Page 63 of Serving the CEO

But none of it was me.

It was a billionaire socialite’s wedding, not the wedding of a girl who grew up in her parents’ Greenwich Village bookstore.

“Jessica—”

“Mom, I’m fine,” I snapped, turning to glare at her, the words tumbling out of me with no thought behind them. “And not everything is something you can fix with a couple of pats on the head! I’m worried about you and Dad losing this place. I’m stressed about work and other shit. But I’m dealing, okay?”

“Jessica, that’s enough.”

My father’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was enough to silence me, just as it had always been. I stiffened, blood rushing to my cheeks to turn them painfully red while my stomach turned itself inside out.

My mother looked at me, hurt written across her face.

Fuck.

“Mom…I’m sorry.” I sighed. “I didn’t mean any of that. I’m just under a lot of pressure.”

“We understand that, Jess,” Dad said as he came over to me. “But you can’t take it out on the people who love you.”

“I know,” I agreed, my shoulders slumping. “Again, I’m sorry. I suck as a daughter.”

Dad chuckled as he came up and wrapped his arms around me. “You don’t suck as a daughter.” He kissed my temple. “We all have moments where we lose our temper.”

He was right, I knew, but I still felt like shit for taking out my bad mood on my mother. Derrick and his little experiment were fucking up my life in more ways than one.

“I’ll do better,” I promised them.

I’d be damned if I let Derrick ruin my relationship with my parents.

TWENTY-FOUR

DERRICK

For the secondtime in under a week, I’d fucked up with Jessica, and I wasn’t quite sure how. When I’d dropped by her office shortly before she was scheduled to leave for the day, she’d only glanced at me as she lifted her phone, informing me she had an agent on the other end of the line and had to take the call. Her chilly tone had all but frozen my balls off. But the shadow in her eyes had bothered me more.

I was worried enough that I talked Drew into joining me at the Irish Pub for a happy hour beer. As soon as we got our drinks and found a booth in the furthest corner, I spilled out everything that had happened.

Drew stared at me from across the table, mouth open in surprise. It took him nearly a full minute to find his voice. “Are you a fucking idiot?”

Okay, that hadn’t been what I’d thought he’d say. “Excuse me?”

He looked like he wanted to hit something but settled for shoving a hand through his hair. Leaning in, he dropped his voice and said, “Without checking with Jessica about what she might want forher own wedding, you decided to have your assistant plan it. Not work with the bride but plan the entire thing.” Drew shook his head. “Damn.”

“It’s not real,” I reminded him. “Jessica and I have a business arrangement.”

“And you’re making that knowledge public?”

I shook my head, not understanding what that had to do with anything. “Of course not. Only a few people know the truth of the matter.”

“You really are clueless, aren’t you?” Drew shook his head. “She’s not going to be able to ask her mom to help, and if she’s close with her mom, that’s going to hurt her mother, which will upset her father, too. So you’ve fucked up her relationship with her parents unless she decides to tell them the truth, which adds a whole new issue between them. You didn’t even let her pick out the dress she’s going to wear that day. She didn’t get to take her mother with her or any friends to go dress shopping. A wedding is one of the biggest days in a woman’s life—and you’re organizing it like it’s a fundraiser for…prostate cancer or something.”

Tension crept up my spine as he spelled out, but I couldn’t let myself believe that was why Jessica was upset. “Why would she want to waste her time planning something that isn’t real?”

“Did you ask her if that’s what she wanted?”

I scowled at him and that must’ve been enough of an answer because he scoffed at me and took a long drink of his beer.

“You still don’t seem to realize that you’re playing with people’s emotions,” Drew’s voice was sharper than I’d ever heard it. “Not just Jessica’s—and fuck you for that, by the way because she’s an amazing woman –but you’re screwing with her parents, too. If they get hurt…well, I can already tell you she loves them more than anything, and she won’t forgive somebody who hurts them.” Then he shrugged. “But what do you care? It’s just business to you. Your little social experiment on why women aren’t worth the hassle for anything other than fucking…including Jessica.”

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