Page 21 of Out of Luck in the Outback

“Exactly how much fish are we talking?”

He takes a deep breath through his nose. “We supply about eighty percent of the United States’s commercial fish and about forty percent of the world’s restaurant and store fish supply.”

Something about the global scope of Maddox’s life breaks me. “Why did you lie?” I ask, running my hands through my hair and pulling at the roots a little. A few strands of my hair come out, but I ignore them.

“I didn’t lie, Calvert. I just left some things out.”

“You left out that you’re a billionaire or something. That’s a pretty big thing to hide from someone you’ve stuck your dick in, Maddox!”

“To be fair, my father is a billionaire. I’m not. At least not until he dies and I inherit everything, I guess.”

I sarcastically smile and wave my hands in circles, and I have no idea why. I look like a human windmill, and he steps back, his eyes wide like he’s talking to a crazy person. Maybe he is. “Well, that’s fine then. Out of curiosity, what would you classify yourself as?”

Maddox looks behind me like he’s thinking. “Trust fund included? Well, I guess I’m in the four or five hundred million range.”

“How do you stand it? Were you ever going to tell me, or was I just a nasty fling you were slumming it with? Fuck, I bet I was so entertaining with my fifty bucks a day budget. I bet I was a cool anthropological experiment for you. Did you laugh at me behind my back?”

“No! I would never do that. Besides, I know you write for a budget magazine.”

“So, if I didn’t write for a budget magazine, it wouldn’t be cute, right? Well, spoiler alert, I don’t have a lot of money when it’s not expensed. I actually do use Groupons for burritos. I’ve never been axe throwing, but if I went, I’d use a fucking Groupon. Do you realize how stupid I feel right now?”

“Why? I don’t understand. Help me understand why you’re so mad, and let me get a word in edgewise so I can tell you why I did it!” he yells.

I don’t like it when he raises his voice. His face changes into something hard. I’ve only known him as perpetual sunshine, and the change unsettles me. It startles me into silence.

He pinches the bridge of his nose and turns away for a moment, putting his hands on his hips and shaking his head like my mother did when she’d catch Samantha and me sneaking out as teens. When he turns back around, his face is the soft and jovial Maddox I’ve fallen in love with.

Holy shit. Did I fall in love with the hot vacation fling?

“Do you have any idea what it’s like dating when everyone knows you’re ridiculously wealthy?”

“I can’t say that I do. I still have student loans, buy generic laundry detergent, and use coupons for pizza. It’s never come up.”

“Well, it’s hard, Calvert. I’m always expected to front everything, even buying shoes, dresses, and purses like I’m a human ATM. They pout if I take them to anything but the top restaurants, and they always bring up marriage on the third date. The women send me links to things they like, and I’m expected to buy them. One woman broke up with me when I wouldn’t buy her a ten-thousand-dollar purse. I have women that offer to suck my dick on the first date because they think it’ll get them a second.”

“How do you stand it? It sounds horrible.” My voice drips with sarcasm again, and I step back from him.

“It is! I know I’m not missing meals or dealing with real world problems, but no woman I’ve dated has liked me for me. Ever!” he yells, pounding his chest. “They like my money. They like the idea of what I can buy them. Women want the billionaire experience, and I just want to give them a real relationship. I want to hold someone’s hand while I hike with them or enjoy a conversation with them in a train car or read a romance book to them before bed. Sure, I want to treat a woman to special things like helicopter rides every now and then, but I don’t want to be used. I want something with someone special that isn’t about my fucking money.” He takes a deep breath and runs his hands over his stubble.

“You had a girlfriend. Sure, she fucked you over and left you for your best friend, but you had something.”

“She was fucking him while we were together. I didn’t mention she officially dumped me after I paid off her credit card, thinking we would get married and she could be debt free. I did that for her, and then she dumped me. Nice work if you can get it, huh?”

“Surely, there must be someone that likes you for you.”

He laughs a little and looks at the ground, kicking it with his basic brown shoe, and I notice the leather on his shoes is smooth and treated, still looking as sturdy and spotless as if he’d just bought them. My mind spins, and I suddenly feel so clueless and unobservant. The perfect and polished table manners. Expensive shoes. Well-fitting clothes. Nice shaving kit.

“I thought I found it with you,” he whispers. “You liked me for me, right?”

I bite the inside of my cheek so hard I taste blood. It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him I love him. But I can’t love him after only a few days. Even when my sisters have met men on vacation, the love grew afterward when they tried a non-vacation relationship. Craig decided on law school in St. Louis, and he and Regi grew around that. Samantha and Cooper have been together for a few months since meeting on a cruise ship. Cora had to go to Seattle to fully fall in love with Eric after they met in Hawaii.

I can’t love someone I’ve known for a few days. That can’t be how it works.

Why does it feel like that’s how it worked here?

I have a bigger problem, though. If I stand here and tell him I’m falling in love with him now that I know how much money he has, it’ll make me look just like the women he’s dated in the past.

But I can’t be around him if I can’t run my hands down his chest and into his pants or tell him that I adore him and want to be with him. “I can’t do this! I’m leaving. I want out of this fucking town where every place I look reminds me of the liar I thought I was falling for.”

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