Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 98992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Katherine is right.
Food is the tool I use to pacify my mood or prevent me from engaging in an uncomfortable situation.
Damn it.
I gotta learn to fight that habit.
Break it.
I am not the same fragile teenager I once was.
I’m a grown ass woman who can have grown ass difficult conversations.
I do not need a bread assistant.
Paul waves a different waiter over, “Drink?”
Can I drink instead?
Is that better than bread or worse?
“No, thank you,” I politely decline, fingers now gripping my clutch purse harsher than before.
“Just one,” Xander says in his office pleasing voice.
“One is always better than none,” his boss haughtily laughs forcing me to bite my tongue.
The snotty corporate attitude that pours out of him is enough to get me drunk on pretentiousness.
Men with money typically possess an arrogance I find nauseating.
Money doesn’t make you better.
Money damn sure doesn’t make you happier.
Hell, some of my fondest memories are the ones with the cheapest prices.
Love is similar.
For me, it’s never been about the overpriced dates – I swear I have no problem eating food that doesn’t cost two-hundred-dollars pre-tip – or expensive vacations, which for the record we have not had many of together, because – according to him – what would be the point of flying to a new city, polluting the air, to do the same things we can do comfortably in our city for a much cheaper cost to our wallets and the environment?
Yeah…
That’s just the way Xander thinks.
The way he’s always thought.
And a way I’m honestly tired of being around.
The conversation as well as all guests move to a living space that most would consider a large living room; however, Paul immediately explains that it isn’t. That its only purpose is for entertaining guests like us.
Others continue to mingle amongst themselves, yet my boyfriend is hellbent on keeping his boss’s attention. Engaging at such a constant rate that no one else can swoop in and steal the man’s time.
We sit on a couch beside one another – not touching of course – across from Paul and the woman of the moment in his life. This one is blonde – like the ones before her – except she used to pose for a major make up line – unlike the last three who were all bikini models – prior to doing high end catering for companies like The Frost Luxury Hotel chain, which is how they met. She was in charge of running a luncheon and by the end of the gathering, he was running her.
Okay, so she didn’t say that verbatim, but insinuated it pretty hard with several inappropriate comments.
Paul, while not someone Xander admires for personality reasons, he is someone that my boyfriend is desperate to be an awful lot like. He wants the huge salary from the corporate company and to invest in stocks that not only allow him to retire by the time he’s fifty – fifty-five if he chooses to include me – but allow him to spend what remains of his days donating to causes he claims he cares about yet rarely actually does anything outside of writing a check to help.
His life goals are laid out on a checklist.
One he re-evaluates quarterly.
And I…can only focus on enriching my company.
Not enriching myself.
“Enough about us,” Paul warmly chortles, hand reaching for his third whiskey from the waiter’s tray. “Let’s talk about you two.”
Oh, dear God, let’s not.
His finger swings back and forth at us after having a sip of the new beverage. “You’ve been together longer than my last four marriages.”
Who the fuck gets married that many times?
I mean I can’t fathom doing it even once anymore.
“You two plan on tying the knot soon?” Paul adjusts his hold on his glass. “Either of you need a prenup attorney?”
Holding in my reaction takes skill I wasn’t even aware I had.
“You think that’s important?” Xander cautiously inquires.
“What? Marriage or a prenup?” Paul loftily laughs.
“Both,” my boyfriend replies in the same fashion.
Maybe they should just be together?
“I feel that marriage displays two things I find sacred in business much like the others at my level. Commitment and stability. To demonstrate those two aspects in your personal life, shows people that you are capable of commitment – which is wanted when you’re building a career – and that you’re capable of loyalty. Sticking with something, through something in order to have stability in the long run. No company – especially one like FLH – likes switching CFOs and CCOs or really even CPAs more than absolutely necessary. They prefer those that understand and respect that their time is an investment in their future.”
Okay, how many fucking acronyms were really needed for that explanation?
“And the difference between seeing the relationship of years that Presley and I have shared together versus that of marriage in particular?” Xander inquires, although not in the romantic sense I wish he could.