Page 128 of Say It Isn't So

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Knox

Did you seethat?

That! Right there.

You saw it, right?

That thing flying by just over your head.

Yeah, that was my promotion. On its back was my boost in salary, too.

Let me bring you up to speed. Bianca’s fever hit a high of 102 yesterday after two days of this I’m-not-sick game, I think we could both finally agree she was sick. I texted her sisters and they couldn’t offer much advice other than to just be patient with her because she was a big baby when it came to being sick (their words, not mine, but I wasn’t going to dispute them). So that was what I was doing—being patient.

In any event, I couldn’t very well leave her. So I’d called into work the afternoon I was due on my flight aftera lotof thinking and told them I wouldn’t be able to make it to London. They’d agreed to send someone in my place but had warned me that it meant the end of discussions about my promotion.

It was funny, at any other point in my life this would have never even been an option. I never would’ve walked away from that opportunity for my career or the money. You remember my childhood, right? Who could blame me on the money front. But suddenly, a new title and money didn’t matter as much as it once did. Sometimes working hard was good enough. I didn’t need to work hard at the expense of everything else in my life.

It was like what I’d said about Rina: she couldn’t sit still in favor of work, and the same was true for me. Other parts of my life mattered, they always had, which was why I had friends and relationships outside of work. But a piece of me still always put work first.

Suddenly, with Bianca, I was noticing that had changed. It’d been a slow, gradual change that I didn’t even realize was happening until recently. With her living here, I would try to come home early when I could or bring home dinner. I always found an excuse, but really it was for Bianca. I didn’t like that she was home alone. Her getting sick, though, that was when it hit me over the head like a sledgehammer. Bianca was quickly becoming one of the most important things in my life.

Bianca was my Roman Empire.

So there you had it. Now you knew everything that had been going on.

Right now, she was still asleep, finally having dozed off after I woke her up a couple of hours ago to give her more medication and some cold compresses to help with the fever.

I, well, I was just thinking about my life. I thought about Rina and hoped she was finding balance. I thought about my parents and wondered what had led to their decision to all but give up on the job and money front.

I had a feeling that, as long as I had Bianca in my life, I’d never forget my reason for reprioritizing my life.

And just for the sake of argument, no, this wasn’t Angelo’s expectations coming to fruition. I wasn’t planning on mooching off Bianca. I was just learning what was really important and I was well-off enough that I no longer needed to keep pushing myself to get further and further ahead.

Chapter Forty

Bianca

“I still can’tbelieve you stayed home and gave up on your promotion for me. That was so stupid. You should have gone. I would’ve been fine by myself.” I hopped up on the kitchen counter as he sat at the kitchen table, his head in his laptop, typing rapidly.

He paused and peered up at me, shaking his head. “You don’t know, do you?” A grunt escaped his lips, and he muttered something to himself before shutting the lid on the laptop. “You’re the most important thing in my life. Screw my job. I don’t need a promotion, trust me. I have everything I need right here.”

My heart practically galloped out of my chest. All this time I’d known I was fighting for something amazing, forsomeoneamazing. And I had known good, decent men existed because I knew Dom. Then Frankie, who practically kissed the ground Perla walked on. It never seemed attainable for me, though, and I didn’t want to believe it could happen.

I’d figured that it was me—that I was broken or something, and I’d only ever be the no-strings-attached girl who men wanted to have fun with. I wasn’t the person you settled down with or had kids with, I was the one you did exciting stuff with. The less personal things were, the better. It was sad, but I was okay with it because I didn’t want to lose anyone important to me. And, trust me, no man I had ever been with was important to me.

But I wasn’t a floozy. I just enjoyed a man’s company, that was all. You could judge me for it, but until you walked a day in my stilettos, you’d have no idea how messed up I was, especially after losing my mom. It was really bad after that.

Tears welled in my eyes, but I blinked them back before Knox noticed and went back to the topic at hand. “And that’s sweet, but we both know you deserve the promotion.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Sure, maybe I do, but it is what it is and I’m just glad you’re feeling better.”

With my hands on either side of me, I gripped the counter. “Thanks to you.”

He sat back and crossed his arms. “Your sisters warned me you weren’t good at being sick. They were right.”

I rolled my eyes. “Who is?”

---