Page 72 of The Billionaire Offer
Focusing on my computer again, I scrolled through my emails and found the one I’d been looking for. While I’d thrown myself into practice pretty hard for a while there, as soon as I’d been able to start thinking straight again, I’d remembered those children in Egypt and I’d begun looking into ways I could help them and children like them.
After some research, I’d discovered that there were things I could do that were desperately needed in order to help the children help themselves. The first step had been identifying those things I could do and the next had been to get my lawyers involved.
With their help, I’d started a charity to provide laptops to youths in poor communities. I was also getting in touch with centers in those communities where the beneficiaries could be taught how to use the computers and I was planning a trip next year to personally go and give some lessons in low-income communities. That wasn’t all I wanted to do, but it had been a start.
Arun had been a big help to me to get set up in Egypt, and he’d put me in contact with some of the right people. It had been slightly more difficult getting in touch with the right people in other countries, though. I’d managed okay in some places, but not in others. At the moment, I was trying to focus on those places where I’d found reliable charities or functional community centers to partner with, but I was starting to realize that I might also have to take a trip to the places I was still struggling to get into.
Brazil was next on my list, and I was seriously considering just booking the plane and going. Since I didn’t know anyone there and couldn’t speak Portuguese, I wasn’t quite finding what I’d been looking for there from here.
As I played with the thought a while longer, I decided not to go just yet. There were a couple of other things I wanted to at least start getting off the ground, and since I could do some of it from New York, it made more sense to focus on them first.
Getting internet to rural areas in third-world countries presented a few very unique challenges, and since that was one of my first priorities, it was what I was trying to figure out now. My laptops wouldn’t do the kids much good if they didn’t have internet access, and the more research I did, the more I realized that it was a massive obstacle to many people.
The laptops would end up being used as trays or baseball bats if I couldn’t figure this out. I huffed out a frustrated breath when I hit yet another wall. I was determined to get this right, but there was a lot to get my head wrapped around.
From physical barriers, to red tape, to a complete lack of infrastructure, I wasn’t any closer to finding a solution to beat the challenges than I’d been a couple weeks ago. These days, if I wasn’t practicing, I was here in my office, working on stuff for my foundation.
Since it had been a long time since it had just been me and my computer, at home, working all by myself, it had really been something to get used to again. I didn’t have team upon team working for me anymore, and although I’d thought about hiring a couple of people to help, I just wasn’t there.
Yet. Maybe someday, I would be, but for now, this was my mission and my mission alone. I wasn’t even sure yet exactly what skills I’d need in a team—other than someone to help me figure out how I was going to put internet in unreachable places. Since I still didn’t have any viable ideas for doing it, I also didn’t know what skills I’d eventually end up needing in that person.
And around and around I go.One thing I knew for sure was that it was beyond frustrating to be stuck on this, and I was determined not to be stuck for much longer.Free or affordable internet access should be a basic human right in today’s world.
Obviously, I couldn’t make it happen overnight, everywhere, all by myself, but I’d also gotten in touch with some other people working on similar programs. I couldn’t deny that I was having fun, despite my frustration, though. It felt good to be doing something productive. Something that could potentially change the lives of children and young people who were among the poorest of the poor.
Once again, I thought about calling Serenity and telling her all about what I was doing. Not because I wanted credit or a gold fucking star on my forehead, but because I knew how excited she’d be about it.
The low ding of a notification pulled my thoughts off her, but only until I realized that the notification was from her professional page. The headline readGuess what?in bold, neon letters and there was a gif of her doing a happy little dance beneath it. As I read, I learned that she’d just booked her first concert.
My heart swelled with pride. She was really doing this. She was finally going places, and since I knew how incredibly happy she had to be right now, I almost called to congratulate her. But I didn’t.
As much as I wanted to share in her happiness, her excitement, and her success, I just didn’t have it in me to hear her voice just yet. Not while speaking to me anyway. Although I’d heard her song, I had a tendency to turn it down rather than up.
I was healing but slowly. The fact of the matter was that I was still wildly, madly, absolutely in love with her, and I still didn’t know how to turn it off. How to get over her and move on with my life.
In the month that we’d been apart, I hadn’t even been able to look at another woman. I’d thought about asking someone—anyone—out on a date just to try to at least start moving forward, but then I’d realized that it wouldn’t have been fair to the woman I asked out. Whoever she might’ve been, she wouldn’t have been Serenity and I’d have been painfully aware of that fact all the damn time. I’d have compared everything she said and did to what Serenity might’ve said or done, and that just seemed entirely unfair—and like a massive waste of my time.
If and when I finally went out with someone again, I’d have to be satisfied that I’d be able to give the girl an actual chance. Since I couldn’t do that yet, I was stuck in a state of voluntary celibacy and my dick was hating me for it. Unfortunately, the only girl I wanted was the one I couldn’t have, and so my sex life had been reduced to fantasizing about my ex for now even if I’d heard that sleeping with someone else might help me get over her.
Shaking my head at myself, I glanced back down at the notification. Serenity’s first concert would be coming up soon, but she was keeping it a secret until the night of. She said she was super excited for it, as I’d thought, and that she would keep her fans updated with any further developments.
Even if I wasn’t ready to call her, I knew what a big deal this had to be for her. Settling for taking the easy way out for once, I picked up my phone and sent her a text. It was nothing earth-shattering or mind-blowing, just a simple congratulations, but I was glad I’d done it.
I kept staring at my phone, wondering if she was going to respond, but when she read the message and didn’t send anything back, I sighed and realized how pathetic I was being. I was even hurt that I hadn’t been invited to her show.
If I asked Shawn, I knew he’d get me in, but I wanted her to want me there enough to have asked me to go herself.Jesus. Stop it.
Closing out the notification, I clicked back into my research and tried putting all my attention on that instead. There were a lot of underprivileged kids in rural areas who needed internet access, and trying to figure out how to give it to them was a ton more important than pining for my ex.
So what if she hadn’t invited me? We hadn’t spoken for a fucking month, and after the way things had ended, I shouldn’t have been surprised that she didn’t want me there. Despite how much I wanted things between us to be different, they just weren’t. There had to be a point when I accepted that, and this was it.
Serenity was out of my life, and as soon as my first upcoming tournament was over, I was going to do something about getting over her for good. This was just getting ridiculous now. If it was the last thing I did, I would get over Serenity Ramirez and I was damn well going to do it soon.
CHAPTER46
SERENITY
Being backstage for my very first concert of my very own was different than I’d thought it would be. For starters, I wasn’t alone. There were peopleeverywhere, even though this was supposed to be my private dressing room.
