Page 31 of The Desire

The guys are standing around watching and laughing at how ridiculous Flynn looks when he is pulling faces at Blaise. I don’t know why I’m not attracted to him. As someone who wants kids and spends every day with them, coming home to Flynn would be just more of the same. Ahhh, yes, that’s it in a nutshell. I don’t want to marry a kid when I put up with them all day long.

It's time for us to feed Blaise some dinner and for the guys to head to the office for their meeting. They have ordered some takeout to pick up on the way there, and Tori and I will order something for ourselves later. To be honest, we will be starting with a drink before that because I can’t wait for the guys to get out the door. I desperately need girl time with Tori. I had already discussed with Adeline earlier that I think it’s a good idea for her to spend some one-on-one time with Blaise tonight before she leaves in the morning, which she was actually thankful for. But deep down, part of it was me being selfish, wanting time on my own with Tori before my life changes tomorrow, when I have a four-year-old glued to my side every moment of the day initially.

After dinner, it didn’t take much convincing for Blaise to want an early bath and story time with Adeline. He was tired from such a busy day.

Walking back into the kitchen after getting them settled upstairs, I stop momentarily, looking at Tori. She opens her arms wide, and I walk into the biggest hug from my best friend.

Standing there for a few minutes, I just take the strength she is offering, but finally, we pull apart.

“How are you holding up?” she asks, pouring the first glass of wine and pushing it toward me. Tori looks concerned for me.

“I’m okay, it’s just a lot to take in. Friday night I was exhausted, school was done for the year, I was all dressed up for your dinner, and then I had plans of doing nothing but lying on my couch for at least a week, reading and bingeing on Netflix. Then boom, and here I am about to move in with Rem for a year and be a nanny. This is just ridiculous, and what is even more crazy is the obscene amount of money that he is paying me to do it.” I take the first sip of my wine, when I really want to down it in one go. But the responsible person in me tells me to pace myself. I might be needed by Blaise, and right now, he is the most important person in this house.

“Don’t do that. You are worth every penny he’s paying you. And if he wants to have you work day and night, then he can pay for it. But enough about that. Let’s talk about the best part of this arrangement. I get my bestie back close to me, plus when we travel as a group, you will be with me too!” She claps her hands together as she settles next to me on the stool at the kitchen counter.

“Hold your horses, missy. You travel for business, and Rem is not going to want Blaise there when he is working. Plus, you are paying him to be on the ball to keep you all safe, so you don’t want him distracted,” I remind her, trying to pull Tori back before she makes too many plans in her head. Truth be known, I’m probably too late.

“Pfft, he has people to do that work for him. I’m sure that’s what Nic is telling him right now. It’s not like they aren’t going to make changes in his role to make his life easier and more flexible.” Tori thinks she’s telling me good news, but I know that’s exactly what Rem doesn’t want. I can read him like a book. He thinks that with me here he can continue to work the same as before Blaise arrived. He’s delusional, but I haven’t bothered to voice my opinion on that.

“I’m sure they have a lot to work out,” is all I can reply, my mind picturing Rem in the boardroom arguing with them all about how he thinks this is going to go down.

“You haven’t seen these guys in action in meetings. They will have a plan sorted quickly, there will be arguing and smartass comments flying across the room, and then in the end, Nic will put his foot down and it will be decided. The rest of the night will be used to eat and have a few drinks while they all joke about how the one man in the room who never wanted to have children is now a father. Poor Rem, I can just imagine how he will be coping tonight.” Tori laughs to herself as she is picturing it in her mind.

“I’m pretty sure Rem can handle it. He never seems short of an answer for anything.” I think back to the conversations we had over the last few days. Every time I brought up a problem, he would have an answer to the issue that usually just involved throwing money at it in some way.

I can already tell that will be a problem between us going forward, but it’s early days yet.

