Page 59 of Becoming His Muse
“I had several emails from my team. My agent isn’t used to me taking time off, so she flooded my inbox with things that could have waited until I returned. I’m sure you had more to catch up on than I did.”
“My team is good at running things in my absence. There were two companies interested in getting temp employees from us. I made appointments to meet them both and figure out how we could help them.”
They lapsed into silence for a few minutes as they ate, and it felt charged to Olani. She knew it was because she was thinking of the conversation they needed to have. Or did they need to? She knew the site’s goal, but she enjoyed dating Elion, being in a relationship with him. She wouldn’t mind them continuing their relationship without discussing what was supposed to happen, the decision they needed to make.
“This is delicious, Sweetheart,” Elion stated, pulling her from her thoughts.
“Thank you, baby. It’s one of my favorite recipes to make. Usually, it’s just for myself or when my mother visits. Xola isn’t a salmon fan, so we avoid it when we have dinner together. The smell of it even bothers her.”
“Well, whenever you want some company when having it, I’m more than willing to volunteer.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
They finished their dinner, conversing about what they’d missed at work on their week away, and Olani asked him how the artist he’d chosen to share his exhibit with was progressing in their paintings.
When they finished dinner and shared a slice of cheesecake, Elion volunteered to help her with the dishes, but Olani waved him off, stating she’d do it later. So, he poured them both another glass of wine, and they retreated to the living room.
“I wanted to talk to you about something,” he stated, placing his glass on a coaster on the coffee table.
“Okay,” Olani responded. She knew the topic he wanted to discuss.
“I know that last week marked our twelve weeks together, and those three months went by faster than I thought they would. I’ve enjoyed getting to know you and being in this relationship with you. This is the one time I can say that Clara minding my business worked out for me.” He paused for a second. “I don’tknow how I lucked out, how of all the women on that site I was matched with you, but—”
“I was the only one you could have been matched with,” Olani cut in.
She wasn’t sure where his speech was going. If it was leading to the results that caused her to make the site. If it was, she wanted to come clean with him,neededto come clean with him. Even if that wasn’t where it was heading, she still wanted to tell him it was no accident they’d ended up together.
In the beginning, she’d been able to push the guilt she felt aside, but the closer they got to the end of their twelve weeks, the guiltier she felt. It was always there under the surface when they spent time together, but she never allowed it to overshadow the fun she had with him, the intimacy she shared with him.
“What?” Elion questioned.
“On the site, it wasn’t luck that matched us together. It was because I was the only one you could have matched with. Because I chose to match with you. It was because I…I own the site.”
Elion stared at Olani momentarily, letting her words sink in and then replaying them when he wasn’t sure what to make of them. He knew he’d heard her correctly, knew she’d said what he thought she had, but the implication behind the words was hard for him to swallow. He needed her to elaborate on what she meant and tell him that the way he’d taken those words was wrong; the conclusion he’d drawn was wrong.
“Say that again,” he requested.
“I own the site,” she responded softly.
Okay, so she owned a dating site. That wasn’t a bad thing. He wasn’t sure why she hadn’t told him until now, but he could deal with that, but…
“What did you mean by you’re the only one I could have matched with?”
“I made the site because I was tired of bad dates or casual relationships that didn’t lead anywhere. I was the only one you could match with because I was the only woman on the site.”
Elion was momentarily silent as he let her words sink in. The weight of what she’d said, what she’d confessed, hung heavy in the air.
“You took the time to create and publish a website to find a husband for yourself. You misled who knows how many men who signed up genuinely looking for the same thing, and I’m assuming most of them never received a response because you didn’t like them. So, they wasted their time;youwasted their time.”
Olani wrang her wrist. “When you put it like that, you make it sound—”
“Exactly how it should,” he cut her off. “I get wanting to find someone, but did you ever stop to think about how selfish you were choosing to do it? How misleading it was? Everyone who signed up for that site thought they would be paired with someone or at least have options given to them, but they didn’t.”
“I didn’t do it with ill intent.”
Some part of him knew that, believed that hadn’t been the case, but if the roles were reversed, if he’d been the one to do what she’d done, then his agenda and motives would be called into question regardless of how he spun it.
“You may not have, but you cultivated a pool of men for you alone to choose from, to judge and deem them worthy of your time, or to throw them aside because you didn’t like the answers they gave to your questionnaire. You made a site that catered toyour needs alone, without a thought for those you were trying to attract. A site that’s still up.”
