Chapter Eight #3
Although now that her friends came after her with their arguments, her head spun.
Nico rolled his eyes. “Okay, okay. By the way, he told me to tell you not to worry about paying him back, and to enjoy lunch. You know, as a friend,” he teased as he hustled back to his desk, shaking his head.
“Nico, I swear to God!” Sophie nudged her door shut with her hip.
The grilled meat called her name again, and her stomach rumbled in response.
Peeking inside the bag, she took out the shiny takeout container. A sticky note clung for dear life to the plastic cover studded with condensation. Slanted handwriting scratched across the surface.
‘Just in case you missed your snack again’
A text from James came in the next morning while she slurped down her iced coffee.
Outside. Want me to hit the buzzer?
Her eyes widened. She hadn’t given a specific time, but damn, it was early. The only reason she was up was because she had some last-minute packing.
Thudding downstairs to let him in, her attention caught on the reusable bag by his feet, the tops of a tea box and a basket poking out from it.
He picked up the bag as he ambled in. “Hey.”
She stepped aside before he crashed into her, but he brushed close enough that his cologne curled up her nose.
“Am I too early, pookie?” he asked.
She shook her head, shutting the door. “I’m going to kill you.”
He grinned, the bag thumping as he crossed his arms. “So, it’s a no to pookie? Are you sure, because I think it’s—”
“James.”
He chuckled. “Alright, alright, sorry.”
“What’s in the bag?” she huffed.
“Gifts for your family. Don’t worry, it’s nothing too expensive. Just some tea and a gift basket.”
“Do me a favor and define ‘not too expensive.’”
Dealing with a billionaire, especially one coming from generational wealth, meant you could never be too careful.
Chuckling, he put the bag down again before pulling out his phone and showing her the most recent transaction on his wallet app. “Satisfied?”
She rolled her eyes and nodded. “Did you eat yet?”
She barely heard his response as they entered her apartment, her mind kicking into hyperspeed.
He’s in my apartment in the morning! But it doesn’t mean anything, remember?
His steps faltered behind her, and she glanced at him.
He stared at Oliver and Taylor, both of whom lay across her couch, snoring.
“Why are there two unconscious guys in your living room?” James asked.
She laughed. “That’d be Oliver and his boyfriend. The four of us had a movie night yesterday and they crashed here.”
“Oh…”
James sat on the armchair, twiddling his thumbs. He peered around the apartment like it was his first time seeing it.
In a way, she supposed it was, since the other times, they’d been too busy ripping each other’s clothes off.
“Oh, right, um … I wanted to talk to you before we left.” She figured now was as good a time as any to bring up the lunches.
It was better than figuring that out when they were trapped in a car for a few hours.
“Okay, well. First, I wanted to say thanks for the lunches. How much do I owe you for them?”
“Nothing,” he said. “Like I told Nico the first time, they’re on me.”
“That’s too much,” she protested. “At least let me pay you back a little.”
He frowned, shaking his head. “Why am I accepting your money? You need to eat, and I’m just making sure that happens.”
She grimaced as she wet a sponge and squeezed some dish soap onto it. Lathering down her cup and plate, she rinsed the bubbles away beneath the tap. “Alright, thanks. But you need to stop.”
“Do you not like the food?”
She shook her head frantically. “I’m not ungrateful for the food, but someone’s going to see, and then they’re going to ask too many questions. Or worse, Marilyn finds out herself.”
Sophie stuck the dishes in the drying rack. Drying her hands on the tea towel hanging off the oven, she turned and leaned against the counter. “I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t want to tell my boss about what we’ve been doing.”
“You’re right,” he said after a moment. “I didn’t even think of that, I was just … anyway, I’m sorry, I’ll stop. But take this.”
Drawing out his wallet, he slid out a credit card, handing it to her.
She gaped at the sleek black card in her hand, the plastic sinking a million pounds into her fingers. “What—”
“To buy your own lunch,” he explained. “You need to eat a good one, you understand me? I don’t want you to go hungry again. While you’re at it, buy whatever else you want with that.”
No, no, no.
Why was he so concerned? He wasn’t her boyfriend; he shouldn’t care.
But a part of her that grew rapidly enough to frighten her loved that he did.
“This is too much, I can’t accept this.” She bristled. “First the lunches, now this. Do you think that I can’t take care of myself or something?”
“Not at all.” He still held the card aloft between them. “But I’m not playing around when it comes to you, Sophie. So, take the card. There are no strings attached to it, and you don’t need to worry about paying me back for any expenses. I’ll get another card, but this one’s yours now.”
“James—”
“Sophie.” His eyes gleamed. “Let me take care of you.”
She tilted her head, observing him.
Philip’s words in the car came roaring back. ‘That was a fight you weren’t going to win.’
“Alright.” She accepted the card, sliding it into her pocket.
They made it out of the city, talking about unimportant things like the weather. Yet somehow, it wasn’t boring, and before she knew it, an hour flew by.
Pulling her laptop and a bag of Starbursts out of her backpack, she popped one in her mouth and clicked open a PDF reader. She had downloaded some documents that Marilyn wanted looked over before she left and now was as good a time as any.
“What are you doing?”
James’s voice cut across the space between them, but she didn’t look up from her screen.
