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I grunt in response.
He looks exactly how you’d expect. Late forties, wild salt-and-pepper hair, clad in a baggy suit and sneakers.
I follow him into his office, drowning out both the sound of his small talk and the fucking Segway whirring. The office is almost empty, nothing but a small desk by the window and framed newspaper clippings about the company on the stark white walls.
He pulls out a chair for me and sinks into the one opposite. Putting his feet up on the desk and folding his hands behind his head, he says, “So, Aaron, before we dive into collecting a DNA sample, I want to get to know you a little better. Tell me, what do you think about love?”
His question throws me. I was meant to walk through these doors and get right to the point. But I find myself answering.
“Doesn’t exist.” When he cocks his head and his brows knit together, I add, “People just don’t like to be alone.”
His bushy eyebrows knit in concern. “You really feel that way?”
“Yes.”
“How come?”
Because I’ve seen it firsthand. My mother got pregnant with me after a one-night stand. And even when the vodka wore off and the hangover kicked in and she cringed at the sight of the Irishman on the pillow next to her, she married him. Because she didn’t want to be alone.
Of course, that doesn’t come out of my mouth. Instead, I say, “Fact of life.”
Nutty Professor runs a finger over his bottom lip. “Interesting,” he says. “So why are you here?”
I’m about to open my mouth and tell him the real reason, when he holds up a hand to cut me off. Anger prickles at my skin, but I squash it by curling my hands around the arms of the chair.Not in public, Cill.
“Hold on, you’ve piqued my curiosity now, young man. There are other types of love, romance aside. So, I’m curious—what’s your take on those? Philia or Agape love—you know, the type of love that a parent feels for their child. Selfless, unrelenting love. You must believe in that, surely?”
My jaw ticks. Even more of a fucking myth.
My mom wouldn’t have stacked twelveSearscatalogs on the floor of the garage, tied jump leads around her neck, and stepped off of them if she loved me. If she loved me so unrelentingly, then she wouldn’t have left me with that asshole, no matter how bad it got for her.
And my father…
Nobody who loves their child would have done what he did to me.
I grit my teeth. Lean in. “I’m not here to talk about love. I’m here to talk about your payments to Quinn Ventures, or lack thereof.”
He blinks in surprise, cocks his head, andfinallytakes his goddamn feet off his desk. “You’re from Quinn Ventures?”
“No, but I’m here to talk about Quinn Ventures.”
He stares at me quizzically. “But you booked a VIP consulting appointment…” He trails off when I meet his stare with one of my own. Only, mine is darker. “Uh, listen, I don’t know much about the finance side of the business. You’ll have to talk to Karen in accounts. She’s—”
“No. I’m talking to you.”
After a heavy beat, he sighs and runs a hand through his bird’s nest hair. “Look, I’m sorry but we can’t pay dividends this Quarter,” he says quietly. “We’ve only been in business for three years and we haven’t turned over a profit yet. Apps are expensive. Do you know how much developers charge?!” He groans into his hand. “Then we have to pay for the lab, the aggregation of data—”
“And the Segways.”
“And the bloody Segways,” he huffs, not sensing my sarcasm. Then he lifts his weary eyes to mine and says, “Simple answer is, I don’t have it. Especially now we have to make that extra payment, on top of everything else we owe.”
“Extra payment?”
He nods. “Yes, the new shareholder’s tax Quinn Ventures slapped us with at the beginning of the tax year.”
“Tell me about it.”
He shrugs. “Came out of nowhere, but they want it weekly, apparently. I didn’t pay one week, and they sent a man over—” he drags an eye over me and shakes his head. “Wasn’t anywhere near as menacing as you, but he was pretty serious…”
