Page 13 of His Christmas Gift

I sneered as I rubbed my temple. He needed all these fancy things in his life. A driver. Fancy suits. Expensive watches. Aunt Lisa’s gym. He got anything that he wanted. No wonder he got such a big head. Hardly anyone told him no or called him out.

“Yeah, well, some of us have to do things we don’t want to do,” I said bitterly as memories from my phone call earlier flooded my mind. I hardly had any time to figure out what to do before I had to leave to go to my parent’s place.

Dean gave me a perplexed look.

“What are you talking about?” he asked me.

I sighed and shook my head, not wanting him to worry about it. It didn’t concern him anyway, and he’d probably just laugh at me because of the huge mistake I made. The last thing that I needed was someone laughing at me.

Dean checked his phone and motioned for me to follow him.

“Driver is here,” he said, leading me out of the bar and to the street where a black SUV waited for us. He pulled open the door to the backseat for me. “Ladies first. Can you even climb on in here?”

I rolled my eyes as I approached the open door. When he extended his hand out to me, I looked at it warily before giving in and taking his hand. It encompassed my smaller one, and his grip was warm and strong. I let him help me into the backseat, and I stumbled the rest of the way across so that he could sit beside me.

Dean shut the door and told the driver to go. He then glanced at me.

“Where’s your place?” he asked. After I muttered my address, he shouted it to the driver before settling back in his seat. He eyed me, taking me in as I lowered my eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong,” I replied, not wanting him to pry. I didn’t want to admit the stupid thing that I did.

“You drank a lot tonight. Something is on your mind,” Dean said.

I nearly rolled my eyes. Of course, as a businessman, a big part of his job was to read people. I didn’t need him analyzing me.

“You drank a lot too,” I pointed out. I wasn’t the only one downing drinks tonight. I couldn’t help but be curious about what drove him to go to the bar.

Dean held my gaze, keeping his mouth shut. It seemed like he was unwilling to reveal the reason behind his excessive drinking tonight too. He nudged me with his arm.

“You seem sad too. That’s all,” he replied.

I gave him a perplexed look, wondering why he cared in the first place. Then again, we were both drunk. This interaction hardly felt real, and I doubted we’ll even remember most of it when we woke up tomorrow.

“It’s nothing,” I said, but my voice came out weak. It certainly wasn’t nothing.

“Who am I going to tell?” Dean asked me.

“Ethan,” I replied without missing a beat.

“I promise I won’t tell anyone. Whatever happens in this car, stays in this car,” Dean assured me, placing his hand over his heart. His eyes were a bit glassy, but they were still gentle.

My willpower broke, and I figured what the hell? Tonight was already a disaster. I might as well confide in my enemy. I turned toward him slightly with a sigh.

“I’m not really close to my parents,” I started off by saying. There was a little bit of backstory that he needed before he could understand why I did the stupid thing that I did.

“Yeah, I figured,” Dean replied.

“What do you mean?” I asked him, looking at him with straight confusion.

Dean shrugged.

“You always looked so tense around them at school events. Even miserable at times,” he said.

I lowered my eyes, feeling a wave of sadness crash over me. It was a shame I felt that way even as a kid. They pushed me to be perfect so much, and it wasn’t like they were adamant about telling me they love me or that they were proud of me. It damaged our relationship, and I didn’t know how or if I wanted to fix it at this point.

“Well, they still want me to be perfect. How can I be perfect? I’m just a person,” I rambled as my head spun slightly. “They want me to be married to the perfect guy. I have to be a housewife or have an admirable job. A yoga instructor or assistant gym manager isn’t admirable to them.”

Dean frowned as he listened to me.

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