AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He’s clearly into me physically and we talk a lot about what we’re passionate about, what drives us, but with work stuff, I’m sure you’ve heard about some issues that have arisen with the Pierce acquisition?”
“No.” She smiles. “I stay out of any business talk. I learned long ago that Jonas will rant for hours if I open that can of worms. He’ll discuss things but he doesn’t tend to go into anything major. Our therapist told him it’s unfair to dump all that on me.”
“Well, Beckham has allowed me to do a lot of the due diligence and reconciliation of financial records with Pierce and I found some discrepancies, you could say. After a lot of back and forth with their financial team and expressing my concerns multiple times to Beckham, he went to my father and Pierce about it, instead of allowing me to be involved. Now, they’re all having this meeting that I’m not even invited to even though I found the fraud. It’s frustrating. I wish he would stick his neck out for me more when it comes to that. He has defended my honor, you could say, to this sleazebag that is their head of sales but this, this is huge. I deserve to be in those meetings.”
I can feel myself getting flustered. I drop my fork and rub my temples.
“Sorry, I just feel like an idiot. You must think I deserve this.”
“No, never,” she says sympathetically. “Listen, if you both have feelings for each other, it is worth it to talk about it. Be honest with each other, even if it’s uncomfortable. You’d rather live with rejection than regret, trust me. I went through something similar with your father, you know?”
“I didn’t know.”
“I was the cliché young secretary whom the boss started flirting with, although I was the one who started the flirting. It went on for months. He thought I was just young and not actually into him. We traveled for work together once and things, well, they went too far,” she says and I appreciate the discretion considering it’s my father. “We both did the whole we shouldn’t have done that, it won’t happen again song and dance for a while before it happened again and then again. I was too scared to tell him I was falling for him because like you, I thought it would mess things up and I’d rather forever be his secret little hookup, than lose him by telling him how I truly felt.”
“What changed? What made you decide to tell him?”
She shrugs. “Nothing changed. I just decided that what I felt for him was worth telling him. If you both agreed that this would be a one-time thing, something that you both know for whatever reason absolutely cannot go further than physical, I would understand wanting to keep your feelings to yourself. If you can walk away right now, tell him that yes, we should stop and you can still work together and move on, then do it. Don’t keep fooling around because feelings will only grow stronger and someday, I guarantee you, your father will find out. But if you think it’s worth it, tell him how you feel and see if he feels the same and if he’s willing to talk to your father with you.”
“Oh God,” I groan, downing half my glass of water at the thought of telling my dad I’m falling in love with his best friend. “How bad do you think it will be?”
I cringe when I see the expression on her face.
“It won’t be easy, that’s for sure.”
“How did your parents handle it when you told them how old my dad was?”
“Oh boy.” She laughs, sitting back in her seat. “It wasn’t good, I’ll be honest. My parents thought they did something wrong. They thought if they had raised me better, I wouldn’t go after a man twenty-plus years older than me. But I asked them to give him one chance and they did.”
“And now? They like him?”
She rolls her eyes. “Yes. He and my dad are great friends. Which is wonderful and I love it truly, but I guess I didn’t expect that every time my dad called, he’d be talking to my husband instead of me.”
“That’s so great.” I feel relief wash over me. “Do you think it could be like that with Beckham and me?”
“I’d like to think so. I think where you might run into more of an issue is, your father knows Beckham. He trusts him, and guys have that silly bro code about dating each other’s sisters or whatever, even when they’re this age. But it could also play to your advantage. Jonas trusts and respects Beckham; he knows he’s a good man which is why I keep reiterating that whatever you two decide, you need to do it quick and make sure you tell him before he finds out on his own or there’s a good chance there’s no coming back from that.”
I sigh as her words sink in. I do feel some relief that she thinks there’s actually a chance we could make it work but also that she thinks he has feelings for me. It’s giving me the confidence I need to just be honest with him about how I feel.
“Hey, something else I’m curious about that I could use your advice on regarding my dad.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re pregnant.” She rests her hand dramatically against her chest and it makes me laugh.
“No! It’s about the money from the trust.”
“Phew!” She jokingly runs her hand over her brow.
“I—I want to use the bulk of the money to start a nonprofit and run it. I don’t want to pursue a career in the financial world.” She nods and I keep going. “Beckham listened to my goals and helped me map out a really strategic plan where I could use a portion to invest in startup companies so that it would yield dividends once profitable so, an income stream, plus I will invest some for my future but most of it, I want to donate to other organizations and my own foundation.”
“That’s wonderful, Brontë. You truly are an amazing woman; your mother would be so proud.”
I smile. “Thank you, that means so much but… is Dad going to be disappointed in me? I know he used to get frustrated with my mom about her donating and volunteering and he told me not to be silly with the trust when he told me about it at the birthday party.”
Her brows knit together. “I didn’t realize he said that to you. I would have spoken to him about that.”
“I get it in the sense that he has built this massive empire so he’s extremely smart and knows how easy it is to lose money with bad investments or changes in the market, but the reality is, I can take the risk. I’m not putting all my eggs in one basket and being reckless. I just don’t want him to be disappointed in me. With Mom being gone, I just want to make at least someone proud.” I try to hold back the tears, but one tumbles silently down my cheek and splats on the table next to my plate.
“Oh, sweetie.” Chantelle scoots her chair back and walks over to hug me. “I know I’m not your mom and I’ll never replace Nadine, but I’m proud of you. And listen, your father, he can be brash; we both know that, but at the end of the day, he’s just worried about you. As a parent, we want certain things for our kids. We don’t want them to go through struggles or hardships and sometimes we get blinded by our own age and experiences so we want to warn them against making any possible mistake, but that’s not how life works and he knows that. The bottom line is, as much as he might talk about something being silly, it’s hurtful and rude and I will set that old man straight, but he only wants you to be happy. He only wants the best for you.”