“You seem to be becoming friends quite easily. I mean, I know you have known him for a few months now but nothing more than a group friendship. But for him to trust you with his son is huge.” Tori looks at me, questioning how friendly we are. Shit, does she suspect something or is she just fishing? I need to make sure I don’t show anything on my face because this woman knows how to see right through me and read me like a book. I need to deflect as best I can.

“Do you think, or am I just the solution to a problem? He has no idea about communicating with a child, let alone one who doesn’t speak any English. The moment I opened my mouth and French words came spilling out, I became the answer to his situation. Sure, we get on just fine, otherwise I never would have taken the job. But I have a feeling it will be a long year.”

“I’ve known you most of my life, and if anyone can handle an arrogant man who has no clue, it’s you. Just kill him with kindness. Not like me, I would put him in his place with a mouthful of words, telling him exactly what my opinion is and where he could shove his wrong opinion.”

“We all know I’m not like you, Tori. Plus, he isn’t your boss. I need to tread carefully,” I say, giving her a nudge with my elbow.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sleeping with the boss, but that doesn’t mean I can get away with being a bitch. Nic is the first one to tell me to shut up and get back in my place. But I still tell them what I think regardless of that, and the guys are used to it by now. And surprisingly, sometimes they even listen.” We look at each other and start laughing, knowing that what Tori just said is funny. Not sure they listen to her or just humor her to shut her up half the time. Either way, I could never stand up to them like she does, but I guess I’m going to have to learn with Rem. It’s going to be a balancing act of trying to help him settle into his new role as father, trying to cope with him being my boss, and keeping him in the friend zone like we promised each other when I agreed to do this.

I haven’t even realized that I polished off the first glass of wine before Tori is topping my glass back up.

“Well, here’s to your last night of freedom for a while. Let’s get smashed!” Holding her glass up to mine, we clink them together and giggle.

“We both know I can’t do that.” I take the next sip of wine and am already feeling more relaxed than I did before Tori got here.

“Bullshit, I already told the boys that’s what’s going to happen and that Rem can deal with Blaise and Adeline when he gets home. You aren’t on the clock yet. She’s still here and speaks some English. Rem needs to stop being a big wuss and step up. So tonight, we are free to do what we like.”

“I don’t think that is a good idea. I mean, Adeline is still here tonight, but what about in the morning? Trust me, hangovers and little kids don’t work well together.” I remember one of the nights I agreed to go to a mid-week charity dinner with Tori and we had a few too many drinks and not enough food. Oh man, the next day in class was hell.

“Oh, stop being a party pooper. Toughen up, girlfriend, we are only twenty-six, not forty-six. Plus, he is only one child and seems pretty quiet. You can handle one kid with a sore head, I have faith in you.”

“Good for you, I don’t. But you’re right, I’m not sure when we are going to do this again for a while. So, bottoms up, baby.” Gulping down the wine, I place the glass on the counter for another refill, knowing this is a big mistake but to hell with it anyway.

“What do you mean you told Tori they could drink as much as they liked tonight?” I hear Rem’s voice coming in the front door and Nic’s deep laugh after him.

“Give her a break, man. You kind of dumped this on her with no warning. She deserves one night to break free a little from your cage you are about to put her in.”

Hearing Nic’s comment makes Tori and I both start to giggle again. There has been a lot of that tonight, and I don’t even know what time it is. We set ourselves up on the floor in Rem’s front lounge with the bar, built a nest of all the pillows and blankets we could find, and just drank, talked, and laughed like old times. It feels like forever that we have just had a girls night in. Well, not really in, because we aren’t at home. Well, technically, I suppose this is now my home for the next year, so yeah, a girls night in. Except this time, instead of Tori just crashing on my spare bed, Nic will take her home, and I will sleep off this spinning head upstairs in the fluffy cloud bed.

“Don’t let him put you in a cage… that sounds kinky as fuck.” Tori is lying with her head on the pillow next to me, both of us giggling at her comment and then we turn and look toward the two men standing in the doorway of the room staring down at us.

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