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We order takeout, relax, and just enjoy our night.
It’s perfect, what I want for now and for always.
Chapter Forty
“I’ve always like quiet people: You never know if they’re dancing in a daydream or if they’re carrying the weight of the world.”
-John Green, Looking For Alaska
Jane
“Jane, I need you to do me a favor.” I hear when I answer the phone the next Thursday night, bracing myself for whatever it is that my mom needs and frown at the kind tone.
Ever since she found out about Warren, she’s been acting like she’s completely fine with it all, which just raises my suspicions. “There’s an event tonight that I was supposed to attend but I’m not feeling well.”
“Oh no.” I click over to the calendar on my computer to check for events but find none. “Are you alright? What can I do for you? Do you have medicine? Soup?”
“Yes, no, I’m fine with those things. I need you to attend the event.”
“Which event? I don’t have anything on the calendar.”
“Paul has all the information. He’ll drive you home to get ready, it’s black tie, and then take you to the event.”
“Okay…” I trail off, not wanting to go to the event but knowing that as CEO, some sacrifices must be made. “What is this for?”
“Oh honey, I’m just not up for much talking. Paul will tell you everything you need to know, okay?”
But she doesn’t wait for a response and hangs up on me.
And that’s how I ended up dealing with Jasper Pierce at a black-tie event I didn’t want to be at. Turns out, it was a charity that benefited the funds to a neighborhood that had burned to the ground. I still didn’t understand how these kinds of events would help that kind of thing. Wouldn’t it be more effective if we donated time to help the people recover? To help them with clothes, temporary housing, or building new homes?
“You could at least pretend to enjoy my company,” Jasper whispers to me, a smirk on his face.
“I’m sorry,” I reply, still baffled by my night. I was supposed to be at the guys’ place for game night. I looked forward to it every week now and didn’t like missing it. It was a time for me to make them my friends too, something I knew was important to Warren. Plus, there was a comfort to that group, one that I was starting to grow attached to. “I just didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Your mother insisted you be my date. Not that I’m complaining.” He winks and my hackles rise.
“What do you mean, your date?”
He shrugs without a care in the world. “It’s no big deal. Considering our future, one black-tie event is nothing.”
“Our… future,” I repeat slowly and then pull Jasper to a stop. “Jasper, I’m sorry my mother forgot to tell you—or whatever, but I’m with someone.”
“So am I.” He shrugs. “And she’s great. But, according to my father and your mother, our union will be one for the front page. Can’t be helped if it’s that good for our companies. So, there isn’t really anything we can do to change it. Is there?”
I bite my lip. Hard. “Yes, there is. There’s no reason for us to marry. This isn’t some conspiracy where the Mafia’s daughter has to marry the drug lord.”
Jasper chuckles at my description, but there’s a hard edge to his tone. A bitterness when he says, “Joining forces, combining the country’s largest green energy company with the nation’s largest food supplier can only benefit the people.”
“What does that even mean?” I don’t bother to hide the exasperation in my voice. “How would that matter at all?”
“It’s an image thing, plain and simple. Plus, from what I’ve gathered, your mother wants you to have someone to take care of you.”
I bristle at the statement, my hands balling into fists.Take care of me?Like I don’t take care of myself now. I’m the CEO of the company for fuck’s sake. I run everything. I’m in meeting after meeting, most meetings I’m supposed to be in I can’t make because I have to be somewhere else, with someone else, deciding something else.
It’s utterly ridiculous that my mother thinks I need someone to “take care of me.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I tell Jasper the thought and he nods his head, but another shrug follows.
