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April writes on her notepad, quickly looking away when she notices I’m looking at her.
The waitress finally brings our food, and Jasper feeds me a scoop of my chicken noodle soup. It looks so intimate. From the outside, we look like a well-put-together couple. People glance our way, but it’s hard to pretend I’m happy when I feel like I’m dying inside.
Once we’re done eating, Jasper places me on his lap and I can feel his hard erection digging into my ass. My mind goes to the times when we had sex. I need to keep my mind occupied by thinking about other things.This is fake, I chant to myself.This is fake. He doesn’t want me.
I don’t want to fuck this up, and I’m worried my body language is showing how I feel on the inside. Am I doing too much?
“Relax, Poppy. You’re doing great,” he whispers in my ear. “I read your résumé and saw that you have a degree in marketing. Do you want to work in that department instead of working as my assistant?”
I shake my head and drench my salad in ranch dressing before stabbing a piece of lettuce. “How did you get my résumé?”
His lips brush against my neck. “I did a background check on you after we had sex.”
He cuts his veal into four pieces and pops a piece in his mouth.
“You’re talking about the very first time we fucked?”
He nods and wipes his mouth with a napkin.
“Do you do that to all the women you fuck?” I bite his ear, snuggling my face under his neck.
His fingers trace my arm and I giggle like a schoolgirl.
“No, only the ones I want to keep forever.”
His words slide over my chest like warm honey. He’s only saying this because of April. She can hear everything that is being said between us. I’m sure she can, because the smile she’s giving me is so sweet I can get diabetes from it. She takes out her phone from her purse and snaps pictures of us. I pretend not to notice.
“How m-many women did you run background checks on?”
“Just two.”
I want to ask who the other girl was that he wanted to keep forever, but I don’t. It’s not important, and I don’t want to ruin our groove, especially with April’s eyes on us.
“To answer your earlier question, no. I actually hated working in the marketing department. When I worked for my stepfather, it was too much and the only reason I got the job was so I could impress my mother, but she didn’t care. My mother sees me as a trophy wife to my future husband because I’m considered the pretty daughter. She was shocked my sister got married before me at the tender age of eighteen.”
He cups my face and traces his thumb across my bottom lip. “You are gorgeous, but you have brains, too. I was impressed by your résumé. I think you will be a good asset to my company.”
“Which company?”
“Wolfgang Banking.”
“You want me to transfer when you leave to work at your uncle’s company?” I sip my red wine.
He finishes the last bite of his veal. “Why, wouldn’t you?”
His words melt my heart, because I needed to hear it, especially after my mother called me trash earlier.
I whisper in his ear, “I wish your words were true.”
“They actually are. I’m impressed by your résumé. What is it that you want to do?” he asks.
No one has ever asked me that question, nor have they taken any interest in what I want to do. It’s always about me trying to please people. Lake calls me a people pleaser.
I debate whether I should tell him that in the future I wanted a child, but he made it clear he doesn’t want children, and I don’t want to ruin our night by mentioning it, so I start with a subject that’s safe.
“I don’t know. Honestly, I’m still figuring it out. I’m twenty-five and I have plenty of time to figure it out. The only thing I don’t want to be is an outsider to my family, especially to my mother.”
“It seems both our parents are a shitshow.”
