Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 116232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
“No, it doesn’t,” I said quickly. “To be honest, it’s been the same for me recently.”
Her eyebrows tugged together, shooting me a look like that couldn’t possibly be right. “You?” She shook her head, making little waves ripple through her blonde hair. “No way.”
“Afraid that’s a true story.”
“Well, that’s not true anymore.” The corner of her lips hinted at a smile. “I thought I made my interest pretty clear.”
Shit, she had a point, and I found myself smiling back at her. “Yeah, well, I didn’t like how that guy was bothering you,” I admitted, “but I’m glad it gave me an excuse to come talk to you.”
“Me too.”
We were both quiet for a moment, and I glanced around at our surroundings. “This place is nice. Have you been here before?”
“No, I think it just opened.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize.” It made sense. The place was trendy, clean, and filled with people. The newness of it was obvious now. “I just moved here.”
Charlotte tilted her head. “Yeah? From where?”
“New York.” I felt the need to elaborate. “Manhattan.”
She peered at me dubiously. “What, are you, like, a finance bro?”
It had been a joking question, but she wasn’t wrong, and I tried not to sound sheepish. “I was, yeah.”
She seemed surprised and perhaps a bit impressed, which was a nice change of pace for me. Pretty much everyone held their nose while talking to me when I’d been at HBHC. Sure, they liked me when I was making them money, but otherwise I was viewed as a pariah.
“Okay, wow,” she said. “What brought you to Nashville?”
“A new job. But actually, I grew up around here. My parents still live in town.”
I didn’t tell her the truth, that it was my father’s health that had brought me back home and not my career. I was the youngest of my siblings, and my dad was already in his late thirties when I was born. Now he was seventy-one, with a back shot to shit from years working as a roadie, and a recent pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
He was stubborn as fuck too, in complete denial of what his physical limitations were now. Even if he’d let my mother help him—which he wouldn’t—she wasn’t able to. As the baby of the family, unmarried and without kids, my older brothers had elected me as his new caregiver.
Telling her that wasn’t sexy. Plus, how would this twenty-something girl relate to any of that?
“Yeah. My parents still live around here too.” There was something off about her tone. She’d sounded . . . sad?
“Are you close?”
“To my parents?” Her reaction told me this was a touchy subject. “I guess. Not as close as I used to be.”
Family was complicated and I didn’t want to pry, so I shifted the conversation, asking what had happened with her brand partnership. She told me how hard she’d been working to build up her business, and the first company willing to work with her was now embroiled in a PR nightmare.
“You’re an influencer?” Shit, I hoped she couldn’t hear the disdain in my voice.
It shouldn’t have been there, anyway. There was a lot of money in that industry, and she was running a small business. I shouldn’t judge or look down on her. Didn’t I know exactly how that felt?
What a pair we made to the outside world. Me, a greedy stockbroker, and her, a vapid social media influencer. Maybe we had more in common than I thought.
I adjusted my tone and pushed out a smile. “That’s cool.”
She didn’t look convinced but shrugged one shoulder. “It has its moments. Times when the work is fun and doesn’t feel like work, you know?” Her lips skewed to one side. “And then there’s days like today.”
“I think most jobs are like that,” I said.
“I guess I’m unlucky,” she said, “because I’ve hated every job I’ve ever had.”
I let out half a laugh. “When I started at my firm in Manhattan, I loved the work. I liked the,” I searched for the right word, “challenge of it. But by the end? Yeah, I definitely didn’t love it anymore.”
There’d been times I’d come away hating myself. My only escape had been the club, and that wasn’t a healthy way to deal with the stress. I was so burned out I could barely function.
“How about your new job? Do you like it?”
“So far, so good.” It was drastically different than HBHC and seemed to be the reset I needed.
We made more small talk as we finished our drinks, and I got the impression we were both avoiding any kind of details. I took it as a good sign. Maybe I’d misjudged her, and Charlotte wasn’t looking for anything serious. She told me she’d come out on a date tonight because she’d been looking for some ‘interest,’ and I was plenty willing to give her that.