Page 18 of Adonis: The Cost of a Billionaire's Heart
As we looked over our menus, a thought crossed my mind, and I lightly chuckled. “I forgot to tell you that during bath time last night, Mason would not stop talking about how much fun he had with Maya and how he wants to stay at your penthouse forever and never wants to go back to daycare. I think you’ve created a monster.”
“What did I tell you? I only work with the best, so in my eyes, the boy’s got good taste,” he replied with a chuckle.
“Maya’s great, though. I wish I could afford to keep her around. But people like her—someone you trust, and your kid adores—are a luxury I can’t afford on one income. Well, no income now.”
I hadn’t meant to bring down the mood with the reality of my situation, but there we were.
“I know you said his father’s not in the picture, but do you have family that can help?” Adonis inquired.
“No. It’s just me and Mason. All my family is back home in Maryland.”
“So, you’re not originally from New York?”
“Nope. I’m a Maryland girl at heart.”
“How’d you find your way to the Big Apple then?” Adonis inquired, eyeing me as if he were genuinely intrigued by my backstory.
“School,” I answered briefly. “I went to a private college in central New York.”
“What’d you major in?”
“Accounting.”
“That’s kind of funny.”
“What’s funny about accounting?”
“No. Not that. The fact that you came up here for college, and I left New York and went to D.C. for the same major.”
“Oh? Where’d you attend? GW? Georgetown?”
He sucked his teeth. “C’mon, Sim. Look at me. I’m a black man. There’s only one place for me there.”
My brows arched in suspicion. “You went to Howard?”
“Why do you sound so shocked?”
“I’m not shocked. Well, I guess I kinda am, but wow. You really went to Howard?”
“Yes, I did. I’m a proud Bison,” he said, pointing to the gold lapel pin on his blazer that I hadn’t initially noticed. It made it almost impossible to question his allegiance.
“Touché.”
“So, is landing a job in accounting your ultimate career goal?”
I swung my head quicker than I’d anticipated. “Not even close.”
“Then why’d you major in it?”
“The same reason a lot of kids go off to college and get degrees they don’t intend to use—for their parents.”
“So, your parents wanted you to go to school for accounting?”
“Parent,” I corrected him. “My mom. She was a single mother, too, and wanted me to go off and major in something that would land me a good job so that I wouldn’t have to depend on a man for anything. And well, we see how that turned out.”
“So, if it’s not accounting, then what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. To be honest, things turned to shit pretty fast after I graduated. Being out of school meant I had to find a real job if I didn’t want to go back to Maryland. So while I hunted for a career I knew I wouldn’t be happy in, I waitressed all over the city. Then I got pregnant, and after becoming a mother, it’s like I haven’t had a chance to take a full, deep breath ever since, let alone think about what I want to do with my life. I used to have big dreams, but now Mason is my dream, and I’m okay with that,” I confessed.
