Page 12 of Tell Me the Truth

While Alexandra tilts her head and tries to make out what is on my book, a perplexed look suddenly appears, and she reaches across the table to turn the book over. She pulls the book towards her to get a better look and reads the title, with surprise.

“Billion Dollar Baby Daddy: An Enemies to Lovers, Secret Baby, Off-Limits Romance,” she reads aloud, each word in the title sounding more ridiculous than the last. She breaks into hysterics, trying to hold it together so that she doesn’t cause a scene.

Should I be embarrassed about what she might think about the string of red flags I’ve been presented to her over the past 24 hours?First, I call her with the number that she didn’t give to me. Then, like a stalker, I show up at this out-of-the-way diner at the same time she’s here. And now, I have given her a reason to question my free-time reading preferences.

But, I am enjoying watching her laugh so freely, as if the world isn’t on her shoulders. So, I join in on the punchline. “True life romance fiction is my jam,” I announce with confidence. “This is the sequel toBillion Dollar Baby Mama Drama, which was itself just a literary phenom.”

She takes a second to think about my last statement and when she’s sure that I’m only joking with her, she laughs uncontrollably, which I also find makes her damn sexy.

When her laughter is calmed to small giggles, I ask her, “How?” She looks at me, trying to figure out what I’m alluding to, and I clarify my question.

“How do you know I’m not just going to scream that the founder of the leading company in Biotechnology is here? The woman who has saved countless lives?” I am just joking with her, but I am also curious. Alexandra’s face starts to flush with pink and she shoots me a gaze that reads,You wouldn’t. I shake my head to infer thatI won’t.

She searches my eyes again. “You’re not the type,” she concludes, sure of her answer. I feel honored to receive her confidence in me.

“Go on,” nudging, and wanting her to continue.

“It’s just…yesterday at the coffee shop, you said I was going to do amazing things with my work, and you also said you just knew. You’re the loyal type. I can tell.” She’s sincere as she’s telling me this and I’m secretly hoping that loyalty is a quality that she holds in high esteem and that she sees it in me.

I do think of myself as a loyal person. A loyal Marine. A loyal American. Loyal to the values of what our American flag represents. A loyal son. I could also be a loyal friend.

My heart does belly flops in my chest, and I feel like laying myself prone before her and telling her everything she should know about me. The truth, all of it.

I start thinking,Isn’t there a right time for the truth?Or, if everything goes as planned and I’m able to redirect my Board’s interests to different sights,there’s a way that who I am doesn’t matter and the timing of when she finds out won’t matter.

“You don’t know me.” As these words escape my lips, I thinkDammit. What am I doing? Am I trying to stir up the hornet’s nest?

“I feel like I do,” she confidently reveals. “Ever since last night …” I watch her eyes veer off as her confidence fails her and her words trail off to a different path. “Though a part of me wonders if maybe you don’t want to see me again. I met you only yesterday and everything was so instant and fast. I was so easy. You left.”

As I let her finish everything she has to say, my heart bursts with joy as she exposes how my actions affect her. Not because I’ve made her question my intentions, but because what she’s telling me shows she cares.

My eyes seek hers so that she can see just how sincere I am when I tell her, “I had a wonderful night with you. The best night. And I couldn’t wait to give you a call later today. But obviously the universe has other plans for us.” My hands and face gesture to the diner and the booth we’re sitting in, hopefully explaining thatsince we’re both here by coincidence, there’s a higher power that wanted to get us back together. “My mind never left you this morning, and I’ve been thinking about when I get to see you again.”

Her grey eyes look into mine, either digging for something to believe in or for something to doubt. “What are you doing here? Really.”

“I don’t remember how long it’s been, but for years I’ve come to this diner to just get away from everyone. Not that I’ve had an awful life, but from the first time I came here I felt like it was MY place. I can come here and just spend all day reading, alone.” I pick up my secretary’s book and pretend to be nose deep in reading the story about the billionaire baby daddy. Alexandra giggles and my heart does flips.

“Last night at the restaurant, I was telling you a little bit about growing up in El Dorado Hills. I said it was a great place to grow up, and it was. My friends and I were given the freedom to ride our bikes anywhere we wanted around town. And we’d go to the lake all the time, just to jump in and hang out there all day. Life was good, I really can’t complain.” Thinking about before I started high school, I feel so nostalgic and wistful for those carefree times.

“Around the time I started high school, my dad started to bring me around the office more to let me sit in on meetings and business deals. Grooming me to be the next in line to head the company.” While I talk, I notice that I’m unintentionally shuffling the book back and forth between my hands. So I slide it back to lying in front of me, remove my hands from the book, and clasp them in front of me on the table.

“I have always been interested in the family business and I also can’t really complain that my teen years were split between hanging out with my friends and learning how to run an international company. My life was privileged and easy, compared to most. Anyway, when I started driving, I would just choose a direction and drive. Just to get away from the expectations and pressures I felt at home. And, that’s how I found this place.” I point up and look around the diner.

“Since I got out of the Marines, I have found it’s still my very own place of peace.” When I say this, she nods, and I feel like she gets me. Understanding that indefinable something that this diner has that keeps me coming back is something that she and I have in common.

“I completely know what you’re saying when you describe this place.” Her shoulders, once high and tense, ease a little and I watch as she smiles more. It makes me feel happy knowing that she’s relaxing around me and worrying less about anyone recognizing her. “Sounds like taking over the family business is proving to be quite a challenge.” She hits the nail on the head, and I feel a little tension myself as I am reminded of what’s going on at work.

“It has its moments,” I tell her. “Some of the people who should have my back, because of family ties and long-standing friendships, don’t agree with my ideals and it’s causing a lot of friction.”

“Oh, that,” she agrees, “That I completely understand.” She looks at me and I can tell that she’s thinking that she’s told me more than she wanted. I know from all the reading I’ve been doing about her and her work that she hasn’t been telling me half of who she is or what she does for a living. But I’m not going to press her about it. After all, I’m not telling her much about me either. I don’t know the reason, but she’s not asking.

Then I start thinking about whether she’s known this whole time who I am.Is she just pretending not to know so that she can get information from me? What if I’m the one being played here?But I feel like I know her. Like I can trust that even though she’s not telling me everything about herself, I still know that she’s not trying to pull one over on me.

“Ellis,” she says, calling me back to the present. “Are you all right? I was saying how I was going through something similar at work.”

“Oh,” I shake my head back and forth as my heart skips a beat. I clear my throat and sit upright in the bench seat to gather my bearings. Either this is a test, or she really doesn’t know who I am. “How so?” I ask.

She looks straight at me, apparently figuring out if she can trust me, and she releases a deep sigh.

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