Page 4 of Billionaire’s Game

Chapter Two

“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty. Wakey, wakey,”I heard a voice calling to me as I slowly opened my eyes. My shoulders felt tight and my legs were stiff. I slowly sat up on the couch that had served as my makeshift bed and looked around. I was in my cousin Lacey’s living room and she was moving about the living room of the loft, attempting to clear off the coffee table that was covered in baby paraphernalia. I spotted a weird looking contraption that had what appeared to be suction cups attached to it. I rubbed my eyes and sleepily looked at it.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“My breast pump.”

“Ohhhh.... now the suction cups make sense,” I said, giving her a smile as she handed me a cup of coffee and set a plate of toast and eggs on the coffee table for me.

“I woke up early with the baby, so I went ahead and made you breakfast.”

“That was sweet of you, but you didn’t have to go to the trouble.”

“Are you kidding me? It’s no big deal. It’s not every day that I have my little cousin living with me. It’s so good to see you,” she said, impulsively hugging me again. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” I said, hugging her back and meaning it. I considered Lacey my big sister. Lacey had lost her father at a young age and her mother had abandoned her as a baby, so my mom and I were Lacey’s only family. We’d always gotten along and were more like friends, or even sisters, than we were cousins.

“Where’s the baby?” I asked, scanning the room.

The loft was located in a large warehouse and it seemed that Lacey and her husband, Jude, occupied the entire floor. It was large, spacious, and strangely inviting. When I’d first seen it from the outside, I’d thought it was going to be cold, industrial and stark on the inside. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was very much a home, from the colorful room dividers to the baby toys scattered across the living room floor. It was homey... if not a little deprived of privacy.

Baby in question was actually a toddler now and walking like a little champ. I watched as he appeared from behind the couch, giggling.

Lacey scooped him up and he struggled to get down. He was chunky and always smiling. I liked him; he was little but had a very big personality. He was a little ball of sunshine, but a very exhausting ball of sunshine I thought as he started chewing on Lacey’s hair.

“Where are you going, little one? You have plans that don’t involve Mommy?”

Of course, Lacey only received a giggle in reply. So far, baby Sebastian only had two facial expressions: happy or excited.

He gabbed as Lacey held him. I stared at the two of them, struggling to see a family resemblance. But to me, honestly, all babies looked alike.

“So, are you excited about your first day?”

I nodded and reached for my glasses lying under a host of baby stuff on the coffee table. “I sure am. Thanks for this, by the way. I know I don’t have a background in nonprofit—”

She held up a hand, stopping my words. “Don’t be silly. We should be thanking you. It’s not every day that we get a genius on our team, especially one that’s willing to work outside of her area of expertise.”

I laughed. “Well, there aren’t too many jobs for someone who studied world hfristory.”

“Apparently, we both have a knack for picking the worst major.”

“The difference is that I dedicated eight years of my life to it. You were smart enough to only dedicate four.”

She nodded. “True.”

“Thanks, Lacey. That’s made me feel way better,” I said sarcastically, but my tone was joking.

“Well, eat up. Jude’s already there. Today’s a big day, I guess. Jude’s been excited and taking secret phone calls all week.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, Jude won’t tell me. But he has a big announcement and he wants everyone around to hear it.”

“Oh, sounds juicy.”

Lacey laughed, “I bet it isn’t. It’s probably just another budget report, but Jude loves drama.” She picked up Sebastian who had somehow wiggled out of her arms seconds earlier. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to give this sticky little boy a bath.”

She walked away with the baby hugging her neck. They clearly loved each other, and I couldn’t be happier that Lacey had found her happily ever after. Part of me wondered if I ever would too. I pushed the thought out of my head and reached for my bag. I wasn’t looking for happily ever after, I was just looking for what was next.