“But I paid for it, so I want to see it.”
“You will. Tomorrow night.” I smiled. “By the way, why are you home so early?”
“I’ve decided that I’m not going to be at the office so late anymore. I’m going to be doing a lot of work from home.”
“Wow. What brought on that revelation?” I smirked.
“I’ve been working too much, and I think it’s time I cut back and maybe not worry about so many things.”
“So, you took my advice?”
“No.”
I placed my hand on his muscular chest. “Listen, big guy, we’re friends, right?”
“I suppose we’re friends. Friends with benefits.” The grin on his face grew.
“Right. I guess you could say that. Anyway, I don’t know how to break it to you, but you’re really uptight and way too proper.”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t take offense. You need to let loose a little and stop taking things so seriously. For example, like today in your office, I thought your head was going to explode when you found out about the stripper thing. I did it as a favor. Was I proud? No. But my friend needed me to do it because she’s a single mom and she has the most adorable little boy I’ve ever seen. She really tries to give him a good life and when I heard the manager at the club threaten to fire her, I had to do whatever I could to help. Would I ever do it again? No way. Those men are sex-starved losers who view women as nothing but fuck toys.”
“Did you just say fuck toys?”
“Yes. My point is, sometimes you just need to go with the flow. Another example would be how you can’t even make yourself a sandwich. You run a multi-billion-dollar company, yet you can’t put a piece of meat between two slices of bread.”
“Emerson, it’s not that I can’t make one. I just don’t want to. I have people to do that for me.”
“My point exactly. What gives you the right to order people around like that?”
“It’s how I was raised. We had all kinds of staff in the house that did things for us.”
“Of course, you did because you’re a snob.”
The look on his face was getting angrier by the minute.
“I’m not saying this to piss you off. I’m just trying to make you see that you can’t control everyone and everything.”
“Yes, I can,” he spoke, deadpan.
I sighed as I rolled my eyes. “I’m going to help you lighten up. It’s not like I have anything better to do.”
He glared at me—a glare so full of contempt that it was burning a hole through my soul.
“You think you can do that?”
“I know I can.” I bit down on my bottom lip.
“Okay, then. Good luck.” He turned and walked away.
“You wait and see. By the time I leave California, you’ll be a whole new man!” I yelled.
He walked back into the bedroom and cocked his head. “Let me ask you this. Why do you want to change me?”
“I don’t want to change you, Alex. I just want you to be more relaxed and appreciate the small things in life and not get so worked up over the little things.”
“Are you cooking dinner?” he asked.