AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I just want you to take me back and let me grab my stuff. I’m going to leave,” I said. “I can’t stay there.”
“Harriet, please. You made a fool out of me. You lied to me over and over again. I was doing it from a business point of view. I couldn’t tell you the truth. Don’t you understand that? I couldn’t tell you I was testing your father’s product because then I wouldn’t have been able to trust the veracity of your statements. I needed to see without you knowing that you really were attracted to me because of the cologne and not just because you were saying that so that your father would get the five million dollars.”
I stared at him for a couple of seconds. “What if my parents had told me? Then I would’ve been lying.”
“I knew your parents hadn’t told you, not based on the way you reacted to me and the way you lied and tried to pretend you were just being you.”
“What? My weird, kooky self?”
“Your weird, kooky, beautiful, amazing self,” he said, grabbing my hands. “I know you don’t believe it, but at some point, I didn’t even think about the cologne. At some point, it was just about us having fun and living in the moment.”
“I don’t even understand what was real and what wasn’t,” I said. “What was just a test for you to see if I’d be interested and what was because you wanted it?”
“I wanted it all,” he said. “Don’t you get that? As soon as I saw you in the coffee shop, I was absolutely, fantastically surprised and excited because I was attracted to you immediately, and I was so happy that you were the woman I had to try and woo. Well, not woo,” he said, “but you were the woman I needed to see if I could get, and it worked.”
“I guess my dad’s cologne was successful.”
“We both know it wasn’t just because of the cologne,” he said. “We both know that first moment our eyes met in the coffee shop. There was a spark.”
I stared at him and swallowed past the lump lodged in my throat. “You’d say anything right now.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” he said. “I did what I had to do to ensure I was making a wise investment.”
“So you put business above me, my feelings, the truth, and our relationship.”
“It was for your father. It was for your family,” he said. “It’s a large investment. It can change lives, and I wanted to make sure that if I invested in this company, it was because I believed in it. It was because I believed in the product. Your dad has been inventing things for years. You, yourself, said he’s never had any success. I just wanted to make sure that what I was buying actually worked, and I needed to make sure with my own two eyes, but it wasn’t just for me. It was for your family.”
I kind of understood what he was saying, but it was still hard that he hadn’t trusted me. “I knew something was off,” I said. “Every single day, the conversation was slightly different. You were acting weird, and it just didn’t seem to be normal, and now I know why. You were just playing games.”
“I was playing games in a way and wanted to see how far I could push you, how crazy I could be, and you’d still be attracted to me, but I liked that. It was fun. Maybe I am not this boring, straitlaced guy that you thought I was. Maybe I am kooky as well.”
“You? Kooky?” I said, shaking my head. “Really?”
“I think he’s kooky,” Chelsea said.
I turned around, my face flustered. “You guys have been listening to everything?”
“Well, we didn’t move,” Polly said, shrugging.
“Guys, get out.”
“Do we have to?” Chelsea said. “I kind of want to—”
“Get out,” I said.
“Okay.” I watched as Polly, Chelsea, and Molly left the room, and then I turned to continue this discussion with Finn. “You hurt my feelings.”
“I know,” he said. “Not on purpose.”
“Well, notnoton purpose,” I said. “I feel like a fucking idiot.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because of all the hoops I jumped through to try and impress you, bailing every single time, acting like a fool, and then giving in to you so quickly.”
“What do you mean?” he said, smirking.
“Sitting on your lap and feeding you a fucking Egg McMuffin and pretending it was Eggs a la Campbell. Do you know what a fool I felt?”
