Page 70 of Hello Billionaire

A reporter came over the recording, asking, “Do you have a date for the groundbreaking?”

Jason Romero shook his head. “We are very much in the planning stages of this process, but you can visit my webpage and join my email list for regular updates.”

They cut to a reporter from the news station, the thin, dark-haired woman saying, “Since announcing the partnership with Griffen Industries and this new project, Romero has gone up fifteen points in the polls, placing him narrowly ahead of the other candidate...”

For the first time since meeting him, I felt a little sad for Gage. His world was all a chess match, moving pieces for gain. I hoped he knew I wasn’t like that. The only thing I wanted from him was... himself. But in some ways, I knew even that was too much to ask.

28

Gage

I went to bed Friday night thinking of Farrah and her family watching that kids’ movie. It was cute, and I wished it had been around when I was a kid fighting with all the complex feelings of growing up.

She was a good mom, prioritizing her kids, even though I missed the hell out of her.

But luckily, Liv would be in town tomorrow and we could spend the day watching the Ropers game and hanging out. It would be a good distraction from all these thoughts of Farrah swirling around my mind.

* * *

The next morning,Liv knocked on my door at ten o’clock. Right on time. I had Levi’s game playing on my phone, but I was smart enough to silence it before going to answer the door. She was all decked out in a brown and gold Ropers jersey and holding up her brown foam finger. “Go, team!” she said. Then she frowned at my dark-washed jeans and white T-shirt. “You're changing, right?”

“This is what I usually go in,” I said, glancing down at my outfit. “Actually, it's a little more casual. Should I put on a button-down?”

She shook her head at me as if disappointed. “I could have sworn you wore a jersey last time.”

“Nope. I think I have a brown shirt somewhere, though... Oh! And I have my hat.” I grabbed it from the hat rack in my closet. “There. All decked out.”

“If we're going to the baseball game, we're going to do it right.” She took my arm and practically dragged me out to my car, drove to the department store closest to my house, and walked me back to the Men's section.

I tried to keep my Ropers ball cap down so no one could see my face, but I still caught a couple people staring.

“Here,” she said, holding out a jersey from an endcap. The gold was all gaudy and sparkly and didn't even have the name of a player on the back.

“This shirt is fine,” I groused. “I don’t need to look like sparkled shit.”

“I like it,” she insisted. “Buy it.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re bossy?”

“I prefer ‘an excellent leader,’” she replied, taking the shirt and me to the register. As soon as I paid, she ripped off the tag and forced me to put it over my head while still in the store.

“I feel like a little kid going back-to-school shopping,” I grumbled on the way back to my car. “You remember how we would always take off the tags and wear things out of the store as soon as Mom checked out?”

She giggled. “I still do that sometimes.”

“Well, we can’t all grow up,” I replied with a smirk. She hit my arm, and I pretended to be wounded as we got back in the car.

As I drove toward the stadium, I said, “Distract me from how stupid I look. How is your job going?”

She frowned, making me worry. “I know it might just be in my head, but I feel like the new supervisor is sexist against me. He always asks the other guys to do the harder jobs, and anytime there's an option for paperwork or anything like that, he's passing it off to me.”

Her words put a bitter taste in my mouth. “You're probably not imagining it.” I'd come across several people like that in my business and was quick to have them shape up or ship out. “You know, you could always come work for me.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I didn't know you had an opening.”

“I can make one.”

Shaking her head, she said, “No. I need to stick this out and see it through. I mean, he's only been the manager for a couple months now. Maybe he's just trying to, like, assert authority or something like that.”

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