Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“I don’t remember saying anything about you that she didn’t agree with. She was more angry at you than I was.” I wish I had a transcript of the conversation. Words rose murkily to the surface of my mind. She’d cried. What had I said right before I noticed that she’d started crying?
Poetic, but not realistic. Did you say something like that?
“She told me about a comment you made to Catherine; that you would have given up billions to be with her.”
Scott squinted a little. “And?”
“I thought it was ridiculous,” I admitted. “You wouldn’t. I don’t know anyone who would.”
“You didn’t say that way, did you?”
Had I? “No. Something about it being…poetic and unrealistic? Do you think that’s what bothered her?”
Scott’s eyes opened wide. “Are you kidding me? Do I think that’s what— fucking, yes! Obviously, bro!”
“Why? I mean, would you really give up billions to be with my sister?” I asked.
“At one time, yes. I would have. Not now. But I would have. But when you said that? I guarantee she didn’t hear you saying that about me.” He shook his head. “How can you be so smart and so stupid at the same time?”
Fuck. “She thought I was saying that I wouldn’t give up billions for her?”
“Would you?” Scott asked.
“I—” It would be foolish, wouldn’t it? To give up everything I worked for, everything my father and my grandfather had worked for? I would hate to lose Charlotte, but the question would never even come up. How was I supposed to take that hypothetical seriously?
Scott apparently expected me to. “This should be an easy question to answer. You’ve been engaged like seven times—”
“Five times!”
“—and you never felt like you would give up the world for them?” he finished, throwing his arms up in frustration.
“No. Never.” Was that how I was supposed to have felt?
Scott went quiet. Finally, he asked, “How much money do you have?”
“Like, my family or—”
“How much money do you, Matthew Ashe, have in your checking account right now?” he demanded.
I cringed. “Are you gonna be mad if I say I don’t know?”
“Are you kidding me?” His face flushed and sweat popped out on his brow. “Then give me an estimate.”
I thought it over. “I don’t know. Thirty billion?”
“Jesus Christ.” Scott had never asked me how much I was worth. We didn’t talk about money. I just knew I had more.
“Is that a lot?” I asked, and quickly amended, “I mean, I know it’s a lot to some people—”
“It’s a fucking lot!” he shouted. Then, taking a calming breath, he said, “Okay. I’m sorry. I had a moment. Dude, do you not know how much money you have?”
I shrugged.
“Look, if you want Charlotte back—I know, you haven’t broken up, but trust me, it’s coming—if you want her back, write me a check for thirty billion dollars.”
I tilted my head. “Are you trying to sell me your sister right now?”
“No, because that would be human trafficking.” Scott scrubbed a hand over his face. “Go, find your checkbook, write me a check for thirty billion dollars.”
I had more than one bank account, some not even in the United States, but the one I could think of off the top of my head…
I had no idea where I would find the checkbook. I bought everything with cards. But I knew who would be able to find it. I went to the intercom. “Jason, can you bring me a checkbook?”
“A checkbook? You don’t even know which account—” Scott stopped himself again. “It doesn’t matter. But this? This is why you’re not ever going to be ‘normal,’ friend. No matter how many baseball caps you buy, no matter how often you complain about the fancy house you grew up in, you’re never going to be able to understand the world ninety-nine percent of everyone else lives in. And it is infuriating to see you pretend otherwise.”
“Wow.” That took me down a peg. “How long have you been feeling like this?”
He stared at me like a guy who’d finished putting together a thousand-piece puzzle only to find the last piece missing. “Literally ten minutes after we met.”
“Well, why did you become friends with me, then, if you didn’t like me?”
“Because I did like you!” He made an exasperated noise. “I do like you. We have a lot in common and that’s why we’re friends. I could ignore your weird poverty cosplay. Until—”
“Until it involved your sister.”
He folded his arms over his chest and nodded resolutely.
Jason came in with the checkbook and a pen, handed it over, and left.
“Okay, thirty billion?” I leaned over the coffee table and wrote it out, hesitating only at the signature. I didn’t think my friend planned to rob me… Nah, I trusted him. I tore the check free and handed it over.
“Cool.” He took out his wallet and tucked the slip of paper inside. “Break up with my sister, or I’ll cash it.”