Page 58 of Faking It with my Billionaire Grump

“Well...” She smirks. “I think I was a little bit at the beginning.”

I smile, remembering our rocky start, and then I simply gaze at her. “It’s been my pleasure to be able to help you. What are friends for, right?”

“Is that what we are now? Friends?” she says.

Is that a trick question? I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place here. If I say I feel more, then I’m being selfish. She doesn’t need me muddying the waters about her career. But if I say yes, I’m lying, right?

Sometimes, lies are good things. Especially if it’s a kindness to someone else, like telling a pregnant woman she doesn’t look fat in a dress. I end up going with what I should say rather than what I want to say.

“We’ll always be friends, Til.”

She nods and smiles, and then, standing, she says, “I’m going to go and pack my stuff.”

23

Tilly

“Are you okay, sweetheart?”Dad asks as we pull onto the main road and leave Jake’s property behind us.

“Yep,” I say, my throat feeling tight.

He shoots me a glance, clearly not convinced by my words. “No, you’re not.”

“I’m fine, really,” I croak, fighting back the tears.

“Tilly.”

“Dad. Please. I don’t want to talk about it.”

And so we don’t, and Dad doesn’t say another word all the way back to the house.

“Tilly,” he says as I yank my suitcase out of the truck. “Please, darlin’. Tell me what’s going on? Did you and Jake have a fight?”

I shake my head. “No. The opposite, actually.”

Dad frowns. “I don’t understand.”

“Me, neither.” I laugh mirthlessly. “I need to be by myself for a while, though, if that’s okay.”

He looks down at me sadly and then nods. “Alright, darlin’. But your mom and I are both worried.”

“I’ll be fine,” I lie.

I skip having to deal with Mom, and with suitcase in hand, I head straight to the barn, locking the door behind me. Dumping the case on the floor, I run up the stairs, throw myself onto the old mattress, and burst into tears.

The sobs burst from my chest as I feel like my world is crumbling around me. My body jerks as I gasp for breath, but the tears are relentless, and I can’t do anything but let them flow. My heart is broken, my mind is numb, and I cry for a long time.

It’s sometime later when I calm down. Not that I move from the bed. In fact, I’m curled up on my side, gazing, unseeing, into nothingness. The soft blanket presses into the skin of my cheek, but other than that, I can feel nothing at all.

This was not how I expected things to go.

When I went to see Mel earlier, we came up with a plan. Of course, she was sad that I might be returning to the city. She was also certain that I’d reconnected with everyone here and thought I was going to stay. But I was confused and at a total loss as to what I should do.

It took several cups of coffee to get through it, but at the start, when I told her about the promotion, Mel was stunned.

“You’re going back? But I thought… I mean, what about Jake?”

“That’s the very reason I’m here,” I said, dumping myself on her sofa.

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