She scrolled with the trackpad. “Just some reading. Want some candy?”
He held his hand out, sticking the candy she offered in his mouth. “For fun?”
“For…” she trailed off, then went with the honest answer. “For work.”
“Sophie.”
Something about the way he said her name made her look at him.
A small, amused smile played on his lips. “I’m a CEO, and I don’t work this much.”
He stuck his hand out for another Starburst.
“Well, unlike you, I don’t have millions in my bank account,” she shot back. “And I don’t work that much.”
Understatement.
It was a Saturday, and she was going home for the weekend. She needed to take a break, she knew that, but …
“I just … I want to get promoted, that’s all.” Her laptop warmed her lap. “Our account director is retiring and I’m more than ready to step into his place. I was supposed to, well, I wanted to, with our last big case, but … it didn’t happen. The spot’s still open, so…”
The Starbust turned to a flavorless wax lump in her mouth.
James’s brows rose. “Account director already? How long have you been there?”
Sophie shrugged. “Five years, but I’ve learned a lot under Marilyn and the vice president. I also learned a lot about the company itself in that time. Plus, my degrees are in business and communications, and I worked internships in those fields.”
James let out a whistle. “Damn, okay.”
She eyed him. “You don’t think it’s possible?”
She was more than qualified. So why did the prospect of him doubting her sting so much?
He blew out a breath and changed lanes. “Do you want the truth?”
“Of course.”
He was silent, as if trying to parse the words that would hurt the least.
She frowned. “James, I can take it.”
“Alright,” he acquiesced. “I think it’s ambitious and a big leap. I mean, five years, Sophie? Really? But—”
She bristled. “Fine, forget I asked.”
“Let me finish.” He smirked and took the next exit. “I think based on what you’ve told me, if there’s anyone who can do it, it’s you.”
Her heart beat resounded in her ears. Glowing warmth from more than just the laptop flooded her. “You’re just saying that.”
“No, I think you can,” he replied. “Really. I’m just impressed, that’s all. If I was in your shoes, I don’t think I could do it.”
She snorted. “But you did. You had shares in Tian Corporation, right? And I don’t know, maybe you still do. Also, you were set to take over a seat on the board. Why would you leave all that when you didn’t know the outcome?”
That gamble turned out well, but what if it hadn’t?
“See? You’d give Wikipedia a run for its money.” Merging into a turning lane, he waited for the light to change. “You can more than handle this promotion.”
“James.”
Silence met her, sticking to her skin like wet clothes.
She pressed her lips into a thin line and winced.
Some things were better left to the unknown, and it looked like his family history was one of them.
His fingers tapped frantically on the wheel, and he came to a stop at another red light. “You probably know my mom left when I was younger.”
She stared at him. “Um … yeah, I saw something online about that.”
He sighed. “Well, my dad took it pretty hard. He got angry. He still is angry. But at that time, it was worse, and my brother wasn’t happy, either.
You can guess what teenage hormones and a burning anger at your mom led to.
” He shrugged. “My whole life, people said I looked like a carbon copy of my mom. So naturally, my dad couldn’t stand to look at me after she left.
And when he did, he yelled at me. A lot.
He said a lot of things, and Adam did too.
” He stopped talking for a moment as they turned onto a highway. “Never laid a hand on me, though.”
“Well, thank God for small blessings,” she whispered. Her heart sank and settled into her stomach. “But … why art?”
“My mom liked art.” He shrugged again. “And I don’t know, it just felt right.”
The muscles in his arm tensed, and a subtle shift caused his sleeve tattoo to ripple.
The desperate gleam in James’s eyes that day in the conference room slotted into place.
He lorded over a billion-dollar company, and he might’ve played off the issue as simply a money thing, but it was so much bigger than that.
One wrong move and he’d lose the legacy he started for his mother.
“Why’d you agree, then?” she asked. “To all this, I mean. You never told me.”
“Sophie.” He glanced at her. “Are we really going to pretend you don’t know?”
She blinked. “I—”
“The stakes are high for both of us.” His knuckles whitened as he gripped the wheel. “And despite all of that, if you were willing to stick your neck out, then isn’t it only right for me to, as well?”
She sucked in a breath as her heart softened.
Throughout her entire life, she had been accustomed to being stuck as an afterthought. Certainly not someone who warranted the risk of losing something near and dear to their heart.
But now…
Unsure of what else to do, she grabbed his hand. Her thumb swished slowly against the side of his hand.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“For?”
She was quiet for a moment. “I told you about my dad, right?”
The deadbeat who left his wife with two kids under ten.
James nodded and his jaw tightened.
“Well, my dad was always running,” she began.
“When he left, I saw how it hurt my mom, and I … should’ve taken something away from that.
But I didn’t and I don’t know why. Every guy I’ve dated before has done the same thing—ran when things got tough.
They didn’t want to deal with me, not if it meant they could cover their own asses.
So … thank you.” She smiled. “For not running.”
They rode in silence for a few minutes before he asked, “If you could go back and change things so that your dad never left, would you?”
“No,” she replied, that exact question having crossed her mind numerous times. “Would you change your mom leaving?”
He was silent for a moment before giving her his answer. “No.”