Page 12 of Meant for Them
“Rejected?”
“It will be okay, Morgan. But it’s probably best if we don’t talk anymore. I’m in the process of transferring the house to your name. You won’t want for anything.”
“What the fuck is happening right now? Alex, are you fucking crazy?”
“I mean, kind of feels like it, if I’m being honest. Just trying to take care of you, whether you want me or not.”
“I'm losing my mind. That's what's happening, right? What do youmeanyou're being rejected? Rejection implies there was an offer made. Alex, I don't even know what to say to you right now. Whatever you're feeling right now, it's of your own making. I don't want your house. I never said I did, and I'm not going to accept that.
“You hired me to do a job, and I've been doing it. Other than telling me you're not going to touch me until I beg you for it, you have literally not made a single move on me. I don't know what kind of woman you're used to dealing with, but romance is an option. Like, it's something you can do.
“Obviously, I'm jaded. Alright? That's not up for contestation.Iknow I'm a kickass person, but time and again the world has beaten me down and told me what I’m allowed to deserve. Honestly, if you'd been some ratty man with only 50 bucks to his name, and came into that store where I was working and made me laugh, and flirted, and told me we were fated, and that you wanted to see what we could be, and asked me out for a five dollar pizza in a park somewhere, I would have hopped on that so fast.”
“So now I can't be with you because I'm wealthy? I'll give away my money. That's what you want? A broke mate?”
“Oh my gods, you're giving me a headache. I need you to keep your mind quiet for just like, 30 seconds. Can you do that for me? Listen to the words that I'm telling you and take them at face value. You have not expressed interest in me as your mate. Yes, you've told me why you hired me, because you didn't think I would agree to move in with you otherwise, but we had an incident with your cook, and then you disappeared, and now suddenly I'm rejecting you? I don't understand how that could be a thing if we literally have not even had a single proper conversation regarding us being in a relationship.”
“Because you won't talk to me! You have this wall around you ten million miles high. Every time I try to make a moment with you, you shut me down. Every time I reach for you, to touch you in any way, you recoil from me like I have some sort of infectious disease. How else am I supposed to take that?
“You think I’m having fun here? Hm? Debasing myself for you, and you won’t let me touch you at all? When I have women all over the place I could— I feel like a jackass. You’re impossible to please and all you’ll tell me is that I’m not trying. I’m trying, trust me. It’s you that won’t.”
“I literally don’t even know how to respond to all that, because you’re actually just creating problems that don’t exist otherwise. I don’t want the headache of dealing with you right now because we’re clearly in completely different headspaces.
“I don’t know how to be any clearer about what I need from you; I need to hear you say you want to be with me romantically, and I need you to set time aside in your schedule occasionally for us to get to know each other. That’s it.
“I'm just going to make this real easy for you. I'm not doing this. You want somebody to come in here and clean for you naked, seems like you have a whole litany of women you can reach out to. I'm done.
“Let me know when you’re ready to be a fucking adult instead of a child throwing a tantrum because you didn’t get your dick wet with zero effort on your part to be a partner to me.”
I start walking back to his house, ready to get dressed and go who knows where. It hurts, but this is exactly what I expected to happen. It's not about the money. It's neverbeenabout the money. It's about how he just expects me to fall at his feet and swoon over him with no effort. Just because I am who I am, doesn't mean I don't deserve effort.
“Would you just wait a minute, you stubborn woman?”
I shake my head no, but he's coming after me anyway. He doesn't say a damn thing all the way through his house, and it's not until we're back in my room and there's a door he can shut to block me in that he does. “I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. I'll admit that. And I didn't hire you because I wanted a topless maid. Although, you do the job justice.”
Unfortunately, that makes me smile a little bit.
“Can we just start over? I've been stupid, you've misunderstood me, I think we've both done some things to derail what we could be. But you're the only mate I'm going to get, Morgan. And even if I didn't have this thrumming in my blood telling me that you were made to be a part of my life, I'd still be here, on my knees, begging you for a chance.
“The second I walked into that gas station and saw you, my heart stopped. I hear that's kind of dangerous. Whoa, a smile. Okay, I'll keep going.”
It's a bit tricky to be defensive when he's being kind of cute.
“I made some sort of impression on you because you wouldn't have tripped all over yourself, multiple times in fact, and spilled that disgusting mop water all over yourself if you weren't a bit flustered. You're saying you have trust issues. That you don't believe in my intentions. I hear you.
“Maybe it was a bit high-handed of me to up and just purchase that business so that I could get you out of there, and purchase your apartment so I could get you out of there as well, but it came from a place of wanting to take care of you. I don't think I made that point clear for you. My heart and my wolf were telling me you're ours, and all we wanted to do was make you safe. Make you comfortable. I'm impulsive; I'm sure you've already realized this about me. I'm impulsive, so I did what I felt like I needed to in that moment to change the situation.”
I drop onto my bed, exhausted already from this conversation and from the situation in general. Really, from everything that's been going on lately. All of the changes are wearing down on me. Not to mention the attempt on my life.
“Did it not occur to you how heavily reliant I was on that job, and on my apartment? You could have asked me any number of things other than that what you did. I know that apartment must have been a joke to you, living in a house like this,” I say as I gesture around us, “but I made that home for myself. I paid for that home with the money I made for myself.
“It didn't feel good to have you come in and disregard everything I built with a wave of your hand, essentially. You didn't put any thought at all into how I would feel having everything taken away from me without any sort of input.
“You didn't even have a damn conversation with me, Alex. You came in, and you took over. Can you see why the thought ofmating you formally is terrifying for somebody like me, who has nothing to fall back on? I've never had anything to fall back on. You took away my safety net, and you forced me into a new place that was as unfamiliar to me as outer space. A hostile environment, where somebody I was supposed to work with not only didn’t like me, not only was jealous of our interactions, but actively tried to harm me. I know you had nothing to do with that, but clearly, she felt justified. You gave her some sort of feeling of protection that entitled her to do that.”
He's now sitting against the door, knees drawn up, his head hanging. I can see everything I'm saying wash over him, my words sinking in as he realizes how seriously he fucked up.
He looks up at me, eyes half-mast and sorrowful, nodding his head slightly. “Morgan, I'm sorry. Truly. I acted irrationally and improperly. I was raised better than that, I know better than that. Seeing you that day for the first time, in that sort of situation, where there're all sorts of clientele, in a dirty place, on an unsafe street corner, I kind of lost my mind. I couldn't think about anything other than getting you somewhere safer, somewhere closer to me.
