Page 42 of Mostly My Girlfriend
It wasn’t low fat, but she wouldn’t eat it otherwise. Somewhere along our journey Jules had convinced herself that being my vice president meant she had to look a certain way. So on those rare occasions I got her to eat something sinfully delicious, I considered it a win.
I thought back to Paris. Watching her eat the chocolate ganache cake. I’d been hard while her eyes had widened with pleasure—and she’d been fucking thinking about CJ as a future husband. I refused to accept that.
“We need to rethink Tokyo,” I told her. “I know you wanted to wait until we had a firmer footing in Europe, but I think waiting could cost us. Now is the time to start negotiations.”
I glanced up and could see she also didn’t look like she’d had a restful night. Her eyes were all puffy.
Maybe a fight between her and CJ? Something I could use to push a wedge between them? Something beyond what I was already planning, which would be to separate the two lovebirds for the next three months while she came to Japan with me.
“We can start to talk to them now, but if we wait, we’ll have a stronger presence in the industry overall. It will help make our case. You know this.”
I frowned. “I hate it when you use logic against me.”
She took a bite of the heavily filled bagel and moaned a little. Then she eyed me skeptically. “Is this really low fat?”
“Scout’s honor,” I said, holding up the peace sign.
“Obviously, you weren’t a Boy Scout.”
“Busted.”
She put the bagel down, then crossed her arms over her chest as if she had to stop her hands from reaching for it again. My eyes went to her left hand, which they’d done every day since she’d announced her engagement.
Hers and CJ’s. It didn’t even sound right in my head.
I searched for that annoying sparkle of bling that had been blinding me for the past two weeks.
But today there was nothing. The ring was gone.
My eyes went to her face and she lifted her chin, knowing I saw that it was missing.
“Are we going to have a problem?” she asked me.
I didn’t smile. Forced myself to refrain from even the smallest of smirks.
“No.”
“Now can I have my desk back?”
I stood slowly, thinking if I moved too fast, it might not be real. This seemed almost too easy. I hadn’t even gotten to the really evil part where I did dirt-digging on the guy to see if I could find any dick pics he’d ever sent to another woman on the planet.
“Sure. But think about Tokyo,” I said, as if truly that had been my purpose in being here all along.
“I’ll think about Tokyo when it’s time to think about Tokyo and not before.”
“You know I pay you to obey me.”
“Yep, a ridiculous amount of money, too. Now leave so I can do my job.”
I left and didn’t say a word about what had obviously happened. I didn’t need to. CJ wasn’t right for her. I knew that, because I knew her. He wasn’t nearly tough enough to make his way through the barbed-wire walls surrounding her heart. She’d only been pretending to let him in beyond the gate.
Why?
It didn’t matter. It only mattered that it was over, and I didn’t have to play the part of Machiavelli to make it happen.
Later that day, CJ offered me his resignation and I accepted it with graciousness. All things considered it was a practically perfect ending.
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