Page 41 of Rebellious Hearts
I nodded. “Yeah. It won’t be for long, just until we get this project and we don’t have to see Richard face-to-face all the time. Then we get to go back home to our normal lives and you don’t have to see me ever again. It won’t be that hard to pretend that we’re together.”
“Really?” I asked hotly. “Because right now I can’t do anything else buthateyou.” I was seething. I couldn’t believe what he’d done! Married!?
Ben looked irritated and grabbed another cracker, sticking a large piece of cheese on it and biting into it. He chewed, bouncing his leg on the ball of his foot.
“It’s bad enough that I opened up about my past to Richie—”
“I didn’t ask you to do that—”
“I was bailing you out! You were going under with him asking you to talk about something other than business when we all know that’s all there is to you.” I glared at him. Ben’s expressionless mask slipped into place again.
I knew that face by now. It wasn’t hard to tell that Ben was used to hiding whatever he was thinking. His poker face was good for hiding emotions but parts of Ben were a lot more transparent than he realized.
“I can’t suddenly pretend that I’m married to you,” I said.
Ben shook his head. “It’s the only way we’ll get this project, Sofia.”
I tried to manage my emotions. There were too many of them, and when this happened, I would get flustered and my anxiety would spike.
We had to get this project. I didn’t want to go home and know that we’d failed. I wasn’t going to get a whole lot out of this deal. A raise, sure, but other than that… it was more something that would look good on Ben’s résumé, but that didn’t mean that I would just give up.
But he’d blatantlylied. And he’d drawn me into it and I hadn’t had a say.
I took a deep breath through my nose for five counts, held it for eight, and let it out slowly again.
I repeated the process three times to calm myself, and Ben ate his crackers, allowing me the time to get it together.
He didn’t push me to say or do something until I could get my anxiety spike under control. If I wasn’t this angry at him, I would have appreciated it, but I could only dish out so many emotions for him at a time, and I was full up on rage right now.
“I can’t believe you did this,” I said, my voice calmer now.
“I know.” Ben shook his head. “But what’s done is done, and if we get this project, a lot of people will get a lot of things they need.”
He was right, and damn him for using that against me, too. I wanted to help the people. I wanted this project to go through.
Damn it.
“I’m going to take a moment and go to my room,” I said evenly. “I’ll meet you for lunch and we can discuss this, but I need some time.”
“That’s fine,” Ben said. He was frustratingly calm after what he’d done.
But maybe lying and deceit came easy to him.
That just pissed me off more, and I left the living room before my anxiety spiked again and my anger returned with renewed force.
When I got to my room, I closed my door harder than I should have and stomped my foot. I cried out and gritted my teeth before I forced myself to take deep breaths again.
I grabbed my phone and dialed Elena.
“You have no idea what just happened,” I seethed into the phone the moment she answered.
“What?”
“He told the client that we’re married.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
I explained to Elena what had happened, how Ben had decided to hijack the conversation and change the entire game.
