Page 28 of Mostly My Boss
“I don’t need it anymore, Jules. Your protection. But I think that’s one of the things I was scared of after we...afterithappened. I thought it would change everything and if that happened, I would lose you, and losing you meant losing everything.”
It.He was talking about when his father died because he treated that night as if it was different for us.
He didn’t know the whole story. He didn’t know what I’d done to protect us years before that. Before Daniel’s wedding, which we’d both managed to pretend had never happened.
Because I’d believed the same thing. That if we changed us, we would lose us.
“I understand that,” I acknowledged. “I do.”
“But can you forgive me?”
“For what, Ethan?” I asked, feeling the emotions overwhelm me. “For fucking me or for leaving me? What crime do you think you’re guilty of?”
His lips tightened but he said nothing.
“Okay,” Carol interjected. “Let’s put a pin in that for now. I’m still interested in this dynamic between you two and why you felt you needed to protect Ethan, Julia.”
That was easy to explain. “The thing you have to understand about Ethan is how he was with his parents. Take the holidays, for example…”
* * *
Harvard
Julia
“Are you going home for Thanksgiving?”
I looked away from the kitchen where Ethan was laying his charm on extra thick with one of Dara’s friends. This was our first off-campus house party, and both Nicki and Ethan had insisted attendance was mandatory.
I didn’t know the guy who’d asked me the question. He was drinking something out of a red Solo cup that made his face flush a little. Other than the red cheeks, he was kind of cute.
I was wearing my new sweater and jeans, and Nicki had blown out my naturally wavy hair straight so that it touched my shoulders. It was probably the best I’d ever looked.
Like,ever.
And now some strange guy wanted to know my Thanksgiving plans.
“Nope,” I answered. “You?” Because it seemed this was the part where I should interact with the person trying to make conversation with me. I believed it was called flirting.
“Absolutely. I love Thanksgiving. I mean, like, it’s the best holiday because you don’t have to worry about the bullshit of capitalist corruption. Am I right?”
“I’m an economics major. I’m basically studying to be a capitalist corrupter.”
He left after that.
“Okay, you might be less smooth than my boy.”
I glanced over my shoulder, pleased and probably relieved to see Daniel. He’d become a regular at lunch with me and Ethan, and offered a perspective on our conversations that was always refreshing.
Because he excelled at giving Ethan shit.
This, however, was the first time he’d ever given me shit.
“I told him the truth! Newsflash, poor girl from Iowa wants to make money.”
“Girl, guys don’t want to hear the truth,” Daniel said, looking at me like I was crazy. “They want you to tell them you’re going to be the next woman of their dreams.”
I snorted and took a sip from my own red cup.
