself to focus. If I could just get through the day, I could go home and think in peace without feeling like there were a hundred pairs of eyes following my every move.
Brian appeared at the door, with three laptops tucked under his arm. “Got yours,” he said, holding one out to me as he walked in. He handed the other one to Stacey, who took it with an understanding nod. “Figured we’d make this our little war room for the day.”
He glanced at me with a kinder expression. “We’ll work from here. There’ll be less gawking that way.”
He closed the door behind him with a quiet finality, cutting off the hum of office chatter.
“Just for the next few days, Lexi,” Stacey said, “Keep your distance from him.”
Shit. How the hell could I do that when I lived with him?
My apartment was almost empty, since I’d moved most of our stuff out.
“Actually, scratch that,” Brian said, staring at his phone. He held it out. “I’m guessing this is your old apartment?” he asked showing me a red door to a building that was definitely mine. Someone had sprayed graffiti on it, with the word gold digger on it.
I hung my head. I couldn’t go back there anymore. I wouldn’t feel safe.
“Come home with me,” Stacey said. “You don’t want to spend tonight alone, believe me,” she said with a knowing look. “You’ll spiral. I’ve spiraled, and it wasn’t pretty.”
I nodded. “Okay, I will.”
I felt a new wave of emotion wash over me at the word gold digger. “This whole article makes me feel sick. It’s not just the gossip or the photos. It’s what Jonah might think.”
Stacey frowned. “What do you mean?”
I exhaled. “You know, my mother used to use me for money. She’d cry on cue, making me feel guilty. I was barely sixteen and giving her most of what I made at my part-time job.”
“That’s abuse, Lexi.”
“I know.” I hesitated. “I’m scared Jonah will think I’m like her. That I’m using him.”
“You’re nothing like her.”
“This article paints me exactly like that. Like I’m some gold-digger. But this is exactly how it started with her. She used love as currency. And I’m terrified that Jonah’s going to look at me and see the same pattern. That he’ll think I’m with him for what he can give me.”
“Lexi, if you wanted someone to bankroll your life, you wouldn’t have worked so hard to build your own.
We can see that. I bet Jonah already knows that.
Besides, the man is besotted with you. We saw him when you were down with the flu.
It was the third day of the flu, Lexi, but Jonah was hovering around you like you were on death’s door. ”
Brian nodded.
“Trust Jonah. I think you both are going to be okay. He’ll take care of this situation like he always does.”
The problem was, Jonah wasn’t answering my texts, and I wasn’t sure if I could call him right now.
I wasn’t sure where this whole mess left us.