Page 182 of Boss of the Year
When Joni had shown me, I was shocked to feel nothing but sadness for both the groom and the bride.
“About everything,” Daniel said. “Becoming a father when I can barely take care of myself. Being a husband to someone I don’t really know. Emma’s nice enough, but we both know this marriage is going to end in divorce eventually. I give it two years, tops, and that’s if Lucas isn’t breathing down my neck, you know? But her dad’s already planning for me to campaign with them when he runs for reelection next year. I think he’s got his eye on the presidency too.”
He started to lift his drink to his lips, then paused when he saw me watching him.
“Maybe wait until we’re done talking,” I suggested. “See if you still want it then.”
Daniel looked at the glass in his hands, then back at me. For a moment, I thought he might argue, insist he was fine and could handle his alcohol. Instead, he set the glass down without taking another sip. “Yeah, I can do that.”
It was a small moment, but it felt significant. I had no idea if Daniel would ever actually address his drinking—probably not, if I were being honest. But seeing him make that choice, even temporarily, gave me a flicker of hope for him.
“Can I ask you something?” I said as our ramen arrived, steam rising from the dark broth. I was pleased that the egg on mine, sliced in half, had just the right amount of jiggle to the yolk.
“Shoot.”
“Why did you come to Paris at all? I don’t really believe it was just about me.”
Daniel paused with his chopsticks halfway to his mouth. “I…no. It wasn’t.”
I took a bite of my egg and waited for him to continue.
“My dad told me all these things he’d heard from my mom. About the plans to get me together with Emma, including Lucas’s intentions with you. And when I heard that, something in me just flipped.” He sighed. “I don’t know if you know this, but I’m not exactly the responsible one in the family.”
I chuckled. “I did know that, as it happens. You learn things about people over ten years.”
He chuckled too, but his expression quickly sobered. “Yeah. Well. It never mattered to me before if everyone thought I was an idiot. I mean, it did, but it never reallydidanything, you know? But suddenly, I was being wrapped up in a bow, like somebody’s Christmas present under a tree, everything I wanted being taken away until I did as they ordered. Somehow, it felt like if they took one more thing from me, I’d fucking die, you know? It could have been a car, a book, really anything at all. But when I heard what Lucas was doing in France, that last thing ended up being you. So I got on the plane thinking I had to get you back from him because somehow that would save me from my fate.”
I thought about that for a moment before asking my next question. “Did you ever notice me? Before I went to Paris, I mean. Like, at all?”
For a moment, he looked like he wanted to tell me what I might want to hear. That, yes, of course, he’d noticed me, that he’d been secretly pining for the shy girl in the kitchen all along. That, just like the guy in the hotel room shouted, he was in love with me the whole time, still was, wanted me forever and ever, amen.
I sincerely doubted he even remembered that part, though.
I was relieved when he set down his chopsticks and met my eyes honestly.
“No,” he said. “I never did.”
Something like relief flowed through me instead of disappointment.
“I didn’t think so,” I said before taking a bite of noodles.
“I know that’s awful to say, but you asked for the truth. Lucas told me about some soup you made me when I was sick, but if I’m being totally honest, I don’t remember it at all. You were just…there. Part of the background, I guess. I have no idea when you were hired. Was it really ten years ago?”
It stung, but not nearly as much as it might have a year ago, or even a month ago.
“What about after I came back?” I pressed. “After we met on the plane, and the party, and that walk to the boathouse—did you actually think you were in love with me after just a few interactions?”
Some part of me—the part that would always be that fifteen-year-old, star-struck maid—sat on the edge of her seat with anticipation.
Daniel swirled the noodles with his chopsticks. Again, I could see him wrestling with whether to give me a comfortable lie or an uncomfortable truth.
“I wasn’t. I mean, you’re very pretty and all. That’s not a line—you really are, Marie. But, yeah, I think I liked the chase more than anything else. The idea of you and what you represented inmy head. When I got on that plane, Hubbard had just told my parents about Emma, and everyone thought I was a complete fuckup. Except you, this young, innocent thing who was looking at me like I hung the moon.” He shrugged with an honesty that was almost brutal. “Plus, if I legitimately fool with the staff again, Mom would probably kill me herself. I lost my virginity to one of the maids when I was, I think, fourteen? She never hired a cute staff member again.”
I couldn’t help but flinch. How unaware he was thatIused to be one of those invisible, unremarkable people? I was a girl deliberately chosen to be unnoticeable, unthreatening.
Then I thought about Lucas, who had told me more than once that I’d always been beautiful to him. He had noticed me, really seen me, years before I’d learned to see myself.
An ache of loss throbbed through me like a seismic wave. I missed him. God, I missed him so much it physically hurt.
