Page 138 of The Grumpy Billionaire

Wulfric looks on, aghast. “What the hell have you done?”

“I ate pineapple,” Hugo says. “Next question.”

“What the fuck?” Wulfric bellows.

“This was the data model,” Hugo says, gesturing at the pineapple remnants. “Me eating the pineapple and not being allergic was the data model. Any other questions?”

“You’re not allergic?” Wulfric asks.

“I never was. Next.”

Stunned silence descends onto the room like a thick blanket. All eyes turn to Wulfric, who seems to thrum with pure molten fury.

Except for Hugo—Hugo’s gazing at me, looking so wild and free. And I know that we joked about the data model, suggesting it be a garbage sculpture zero or him eating pineapple, but this is more than a joke.

Hugo cares about things too much for this to be a joke.

A deluge of questions has erupted.

Hugo, was this a critique of in-house bias?

Is this an emperor’s-new-clothes thing?

Are you suggesting our basic assumptions need to be questioned?

“Hugo,” I call out. “Why?”

He looks right at me. “I’ve been embracing the wrong goals. The wrong method.”

I feel light as air. The wrong goals. I don’t know what it means, but it feels big and important and hopeful.

Suddenly he’s coming to me.

“I love you,” he says when he reaches me. “And you need to know that I’ll never stop loving you. And I’ll never stop fighting for us.”

“Hugo,” I say. “I love you too, but…” I look over at his stunned colleagues. I look at Wulfric with his murder face.

I didn’t understand the presentation, but I know it was Hugo fighting for us…in some elaborate and total Hugo way, and for that, I love him.

ChapterFifty-Eight

Hugo

I pullStella from the room. I want us away from here, away from all of these people who don’t understand, or just aren’t ready to understand. Away from Wulfric’s roar.

I don’t care if people don’t understand.

I only care about Stella.

She’s laughing as we rush into the elevator.

“Hugo, what have you done?” She stabs the door-closed button about ten times, and then the down button.

The thing starts moving.

She turns to me, face bright with wonder.

I kiss her. “God, you feel good,” I say.

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