Page 29 of Mostly My Boss
Water. Because.
“What are we talking about?” Ethan asked as he joined our group. He seemed more ramped up than usual. I took that as a sign he’d made progress with the girl from the kitchen. I wasn’t sure how he did it. I only knew he seemed to be a magnet for girls on campus, and I didn’t think it had anything to do with the money he’d made from mining Bitcoin.
“How unsmooth Julia is,” Daniel said. “Like, worse than you, bro.”
“Really? Even in your nice sweater?”
“I’ve told you guys, I’m not interested in dating,” I said petulantly.
“We’re not talking about dating,” Daniel said. “We’re talking about hooking up. You know, sex. Orgasms. Things that make you go hmmm.”
“Daniel, chill on that,” Ethan said with a tight shake of his head. “Jules is a virgin.”
“You motherfucker.” I glared at Ethan and willed him to burst into a ball of flames.
“Come on, there’s no use pretending it’s not true. What’s the point of hiding it?”
“I’m not hiding anything, asshole. I’m simply choosing not to share my business with people.”
“Daniel’s not people,” Ethan said, pointing at him. “He’s on our team now. Speaking of which, what are you doing for Thanksgiving?”
“Wait, I’m on what team?” Daniel asked.
I rolled my eyes because I knew what was coming.
“Team Ethan. See, Jules and I have a plan.”
“Ethan has a plan,” I corrected. “And don’t you have to get back to the girl in the kitchen so you can seal that deal?”
“Already done. We have plans to hook up later. Anyway, the plan is I come up with a genius idea and we all make money from it. Jules will run the business and you’re prelaw, so that takes care of my corporate attorney.”
“And what do you do in this company?” Daniel asked obviously skeptical.
Ethan tapped his temple. “I’m the idea man, obviously. Eventually it will come, and it when it does, we’ll need to move fast.”
“You’re buying this?” Daniel asked me.
“Of course she is. She wants to be rich and I’m going to make sure that happens. What will you spend your money on, Jules? More clothes, shoes, jewelry?”
“Sure, that.” Or paying off my parents’ debts. The second mortgage on the farm. Having cash on hand to bail out John the next time he was arrested. Ah, the little things. Not that any of this wasn’t the delusion of a potentially insane Harvard freshman.
“So,” Ethan pressed. “Thanksgiving. What are you doing?”
“He’s probably going home,” I told Ethan. He was a little overexcited about our plans for Thanksgiving. I said things likemashed potatoesandgravyand his eyes got wide like a kid on Christmas morning.
“Why? We’re not. My parents are going to be traveling in Europe, and with my schedule, I can’t go with them. Score! Jules can’t make it all the way home, so she is cooking. She can do the whole thing. Including stuffing the turkey.”
“Really?” Daniel asked, looking at me with surprise.
I shrugged. “It’s not a big thing. His dorm has a common kitchen I can use. Since neither of us are going home, I said I’d cook.”
“Real food. Which she can do. Because she’s from a farm.”
I looked at Ethan, wondering if he was putting me on, but I could see he wasn’t. He thought being from a farm was this exotic thing and that introducing him to my mother’s cornbread recipe was somehow going to change his life.
I suppose it’s why I liked him, almost against my common sense. Like, there were all these normal people at Harvard I could have made friends with, but no, I had to pick the extreme guy, the self-proclaimed visionary who got off on cornbread.
“Can’t,” Daniel said, although he appeared to be regretful. “I need to go home. My girlfriend has been all kinds of clingy lately. I need to put in an appearance as the dedicated boyfriend.”
