Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Evilla’s smile matches her fun outfit. She’s not going to get too serious, either. She and Genevieve might not look all that similar, but I can see they have the same sassy spirit. “I think I’m too old-fashioned for that. I’d like some emotional investment to play into the mix, but I think that, on some level, being rational about things isn’t so bad as well. People should be compatible, even if they’re opposites. They don’t have to come from the same place or like the same things or be the same age to want something similar.”
Genevieve picks up from there, waving a crab stick with marinara sauce at Connor in mock disapproval. “I think it’s more important how people grow over the years and react to different circumstances that life throws at them. You both can be the most compatible people on earth when you get married, and you can think you want something. You can also think you can make it with or without emotion, but things change. People change.”
“Maybe marriage just isn’t for everyone, and it’s the way society pushes us into thinking we have to conform and do it; otherwise, there’s something wrong with us as basic-level human beings. That. That makes the whole thing go so wrong,” I volunteer. I should probably just eat the crab stick and stop pretending I know what I’m talking about.
Evilla is frowning, but she reaches for a nacho and dips it in the spicy crab and cheese sauce in the middle of the tray. “You’re probably right. Marriage is a lot of work, and it’s a lot of pressure from society, from family, from friends. It’s hard being the one inside it. A lot of marriages that end seemed perfectly happy to everyone else.”
“It’s probably better not to get married until you’re fifty,” Genevieve says before having a nice laugh. She doesn’t seem like someone who takes herself too seriously. She probably thought Evilla’s date from hell with me was hilarious. After she sympathized and extrapolated about how sorry she was for the whole thing.
I can laugh about it now.
But the light obsession that led to buying the company? That one’s a little bit harder to admit to.
I just couldn’t handle the thought of letting Evilla be out there in the universe and never seeing her again. Isn’t that exactly what I’m contemplating now if I leave the company in someone else’s capable hands? It’s surprising how it only takes a few weeks to go on quite a journey of self-discovery, though I haven’t yet. I’m giving myself too much credit. I’ve just realized I need to go down that path.
Should self-discovery be done alone? Or can one discover oneself by surrounding said self with other people? Or maybe just one particular person? Does that still count, or does it then become less about the discovery of self for self’s sake and more for the sake of losing oneself?
“You’ll be pushed into it sooner or later,” Connor says with more conviction than he should. Genevieve and Evilla share a discreet look, and I want to elbow Connor. We’re both wearing jeans, but he’s rocking a mint green polo, and I’m in a henley. We both probably look like assholes.
“No one is going to push anyone into marriage,” I try and say by way of apology.
Connor isn’t going to let me speak for him, and he’s sure as hell not going to let me apologize for him, either. “When you live in this income bracket, parents push for marriage. That’s what they do. They want a suitable suitor that ticks all their boxes. You learn to live with that, and you learn to be happy because you know it’s always coming. But you can always do what most people do, and even if you hate your life and your partner, you can always live for your children. Wait, I guess most people don’t do that. Most people just pretend their kids don’t exist until they have to get real about their own mortality, and then they get worried about where all their money and their empire is going to end up.”
“Ouch,” Genevieve hisses. “That’s bleak.”
“The fact that you don’t think so makes you either a total dreamer unwilling to face reality, or it makes you a spoiled little socialite who’s given everything by mommy and daddy.”
“Mmm, no. I’ve never been pushed into being anything other than who I am. Would they have liked me to be a doctor? Yes. But are they perfectly fine with me having a huge passion for nursing and loving my job even though I was initially going to be a surgeon? Yes. Do they want me to find someone and be happy on my own terms? Maybe I do get a gentle push from them every now and then, but we did talk about that, and they understand that even trying to set me up isn’t okay. My parents are different from yours. We have money, but my dad is first-generation rich.”