Page 7 of Hate To Love You

“I’m not going to do that. Not unless you want me to.”

“Argh! No. It was metaphorical!” What the hell is going on with me that the sort of sex joke he just made sends shockwaves of heat through my whole body? Whether I walk out with my head held high or whether he drapes me over his shoulder like a wilted sack, it’s not going to change anything. If he spanks me when I’m draped over his shoulder as I throw a massive fit…well…that certainly wouldn’t be hot. That would be horrible. Terribly wrong. Awful.

What the hell is wrong with you, brain? Get it together. Stop sending the rest of my body faulty signals. Apollo is ewww. He’s always going to be yucky. Just seriously, no thanks.

“You’re beautiful. You know that, Patience?”

Real shock rockets through me again. My mouth drops open, and I have to force it shut. “Kindly refrain from making comments about me!”

“I’m sorry. I will.” He looks like he’ll keep that promise for all of five seconds.

“If we have to do this, I’m doing it for my dad and all those people who work for him. Not for you. Never for you. If I agree to marry you, it’s just what you said. A contract thing until we can work things out with our families. Then we can do what other married couples do and start living separate lives because we’re too busy to actually connect. We can appear to fall out of love, and no one would question that because, again, that’s how most marriages end up. Eventually, one of us can make a show of leaving, or we can just get a divorce. As a gesture of good faith, I want it written into the contract that the day I marry you, you give my dad’s company fifty thousand dollars as a loan to be paid back over a ten-year period, and if at the end of ten years, it can’t be paid back, you forgive it anyway. I’ll sign a prenup or anything else you want saying I can’t touch your assets. I think that’s fair.”

Fair? No. None of this is fair. I don’t know what I’m even saying anymore.

“I can do one better.” Of course he can. He’s the god of pretty much freaking everything, including one-upping a person. “Fifty grand isn’t going to give your dad’s company the help it needs. That’s just a short-term solution to pay off some of the bills and debts the company owes. I can give the company a two-billion-dollar loan.”

“Oh my god. Why? You’re…you’re going to level up on me like this?”

“No. It’s because I believe in what he’s doing. He took my dad’s software, and he’s using it to help make medical advances. That’s incredible and important. My dad’s company just does programming. Your dad was one of the best he’d ever seen, and he had a dream. It wasn’t to get rich. It was to make the world a better place. Both our dads want that, but what your dad is doing could save millions of lives. He just needs the money to go big. Honestly, he should look at relocating his company. He needs to get into doing more testing and getting it done faster. All these years, he’s been stalled out, and his ideas are great.”

It’s even more sickening to realize this man has done his homework. He knows about my dad. He knows about the company. Did he just stay up surfing the internet like a fiend, or did he already know before that poker game?

“Doesn’t that make your dad a double asshole for trying to run us into the ground all these years?”

“Sometimes grudges and what people view as betrayal skew a person’s vision and make them do things they shouldn’t and would never do. My dad isn’t perfect, and I’m not saying he’s right. I’m not saying I was right to leave for all those years. I just…well…there’s no excuse. If it helps things now, I didn’t want to go, and then I was building a life and getting my master’s and swimming, and it was hard to come back in the middle of all that. I got caught up in working for my dad. I didn’t realize things were so bad here until I got back a few weeks ago.”

“Weeks? You’ve been back for weeks?” How did I not know that?

At long last, there’s a hint of discomfort on his face, but it doesn’t come through in his voice. “Yes, thank god, or I wouldn’t have been at that poker game last night, and your dad’s company wouldn’t be a thing this morning because two men got emotional again and let their not-so-better judgment prevail.”

“I hate you, Apollo.”

“So you’ve said. Will you have me as your dearly beloved, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, anyway?”

“It will all be for worse.” Snapping turtle me is coming out to play now. “What other choice do I have? I’m sacrificing myself for my family or my dad’s company and I guess you’re right about one thing. This feud has gone on long enough. It’s ridiculous, and it has to stop. If this is the way to get them to see reason and save my dad’s company and all the people who work for him and all their work and research, then how can I say no?”

“So, you accept?’

“I accept your proposal and your bloody money. That’s it. But I don’t accept you. I will never accept you.”

“Okay.”

“You’re not a part of my life anymore. And you’re never going to be a part of my life again in anything but the most rudimentary way.”

“Alright.”

“I’m bringing more than a bag with me. I’m bringing my whole stash of creepy dolls and all my creepy doll-making supplies.”

“Absolutely. I’ll make room and uh…order up some kind of exorcism if I have to.”

“Stop agreeing with me.”

“I’m sorry. Do you want me to fight with you?”

“No!” I’m pretty sure fighting shows that you care about something.

“I want to prove to you that I’m still that boy you trusted. I’m still that boy, and the promise I made to take care of you still stands.”

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