Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 37200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 186(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 186(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
“I have Kurt on standby. If Mom catches my hand in the honey pot, we’re fucked.” I run my fingers through my hair, wondering what the fuck I’m going to do about Millie.
“Good idea. Hey, Ezra?” Parker gets my attention.
“Yeah.”
“You need me in the ring, say the word.” I don’t respond because like mother, like son, the fucker hangs up the phone. It seems everyone besides myself has something to do. I get up, put my phone in my pocket, and walk toward my closed door, cursing up a storm. If only I hadn’t shut the door, Millie probably wouldn’t have left. It would at least have allowed me time to ask for another moment. A fucking do-over is what I need, and a game plan. I walk out of my office, noticing the emptiness and quietness of my place. It’s damn palpable. There’s no television playing softly in the background, no tapping away at keys or scratching of paper when Millie makes notes in her planner, and there certainly aren’t any sounds in the kitchen. The only thing I’m left with is the soft scent of a woman who I was an arrogant prick to.
“Coffee, then fix this shit, Ezra,” I tell myself, unsure how I’ll ever be able to make this right. Allowing her to leave a few things here, or for me to keep some at her place, is an easy fix. It’s the wanting a relationship that is worrisome. My biggest fear is getting close to Millie and not being able to give her everything she wants. She will grow resentful of me when I don’t want a family. Then what? Then she hates me, that’s what. “Fucking fuck.” I place my hand on the kitchen counter, not knowing how I even got to where I am. Today is going to be one of those days, one where I’m not stepping foot in the office. There’s no way my mind will be on work, and the last thing I need is to fuck up a contract. Parker, Theo, and Boston would never let me live that shit down.
EIGHT
Millie
“I’ll see you Monday at four o’clock, Millie,” the banking consultant, Perry, who is on the other end of the line, tells me. I’ve been talking to him about this for the past six years. He’s more of a friend than my banking consultant. Hence why were more on a first name basis. Plus, given my last name is not easy to pronounce, let alone spell—Millicent Saoirse—it’s easier. If people were to take the time to listen the first time, they’d know it’s Ser-sha.
“Thank you again, Perry. I know this isn’t the normal time frame, and I truly appreciate you fitting me in.” I called two days ago, asking if I could get my business plan together. When Perry, knowing from our prior meetings along with my finances, told me it might take a few weeks, I almost balked. Scott’s last time coming into the coffee shop was way more awkward than before, and the emails are getting less and less frequent, which is okay, except now they don’t ask any questions, which is completely unlike them.
“Not a problem. It’s been a long time coming. You’ve been talking about opening your own place one day since you walked into my office with your first thousand dollars to put in a savings account.” Doing it on my own was the only way, so that’s what I did. I scrimped and saved as much as I could for as long I could. Where my best friend had a trust fund or her parents to help her out, my parents weren’t wealthy like that. Nessa wouldn’t take their money regardless. The only thing she used them for was a place to live during her college years, plus a few things for her apartment, and I’m pretty sure she’s still not touched the trust. I don’t begrudge her. I love how fiercely independent she is, which is why the first time I mentioned buying Books and Brews from Bonnie and Chad, and Nessa asked me if I wanted any help, I shut her down before the sentence was finished. She got it. We both needed to do our own thing without money from others.
“That seems like a lifetime ago.” I’m at the shop now, having finished the preliminary paperwork in a hurry once I finally made it home, pushing my personal drama to the side. One thing I’ve learned in my thirty years of life is that the only person you can depend on is yourself. No one else is going to do life for you.
“Maybe so, but the memory is still the same. You were so proud of the tips you’d been saving from Books and Brews. I hadn’t seen anyone with so much pride in a long time, Millie.” Perry is older, sixty or so, and the only man I trust with my money, since that thousand dollars is closer to a hundred thousand now after he convinced me to move things throughout the years, only keeping it out of savings and lockouts until I told him that it was time.