Page 4 of The Grumpy Billionaire

ChapterTwo

Stella

“Hey, great news!”Mom says the minute I answer the phone. “Your father got ahold of Hugo and explained your predicament, and he has a job for you!”

I blink, hoping this is a nightmare. “But I don’t need a job from Hugo. I very specifically told you that, remember?”

“It turns out that they have an emergency need on the admin team at Hugo’s hedge fund—Quantum whatever—and he already cleared it with HR. It’s yours. Starting tomorrow.”

“I can’t believe you involved Hugo.”

“He was happy to help. We can’t let you be homeless.”

“Homeless? This is what Dad presented to him? I was about to be homeless! Oh my god, I was handling it! I didn’t need you guys to strong-arm Hugo into getting me a job.”

“It’s not strong-arming, it’s networking,” Mom says.

“No, it’s interfering, because I specifically asked you not to.”

“Stella, this is a good thing! They need somebody. You’d be helping Hugo out.”

My blood races. I might be low-key panicking. High-key panicking.

My short life has contained two mortifying incidents between Hugo and me that my family doesn’t know about. I don’t need a third act.Best friend’s annoying little sister III: All grown up and still a problem.

“There’s no shame in it,” Mom says.

“You know who says, ‘there’s no shame in it’? People who know that there’s shame in it.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Mom says. “Should we tell Hugo you’re not interested? After all the trouble he went through to arrange this job? Even though you don’t have something better?”

“Actually, I do have something better,” I tell her. “It’s a startup for a new app.”

“Really?”

“Yes, it strangles people right through the phone when they do things you begged them not to. I’m gonna call it Python Solutions. What do you think?”

Mom is not amused.

In the end, I take the job. I do need it, and I’m not irresponsible, contrary to what my parents and brother think. I also want to take the path of least peskiness. Since Hugo already reached out and got me the job, I don’t want to make him go through the trouble of undoing it all.

She gives me contact info for the details. I’m supposed to call ASAP.

“Oh, and you’re not to bother Hugo. When it comes to Hugo, you’re just another employee.”

“Hugo wants to pretend we’re strangers?”

“Charlie says Hugo’s working on a very difficult and important project and cannot be distracted. Anyway, it’s a huge company, and your job has nothing to do with Hugo’s. And since Hugo has clearly pulled strings for you, it makes sense he wouldn’t want a fuss.”

“Don’t worry. But I would like to thank him,” I say. “I mean, that is what adult people do. Maybe like a card or a bottle of nice scotch or something?”

“Hugo wouldn’t want that. You know how Hugo is about gifts and displays of affection.”

“It’s not like I was planning on hunting him down and tackle-hugging him.” I say this breezily, but I hate that they act like I don’t know how Hugo is.

I know how Hugo is. I spent the entirety of my youth feverishly studying the ways of Hugo.

“So you promise?” Mom says.

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