Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“That would be no one then because you don’t believe in love, or so you just said.” I deliver that with a surprising lack of snark. I’m just pointing out the facts here. It’s my policy to only use sarcasm as a form of laughter, not as a weapon. “Trust is a lie, and you don’t believe in romance.”
“To be fair, I had some help,” he replies indignantly, and shit on a stick, I think he’s going to be goaded into telling me what happened to give him such a bleak outlook on the matter. “Let’s just say I found out that the woman I thought I loved was actually just a gold digger who was running an elaborate con on me while she had another boyfriend all along. It was my family who found out and forced her to confess everything to me. This was after I’d been very secretly dating her for over a year. Secretly, because I didn’t want them to find out.”
What exactly am I supposed to say to that? I know Thaddius doesn’t want sympathy, and he’ll probably rip me a new one if I try to tell him that I’m sorry, that I feel sad for him, and that I’d like to find the con woman and make her suck on my dirty flip flops.
“You need to leave,” Thaddius says. Firm, but not all that unkind. “There’s not going to be any legal documents drawn up because we don’t need them. I don’t want to marry you, and you don’t want to marry me, so that’s the end of it. Our families can’t do a thing about it.”
I sigh and shake the pages in my hand. “I get it. You like being out here by yourself. All you have to do is sign your name on this paper to say that you refuse. That’s all I want. I just want it in writing. That’s not too much to give me, is it?”
“I’m not exactly into signing slightly sketchy and random pieces of paper.”
Right. Trust issues. He just finished telling me all about that. “You have my steadfast and utter assurance that you’ll have no argument from me when it comes to all this, but I think you’re underestimating our families. I want something more ironclad than just words spoken and vanished.”
I know I can be stubborn, but it’s not always a bad trait. I do think I’m way more like my grandma than my parents, and right now, that chaffs my ass cheeks.
Thaddius is stubborn too. “No,” he replies.
That’s pretty much it for my patience. People tell me that when I get mad, they can’t even tell because I’m always so cheerful and perky and nice. My voice only goes up a notch, but it still sounds like I’m having a happy conversation here. “Days, Thaddius. I’ve been driving for days! I haven’t had a proper shower in almost a week, I’m covered from head to toe in grime, and my car is a smoldering wreck on the side of the road. I literally grabbed this contract from my parents when they told me everything and freaking drove all the way here.”
“I’m sorry you did that. And I’m even sorrier that you just found out now.”
“How long have you known?” I think he said something about being a kid, but I can’t believe that’s true.
“About us? That we were supposed to get married? Since I was a kid. But I thought it was a joke. I’ve lived with thinking it was a joke until I was old enough to date.”
“And then your family started chasing everyone away?”
“Sort of. They kept telling me I was basically engaged. That I had my life planned for me. But, like how usual suppression and repression go, it only made me more determined to make my own way. I still dated and all, but in secret. Kind of. Anyway, that’s not important. This was never going to really happen. I still refuse. You refuse. End of story. Have a good life. I really do wish you well.”
My eyes grow wide, which makes them feel even dirtier because all the grime in the creases there starts getting scratchy and stiff. “You’re really just going to…to not help me? My car is broken down. I have no way to get back home. I also have no money. My phone is freaking off in my car, and even if I had it on me right now, I wouldn’t suck it up and call my parents for help. Not after what they did to me. We should be fighting this as a team!”
He raises a shoulder in a single, assholish shrug. “There’s no need for a team. We don’t have anything to fight. Let’s just get on with our lives. You’re going to have to go home sometime to do that anyway, even if it involves sucking up your pride. I just want to be left alone. I’m not taking no for an answer on this one.”