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“Swimming was definitely a bad idea,” I say.
“It’s okay. I liked it, and you didn’t let me die so that’s a win for both of us.”
I shake my head before walking to a storage locker and pulling out a towel. I return and place it around her shoulders.
“I’ll feel bad if you catch a cold.”
“Don’t. Unfortunately, I will most definitely catch a cold. I get colds easily. But it’ll pass quickly.”
Shit, I hate that she’s going to get sick.
“You should have told me,” I say sternly.
“Do you want to hear the story or not?” she retorts.
I gesture for her to continue while I lean against the back of my chair.
“Anyway, by the time my dad took over the company, it wasn’t what it used to be-”
“Your family owns Lander Textiles.”
She nods. “Yeah, I figured you would have heard about it. The company has cut back a lot. It was much smaller and my dad didn’t like that. My birth was a chance for him to turn his luck around. He had a child that could bring Landers textiles to its former glory, but I didn’t grow up quite like he wanted.”
“What did they expect of you?” I question.
“Two things,” Juliette states, raising two fingers. “First, I was supposed to study business administration and take over the company as an adult. And-I was supposed to marry some rich aristocrat. When I became aware of their expectations, I actively fought against them. My first boyfriend was in a gang,” she informs me with a grin. She seems really proud of that fact.
I smile, intrigued.
“I was 16 and extremely rebellious. He was 18 and a member of the Scallop Serpents.”
“That might be the worst gang’s name I’ve ever heard.”
She laughs. “They weren’t dangerous or anything like that. They simply drove motorcycles, wore leather jackets, and tried to be more intimidating than they actually were. 16-year-old Juliette ate that shit up. But the relationship didn’t last.”
“I wonder why,” I drawl.
“Anyway, I met my second boyfriend around the same time I informed my parents I wasn’t going to college. By the time I finished high school, I already knew my passion was cooking. I had zero interest in taking over the company. They weren’t impressed by my second boyfriend either. He wasn’t the aristocrat they hoped I would date. He was a poor college student surviving on student loans. But he was a pretty good guy.”
Her eyes take on a wistful sheen as she thinks about the guy.
“We broke up because of my parents actually. They paid him off and told him to stay the hell out of my life. Like they do in soap operas or dumb dramas.”
“Asshole,” I mutter.
“He really was a good guy. I can’t really blame him for taking the money. He was struggling and my parents offered a really good pay-out.”
“Any other boyfriends?”
“Just one but I don’t really want to talk about him,” she tells me.
“No problem.”
“I left home when I was 22 years old,” she continues, brushing off the subject of her last boyfriend completely. “I couldn’t take my parents trying to control me anymore. Being around them wasn’t healthy.”
“I see.”
She seems like she might be holding back but I know better than to push her. She sneezes again before shivering and I frown.
