Page 56 of Not As Advertised

The problem with living away from home was that my tolerance for my mother’s cutting criticism and passive-aggressiveness meant that it hit me harder when I was back in her orbit. Every comment and microexpression was layered with years of disappointment and disapproval of me as a person. Each of my mother’s words blew catastrophic holes in my self-worth.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Aiden staring at me intently. I was not going to give him anything to work with at this table. I was a computer in shutdown mode, and there would be no rebooting myself until I could get out of this situation.

It took all I had to hang on until then.

I was seething underneath the calm facade I’d projected to the others at the table. I wanted to get Abbie out of that ballroom immediately. Anyone with a single brain cell could see that she was uncomfortable, though she’d tried valiantly to hide it.

I’d spent enough time with her both in and out of work to know some of her tells. Abbie’s shoulders were creeping slowly toward her ears, and the warm hand she’d placed briefly on my leg had turned clammy and cool.

Despite her initial tendency to be quiet in new situations, once Abbie warmed up to someone, she was open, adorably excitable and funny. Like she had with Claire or when she forgot to be self-conscious about loving Anime Expo so much and she let herself enjoy it. But less than ten minutes into this encounter with her mother and stepfather had her withering away before my eyes.

There wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do about it without looking like a total ass in front of the precise group of people Jack had sent me here to interact with. The last thing I wantedto do was put Abbie’s comfort on the back burner for a group of strangers though.

I waited until Caroline Maartan was engaged in conversation with another couple across the table before leaning in to murmur in Abbie’s ear.

“Are you okay?” I didn’t know why I’d asked that. The answer was no. I knew she wasn’t okay. But I had to say something to let her know I saw she was struggling. I hoped she could hear the worry in my tone. I didn’t want her to think I was ignoring her discomfort.

Her reply was a small, sharp nod and a tightening of her lips until they were nearly bloodless.

I chastised myself for being such an idiot. Of course she wasn’t going to do anything to screw up this business networking opportunity for me. She knew how hard I’d worked with all the overtime I pulled on a weekly basis. Abbie was too good of a person to get in the way of that.

Even knowing the answer to my next question, I still asked because there was a minuscule chance that she might agree.

“I’m good to leave. Do you want to?” I carefully phrased my question to let her know it was her choice and more about what she wanted at that moment than what the company needed.

Fuck it. I would call Jack from the restroom and fake food poisoning if I had to in order to get her out of this. I realized how special she was to me that I was willing to risk pissing off Jack to put her first. For the life of me, I couldn’t find the will to care about anything outside of doing everything in my power to make her feel better.

And that meant getting her away from her witch of a mother.

My question was met with a quick head shake as she continued to stare at her second-course salad that she had yet to take a bite of.

Holding back a sigh—or maybe a frustrated growl, I wasn’t sure at this point—I resigned myself to the fact that I couldn’t be her knight in shining armor and whisk her away from the miserable woman she was sitting beside.

Fuck if I didn’t feel like as much of a social hostage as Abbie was at this moment. It made me feel like a coward, like I was letting her down.

It was an awful feeling.

One thing I could do was try to keep her mother’s focus off Abbie for the remainder of the meal. When I saw Caroline had turned toward her daughter again, I jumped in to distract her from whatever vile comment she was about to make.

“Mrs. Maartan, have you and Mr. Maartan been patrons of this charity before this year? I have to admit, being new to the Bay Area, I’m just getting familiar with all the organizations. I’m sure you have a wealth of knowledge on all the worthiest causes.” The bullshit that fell from my lips was forgotten the moment I uttered the words. But I needed to keep these two busy.

I could not have cared about anything less than her response, but I knew people like Caroline Maartan. For whatever reason, her entire life was one big performance, and there was nothing someone with her personality liked more than to brag about how wonderful she was.

“Oh Aiden, it’s Caroline, please. Considering Abbie works for you and all. I can hardly blame you for your lack of knowledge about all the important charities we support. It’s not as if Jack makes much of an effort to prioritize his company’s philanthropic endeavors,” she simpered.

Caroline Maartan’s passive-aggressive game was on point. Maybe she practiced subtly insulting people at home in the mirror. I hadn’t been insulted so thoroughly since high school. The only difference between Abbie’s mother and the rich high school kids who used to pick fights with me because I wasa scholarship student was that those teenage boys didn’t hide behind veiled politeness when they belittled me to my face.

She’d droned on about the various charity events her husband had “generously donated” that year, giving Abbie a reprieve to escape the table for the restroom.

I’d wanted to follow her immediately but didn’t want to draw any more attention to Abbie or raise suspicion about the appropriateness of our relationship, so I forced myself to stay seated. I made an excuse to check on “my assistant” after five more minutes of pretending to listen to her self-aggrandizing chatter.

After I took my leave from the table, I went straight to the entrance of the room to find Abbie. It didn’t take much looking to find her in a little alcove outside the restroom area. She was leaning back against the wall with her eyes closed.

Not wanting to scare her, I called out to her just loudly enough for her to hear me as I approached.

“Hey.”

Her eyes shot open. So much for not startling her, but her body relaxed when she realized it was me. I closed the distance between us, wanting to gather her up into my arms, but resigned myself to a professional distance.

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