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WorkingatTroy’splacewas different from anything I’d experienced before and exactly what I’d hoped it would be. He didn’t treat me the way men usually treated women. He didn’t try to coddle me, change everything about who he was or what his life was like for my sake, or do anything differently than if I was just another guy.
Men usually treated me so differently, it pissed me off. Either they wanted to dumb me down so that they didn’t feel threatened or treated me like I wasn’t capable of taking care of myself.
The more time I spent with Troy, the more I loved spending time with him. It was effortless, and that meant something. It was like hanging out with one of my three brothers… except it really wasn’t like that at all.
Troy had something about him that made me instantly attracted to him, and no matter how much I told myself it wasn’t a good idea, I couldn’t resist.
It wasn’t just his physical appearance, either. He was just a nice guy. How manynice guyswere still out there these days? Guys who wanted nothing more than to get in my pants and then treat me like a possession?
Troy had managed the former with ease—I didn’twantto say no to him—but he treated me like an equal, and that changed everything for me.
It made me fall for him, and although I knew logically it wasn’t a good idea… I didn’t really want to stop it from happening.
I thought about Rachel’s words.
I don’t have to know him. I see what you look like when you talk about him. That’s enough for me.
The pizza arrived in record time, and Troy carried the large box to the living room where we’d been working. He retrieved two plates and another couple of beers from the kitchen, and we each dished up a slice. When I bit into it, it was the best pizza I’d had in a long time.
“Where do you order from?” I asked.
When he told me, I shook my head. “They’re never this good when I order from them.”
“Being this powerful comes with its perks.” Troy smirked at me.
I giggled. “Yeah, you’re stinking rich, so you always get great pizza.”
Troy laughed. “It sounds stupid when you say it like that.”
We fell silent, chewing, thinking. I glanced at Troy, who seemed just as caught up in his thoughts as I was.
“So, tell me about this business of yours,” I said, talking around my pizza as I chewed.
“What about it?”
“You’ve always been an entrepreneur?” I asked. “Not everyone thinks about starting their own thing; most people want to work under someone else to eliminate the stress and drama of managing a whole bunch of people.”
It took a lot of balls to open up a business, and it took a lot of work to become so well-known that the company name was on everyone’s lips in the right circles.
Troy shrugged and studied his slice for the next bite. “I don’t know, I never really saw myself as someone who can join a slipstream, you know? I want to make a mark on the world, and I figured the only way to do that was to carve my own path.”
“Very noble,” I said and took a swig of my beer before I returned to my pizza.
He chuckled. “I don’t know if it’s noble… it started as an escape.”
“I can understand that,” I said softly. He’d told me about his pain as a child, and I knew all about throwing myself into work to stop thinking about certain things that wouldn’t go away, like a pebble in a shoe. “It’s still a big deal to bring it this far.”
“Maybe,” Troy said. “I didn’t really see how else to do it. It was an escape but it turned into more, you know? I never dreamed of being a huge business mogul, but every time I achieved one thing, I looked for the next goal, and before I knew it, I was shooting for the moon.”
“What about family?” I asked. “If you’re that busy, you don’t get a lot of time off. Or do you have people running the business for you while you’re away?” I thought about Rachel and how she’d accepted a job with a meager salary so she could be with me when I grew up and now with her children. She’d always believed that family over business was everything.
A business can stand the tests of time but your kids aren’t in the house forever. You blink and they’re gone, so I want to do what I can with the time I have with them.
She’d told me that more times than I could count.
Troy shrugged and bit off another piece of pizza.
“I guess Icanhave people run the business for me, but I prefer to be hands-on and take care of it myself.”
