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"Well, you're coming to work with me today. I'm not leaving you alone at home." Her body tenses up, but I don't care what fight she's going to have with me, she's coming, and I'm not changing my mind about it either.
“Okay.”
Finishing our breakfast, I told Hope to go up and get dressed. She did ask a few times what she should wear as she doesn’t want to embarrass me in front of my employees. That did make me laugh, I think it’s the first time I’ve laughed like that in a while. I think today she will see that everyone at work fears me and won’t even think about saying anything about her.
“Ready?” I walk into her room. She’s putting on her lotion.
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“Let’s go then.”
* * *
“Morning John.”
“Morning Mr. Masters, morning Hope.”
Getting in the car, Hope moves close to me and I take her hand in mine to relax her. Nodding her head, she looks out of the window as I reply to work emails on my phone. It doesn't take us long to get to work, and the moment the car stops Hope's hand tightens on my thigh. John opens the door for her and, taking a deep breath, she gets out of the car.
"You'll be fine, head up high," I whisper to her as we make our way into the building. I nod my head to everyone that says morning to me. As I get to the office, I look over at Katie, and her attention moves behind me to Hope. "Get me a coffee and then let me know when they arrive," I say walking into the office.
Placing my jacket on the chair, I watch Hope as she walks around the office looking at everything. I never thought I would want a girl in here, but it does feel nice having her here, walking around proud to be my girlfriend. I've never asked Hope to be my girlfriend, but I don't think we need to really have that conversation; we both know that it's more than a casual boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. This is so deep I think it touches the soul.
“You have a lot of degrees,” Hope points to the wall as she looks back at me.
“Yeah. When I got away fromthem, I thought I'd take my second chance and do something with my life. Make the most of it, you know?"
She smiles. ‘Yes, I get that.’ She continues to take in the certificates and pictures on my walls.
“What did you want to do when you were a kid?” She never got to go to high school or college or follow the dreams that she once had.
"I don't know, never really thought about it. Any hope of anything was tortured out of me." She stops at a picture of Jackson and me after a baseball game at school. She's gone quiet, and I don't blame her, she's looking at a life that she could have had.
“Did you bring your e-reader?” I ask her changing the subject.
“Yep.”
Waiting for my computer to load up, I look up at the door as Katie walks in with my coffee. “Is there anything else you’ll need, Mr. Masters?”
“No.”
“You have a few messages which I’ve put on your desk and the woman that you had a pitch with last week has been waiting here all morning to talk to you.”
Now that has my attention. “How long?”
"She says she's been here since six this morning."
“What was her pitch again?”
“The fitness app.”
“Send her in.” She must be one of two things. One, she has a better pitch that I won’t find boring, or two, she just wants me to bring her back down from the high that she thinks she is on, by having a new idea.
I look at Hope sitting down on the small couch that I have to the side of the office. The door opens, and I hold my finger up before she can say anything to me. "What was your name again?"
“Mr. Masters my name is Amber. I came last week about the fitness app.”
"Yes, I remember, and before you bore me about that again, the reason I said no was because there's nothing different about your app and the million already out there."
