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“You’ve already answered that question yourself.” She frowned, so I went on explaining. “You said you found the profile frombeforeI took over as CEO. That’s what happened. I had to start putting in more time at work and had to make this company my top priority. I didn’t have enough time for hobbies or vacations anymore, and you know, that’ll change a person.”
She laughed.
“What?”
“I guess I just always assumed the CEO of the company had the most time out of anyone. You see these CEOs on their social media, posting pictures of their weekend trips to Italy or posting about how they are spending the entire summer on their yacht sailing around with their model girlfriends. Now you’re telling me you had to give up basically everything good in your life when you took over?”
“That’s the sort of company my dad started,” he said. “And if I want to keep it growing, keep things the way they are, then I have to work as hard as he did.”
“Are you sure about that?”
I smirked at her. “This is the second time tonight you’ve questioned the way I run this company, as well as the relationship I have with my dad. You’re very forward, you know that?”
“So I’ve been told. But really, have you never heard of delegating? Your dad had to take on the workload of ten men because he was starting a company from the ground up. It’s my understanding, from what I’ve read, that he didn’t have very much startup money, so he couldn’t afford to hire people to do some of the work for him. Butnowthe company has a ton of money! You could hire like five assistants and still have money left over in your personal hiring budget.”
“My dad didn’t believe in handing off work to an assistant.”
“Of course he didn’t,” she said. “And how did that work out for him exactly? Just curious, did he seem like a happy man when he was putting in all those hours? Does he seem like a happy man now that he’s retired?”
“Not in the slightest.”
“So… aren’t you worried that you’ll end up like him if you continue on this overworked path that you’re on? Aren’t you scared you’ll wake up one day and realize you’ve wasted your life on this job that’s only made you miserable?”
I stared at her, right in the eye, for a good ten seconds before answering her question. “You want the truth?”
“Always.”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m scared of that. No, actually—I’m fucking terrified.”
ChapterEleven
LILY
After hearing David open up a little bit more, I started to feel comfortable doing the same.
Somehow, the conversation found its way back to me and my bastard ex-fiancé, and I told David a little bit more about how Bret and I met and fell in love.
“At least, I think we fell in love.”
“You think?” he asked me. At this point, he had moved over so that he was sitting next to me instead of across from me. “You’re not sure whether or not you fell in love?”
“Not anymore,” I said. “A friend of mine said something to me on the phone the other day—the details aren’t important—but what she said got me thinking. I’m not sure I was ever truly in love with Bret. I guess I won’t know until I fall in love with someone else, then I’ll compare the way I felt about him to the way I feel about the new man, and maybe then I’ll know for sure. It’ll be a little experiment, I’ll compare the different sets of data.”
He laughed. “How very scientific of you.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I’ve always been good with that sort of thing. Organizing and grouping. I used to think I wanted to be a scientist of some sort, but then I realized how little money they made and promptly changed my plan.”
“You were a greedy little kid, weren’t you?”
“Not greedy!” I said, moving my foot a little so that I lightly kicked his. “I just knew that I wanted to be financially comfortable. I had plans, you know, plans that only worked if I had a well-paying job.”
“What sort of plans?”
“You know, the usual. I wanted a husband, a house, a couple of kids, a big backyard.” I winked at him. “Maybe a golden retriever.”
“Can never go wrong with a golden retriever. They really are the best dogs.” He sighed and put his hands behind his head, resting his weight back into the wall. “But I get it. I wanted those things too, once upon a time.”
“You don’t want them anymore?”
