Page 36 of Triplet Babies for My Billionaire Boss

“Can I ask you something?” Lisa asked. I looked up at her. Her face was serious. Uh-oh. Lisa was never serious about anything. Life was a party to her.

“Yeah,” I said carefully.

“Do you have feelings for Rodney? Be honest about it.”

I hesitated. I didn’t know if I should tell her. Lisa had led me to believe before that being with an older guy wasn’t so bad if it was just a one-night stand, but when it came down to dating, it was a different story. Would my friend reject me now if I told her the truth? Or would she be there for me, no matter what, the way she always said she would?

I nodded slowly, taking the leap.

“I do,” I said. “I didn’t plan for this, but somewhere along the line, I fell for him.”

Lisa raised her eyebrows, and for a moment, I didn’t know if she was going to support me or judge the hell out me.

“Well, I’ve always said you’re unconventional. If someone is going to break the rules, it’s bound to be you. Even if it’s a rule in the dating world.”

“So, you don’t think it’s totally messed up?” I asked.

Lisa pulled up one shoulder, looking around the bar while she formulated her response.

“Look, I’m not going to lie to you. I think it’s weird. Older guys don’t do it for me, and if you date them, they’ll end up dying long before you do. But I understand love and falling for someone without meaning to. And if that’s where your heart lies, I’m not going to tell you it’s wrong.”

Lisa’s speech surprised me. I had expected her to be insulting. Lisa didn’t pussyfoot around anything. She was straightforward whether what she said was insulting or not.

“I can’t stop thinking about him,” I admitted, feeling more comfortable saying it to Lisa now that I realized she was an even better friend than I’d thought before.

“Maybe you should sit down and talk to him, then,” Lisa suggested. “I’ve learned that there are some things you can’t work through without talking about them.”

I sighed. “It’s very mature advice, to be sure. But I don’t see how Rodney will be open to talking about something like this. He’s so difficult lately, and I’m scared that he doesn’t feel the same as I do. I don’t want to be the kid that misinterpreted love when it was just a one-night stand to him.”

“If you talk to him about it, you’ll know where you stand. If he tells you that he doesn’t feel the same way, then you know. But what if he tells you he does feel the same way? Imagine what that could mean for you. If you don’t find out, you’ll never know.”

I nodded. She was right about that.

“I just don’t think he’s going to listen,” I said. “He’s not being reasonable right now.”

“Either you try talk to him, or you quit your job. You can’t hang in the middle like this. It’s not healthy, and it will create a weird dependency thing where you always want to please him and he doesn’t give a shit. Your age difference already makes it hard to stay on equal footing. So, talk or quit.”

My cocktail glass was empty now. I turned it around and around on the bar.

“My dad will be super disappointed if I quit now. He got me this job, and it’s so important to him that I’m working. I don’t think I can do that.”

Lisa shrugged. “It doesn’t leave you much of a choice then, does it?”

She was right. But it wasn’t that easy. In any other situation, I would have thrown caution to the wind and done whatever the fuck I wanted. I had always been that type of person, defiant of the rules and doing what I wanted. I looked for trouble or trouble found me. By now, it knew my address.

But every time there had been a reason for me to be a rebel, I had been detached from the situation. This time, I was attached. I was emotionally involved. It made it a lot harder to be rebellious and to go against the flow and do something that made waves.

“I hear what you’re saying,” I said to Lisa. I didn’t know how to explain to her that everything had changed because I had fallen for Rodney, that since then, parts of me had changed and that nothing was as simple as it used to be.

“I know you’ll figure it out, Danielle,” Lisa said. “You always do.”

I nodded. I hoped she was right. “Enough about me, how about you?” I asked. “Any news? How’s life treating you?”

Lisa shrugged and grinned coyly, an expression I had seen on her face many times before.

“What’s his name?” I asked.

Lisa laughed. “You know me too well. His name is Josh. Such a jock name, right?”

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