Page 58 of The CEO I Hate

Guilt washed through me. “Of course. Happy to help.” The bitterness in Jake’s tone was uncomfortably familiar. Even the game wasn’t taking the edge off. “Everything else okay?”

Jake shrugged. “I dunno.”

That was always his answer.

“We don’t have to play BladeBound,” I said. “If you wanted to do something else?”

“That’s the problem,” Jake said, sighing as a goblin shoved his character down the side of a cliff. “I don’tknowwhat I want to do next. I’m stuck. In this body. In this chair. In my head. And I can’t figure out what I’m supposed to do!”

He was restless and bored, and surelythatwas something I could fix. “You could go back to school and retrain,” I suggested. “There are dozens of other fields. Gaming’s pretty huge right now, and you’d enjoy that, right? We can get you set up in a nice place close to campus, somewhere accessible. I could link you up with Connor after graduation.”

Jake made a face. “Just because I like to play video games doesn’t mean I want to make them. And school? Having to start in a whole new field from square one? No way is my head there yet. Dude, I’m barely getting through PT every week.”

“Okay, maybe that’s too much too soon. We can start smaller. There’s a wheelchair basketball league that meets every?—”

Jake shot me a look. “Youwant to explain to my orthopedic surgeon why I’ve got new collision injuries on the leg he just spent eight hours trying to fix?”

I winced. Okay, fair point.

“Why don’t you come down to the studio then? Just…have a look around. See if anything sparks your interest. Maybe there’s a director inside you just waiting to come out.”

Jake tossed his controller onto the couch. “Telling stories is your thing, dude. And Mia’s. It’s never gonna be mine.”

I wished it was. I’d personally throw millions into funding a new production if it would bring Jake’s spark back.

“The problem is I don’t know who I am anymore. That’s what Gabrielle says.”

I shook my head. Shewouldn’thave said that.

“I’m not the guy she fell for,” Jake muttered. “She says that sometimes—she doesn’t even recognize me anymore.”

“I don’t think she meant it like that.” Gabrielle had stuck around through the hardest part, through the surgeries and the therapies and the hard conversations with the doctors about the limits of what they could do. She’d been rock-solid through all of it. Why would she say that now?

“We’re always fighting lately,” Jake continued. “I just…it seems like she’s reached her limit. The way she looks at me…It feels like she’s having second thoughts about sticking it out.”

I didn’t want to believe Gabrielle was that kind of person, but I couldn’t deny Jake was struggling, and that took a toll on a partner.

“Whatever,” Jake said, picking up his controller again and re-starting the game. “Try not to die this time.”

I looked at the screen as worry coursed through me: worry for Jake, for Gabrielle, for the future of their relationship. This trip I was planning for them really couldn’t come soon enough. They both needed a reset.

One hour and a bloody battle later, I said goodnight to Jake, promising to call him later in the week. I meant to head for the elevator, but instead of walking in that direction, my feet carried me down the hall to Mia’s apartment. I could hear the TV through the door. As I knocked, the TV quieted. A moment later, the door opened a crack.

“It’s you,” Mia said, standing there in a matching pajama set. Were those cats all over it? Tiny cats that reminded me a lot of the picture she’d bought. Her hair was down, her curls tucked behind her ears, and she’d washed her makeup off for the night. She looked adorable, and I immediately knew coming here had been a mistake because I felt just as drawn to casual Mia as to Mia in a corset.

What the hell was wrong with me? I glanced down at the fuzzy slippers she wore.

“My feet get cold,” she said, defensive before I could say anything. She pulled the door wider, stepping back to let me in. “Hanging out with Jake?”

I nodded. “Brought the new BladeBound game over for him to try.”

Mia’s nose wrinkled.

“I know you don’t like it.”

“Untrue,” she said. “I appreciate the storyline. Hunting magical swords through a fantasy world is very cool. The copious amounts of blood hitting the screen…less cool.”

I laughed. “I will share your feedback with Connor.”

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