Page 60 of The Billionaire and I

“I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings just now.”

Her eyeballs almost popped out of her head. “Why do you think you hurt my feelings?”

“Because I could see it on your face,” I said.

“Oh.” Jenny touched her cheek as though it might have some explaining to do. “Sorry.”

“Why are you saying sorry?”

“I didn’t think you could tell.” She shrugged. “I didn’t mean to make a big deal out of nothin’.”

“You didn’t make a big deal, and you certainly don’t need to apologize.” I hesitated before I said more, mostly because I didn’t know what to say. “I kind of suck at this,” I explained.

She blinked. “At what?”

“Talking about…things.”

She nodded. “Me too. But we don’t need to talk about things, right?” she asked anxiously. “We can just get lunch, walk the beach, and swim.”

“Right.” I reached out and took her hands. “But I’ve been thinking…”

Jenny tensed. We reallywerealike. She seemed to be dreading this conversation as much as I was.

I took a deep breath. “Jenny, what would you say if I told you I don’t want you to go back to working for the agency when we get home?”

“Um…” She bit her lip. “I get it. I mean, I think I get it?”

“I want us to be exclusive,” I said quickly.

“I see.” She frowned, which was not the reaction I was hoping for.

“You don’t want to be exclusive?” I held my breath.

“It’s not that,” she said immediately. “It’s just…I can’t make rent working at Sizzler, you know?”

“Right—I know. I was thinking that maybe you wouldn’t have to work. Or that you wouldn’t have to pay rent. Or something.” I scrubbed a hand across my face.

Jenny didn’t save me from myself. She sat there, waiting for me to go on. I felt myself break into a cold sweat.

“What would you like to see happen when we get back?” I asked, coward that I was. Now, the ball was in her court.

She opened her mouth and then closed it. “I… I don’t know.”

Her tone was making me feel insecure—a foreign, unwelcome sensation. But Jenny was smart. If I wasn’t going to show her mine, she wasn’t about to show me hers. She was waiting for me to put my cards on the table so she could adjust accordingly.

Although I sucked at relationships, I was good at negotiating deals. So I snapped out of my panic long enough to remember the rules: listen more than talk, and never make the first offer if you could avoid it. I had to get something, anything, from Jenny. Then, I’d have a place to start.

“That’s fair. I know I’m being a little broad.” I nodded. “How about I ask you a couple of questions, and you can answer yes or no?”

“Okay.” But she sounded wary.

“Do you want to return to AccommoDating when the trip ends?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Not necessarily.”

“Would you… Jenny, would you like to live in a different apartment? Someplace nice?”

She waited for a moment. Then she smiled at me, but it wasn’t “my” Jenny’s smile. It was a smile I’d seen before. Mostly from parties on the other side of a business deal when they had zero intention of playing by my rules. “Coley, why don’t you just say what you want to say? You’re askin’ me all these questions, but like you said, it’s too ‘broad.’ I don’t know what you want.”

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