Page 58 of Bossed By Three Billionaire Brothers

“And I speak for all of us in case you were wondering. We want you to be who you are.” He grinned. “Bring your whole self to work, as they say.”

I laughed. “OK. I’ll try not to bore you with the details.”

“Gen, I’m pretty sure it would be impossible for you to bore me.”

Another smile. He squeezed my hand one more time before releasing it and taking a sip of wine.

I took a deep breath, trying to figure out where to begin.

“So, Mark. He and I met at a party one of my classmates threw, this cocktail party on her apartment rooftop in Williamsburg. He seemed so charming at first—funny and kind and possessing qualities one typically looks for in a partner. We drank, talking and laughing, Manhattan glittering in the background as the rest of the party seemed to fade away.”

“Picture-perfect New York romance.”

“So it seemed at first. Mark managed to keep up the charming, sweet act for about a month before cracks started to show. Of course it was totally obvious in hindsight. He was nice, buttoonice. It’s good to have a positive mood, but that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to get upset every now and then. But with him, there were times when something would happen that should’ve made him mad, but he’d just grit his teeth and grin, act like it was no big deal.”

“Not possible to keep your emotions in check like that. Eventually, they’re going to come out.” Sean spoke the words with the knowing tone of someone who’d either been through that sort of thing or seen it first-hand.

“You’re right about that. From the get-go he was insistent, wanting to know where I was and what I was doing and who I was doing it with. And he’d get on my case if I didn’t return texts fast enough, things like that. At first, I just thought it was annoying.”

“But then something happened.”

“Something happened. I bumped into this old classmate of mine, Josh. Nothing ever happened between us, he was just a cool guy. I was done with classes for the day, so we decided to grab a drink and catch up. Mark texted me while Josh and I were hanging out, and I planned on getting back to him later. Big mistake. Josh and I had only been hanging out for two hours, but I checked my phone after I saw, like, twenty texts. I called Mark and he blew up at me, certain I was cheating on him. When I told him I was hanging out with a guy friend, that was all he needed to completely come unglued.”

“Paranoid prick,” Sean shook his head. “The thing guys like that don’t get is the most important ingredient for a relationship is trust. You get all possessive like that and you’re going to drive the other person away.”

Sean was a smart guy. I was seeing it more and more with each word he spoke.

“Now that I’m a little older and wiser, I agree with you. But at the time, God I was so naive, I guess I thought he was just showing how he cared, in his own way. But it only got worse from there. He was convinced he couldn’t trust me, always checking in and demanding to know where I was. Eventually, I got sick and tired of it, told him one night about five months in that we were done.”

“Good.” Sean seemed genuinely relieved that I’d kicked Mark to the curb.

“I knew I’d made the right decision. But that didn’t stop Mark from his possessive bullshit. He kept calling and texting, alternating between anger and this pathetic ‘poor me’ routine. And since he knew where I lived, I was sure he’d been hanging around my apartment. I thought I saw him once, but by that point he had me so paranoid that I might’ve just been seeing things.”

Sean leaned in. “Wait, this all happened recently?”

“Yep. Within the last six months.”

“So, this asshole is still bothering you?” A tinge of anger edged Sean’s words.

“He’ll text every now and then, but that’s it. He doesn’t know where I am if you’re worried about him bothering you guys.”

“I’m not worried about us, I’m worried aboutyou. If there’s anything we can do to help.”

He glanced away, taking a sip of his wine as he did his best to force back his anger. The waitress arrived, replacing our plates of empty oyster shells with fresh ones. By the time she was gone, Sean had worked through his anger.

“Just saying,” he said. “You don’t have to put up with that.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it, I really do. But I’m thinking he’ll burn himself out in time. How long can someone keep up with something like that?”

Sean let out a wry chuckle. “You’d be surprised.”

A beat of silence fell. It wasn’t the bad kind, but the sort of natural silence between two people comfortable with one another as their conversation changed tracks.

“Anyway, thanks for letting me vent a little. Sorry if it put a damper on the mood.”

He shook his head. “Not at all. I said I wanted to learn more about you, and I meant it. Learning more about someone means the good parts and the bad, you know.”

It was strange. I would’ve been certain that blabbing about past relationship problems would be a surefire way to get any guy to run away screaming, figuring I was too much baggage to deal with. But with Sean, that wasn’t the case at all. If anything, I felt closer to him than I had before I shared my history.

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