I Chased My Brother’s Friend for a Month, Then Walked Into Work and Found Out He Owns the Company Chapter 06

I Chased My Brother’s Friend for a Month, Then Walked Into Work and Found Out He Owns the Company Chapter 06

When I got home, I locked myself in my room.

I threw my phone on the bed. It buzzed seven or eight times, and I didn’t look at it.

Lying on my back, staring at the ceiling, I replayed the last month over and over.

The first time I sent flowers.

The florist left them at the front desk. He said. “Left them at the front desk. Everyone saw.”

A VP receives flowers and leaves them at the front desk.

The whole company saw.

Didn’t he care what people thought?

Or did he just not care at all?

The first dinner.

He picked the place.

Back then I thought he randomly chose a French restaurant.

Now I realize. That place was on the fourth floor of the mall, out of the way, not crowded.

He was picking somewhere he wouldn’t run into anyone from the company.

I rolled over and buried my face in my pillow.

I thought about the night I confessed.

I’d waited downstairs for two hours.

He said he watched me from the eighteenth floor for two hours.

Two hours.

A company VP, standing at his window, watching a college student freeze her butt off for two hours.

Then he came down and said one word. “Okay.”

Back then, I thought that “okay” meant I’d won him over.

Now I realize. That “okay” meant he’d decided to accept me.

I never had the upper hand.

Not from day one. Not for a single day.

A knock on the door.

“Erin, dinner.” My mom’s voice.

“Not hungry.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Just not hungry.”

My mom left.

Ten minutes later, another knock. This time the door opened without waiting.

My brother stood there.

“You didn’t come back to the office this afternoon.”

“Didn’t feel like it.”

“Mr. Foster called you three times.”

“I didn’t look.”

My brother walked in and sat on the edge of my bed.

“You talked to him?”

“Yeah.”

“What did he say?”

I repeated what Declan had told me, more or less.

My brother was quiet for a long time after.

“He told you the truth.”

“What part?”

“He really did watch you from the eighteenth floor for two hours. I was working late that night and passed by

his office. He was standing by the window. I asked him what he was looking at, and he said. ‘A fool.”

I lifted my head from the pillow.

“He said a fool?”

“His exact words.”

“Then what?”

“Then he went downstairs. I watched him get in the elevator, cross the lobby, and walk to the entrance. You

were standing there with the flowers. He took them.”

My brother paused.

“I’ve never seen that look on his face.”

“What look?”

“Hard to describe. He doesn’t show much expression at work, you saw that today. But that night, when he

took the flowers, he lowered his head and sniffed them, and the corner of his mouth curled up just a little.”

My brother gestured with his fingers.

“Just a tiny bit. You wouldn’t notice unless you were looking closely.”

“And you were looking closely?”

“I was standing right inside the lobby, behind the glass door.”

My brother’s voice went a little rough.

“I’ve worked at this company for three years. I’ve never seen him smile at anyone, not even a polite smile. That night, you handed him a bouquet, and he smiled.”

I sat up.

“Bro, be straight with me.”

“Ask.”

“What’s his real deal?”

My brother hesitated.

“He’s not just the VP.”

“What do you mean?”

“He founded the company. He holds seventy percent of the shares. ‘Vice President’ is just a title he gave

himself because he doesn’t like being called the boss.”

I sat on the bed, feeling like a bomb had gone off in my head.

“The whole company is his?”

“Yeah.”

“Two hundred and thirty-seven people?”

“Two hundred and thirty-seven.”

“So your job, is that because of him, too?”

My brother didn’t answer.

“Bro.”

“I joined before he even knew you existed.” My brother said. “I got in through the normal hiring process. But after you started chasing him, he did look out for me.”

“How?”

“There were layoffs in my department at the end of last year. I was on the original list. He took my name off.”

I closed my eyes.

“So you didn’t tell me not just because he told you not to. It’s because you were afraid of pissing him off and

losing your job.”

My brother didn’t deny it.

“It’s both, honestly.”

The room was quiet for a long time.

I could hear my mom doing the dishes in the living room, the water running on and off.

“Bro, what am I now?”

“What do you mean?”

“I spent two thousand dollars chasing the owner of a company. And I bragged to everyone that I landed a

great guy. What does that make me?”

My brother looked at me and didn’t answer.

“Laughingstock.”

My brother reached over and patted my shoulder.

“You’re not a laughingstock.”

“Then what am I?”

“You’re someone who didn’t know who the other person was and still stood outside for two hours.”

He stood up.

“Come eat. Mom made your favorite, beef shank in red wine.”

“Not hungry.”

“If you don’t eat, Mom’s gonna ask. And when she asks, what are you gonna tell her? That your boyfriend’s a

CEO and you can’t handle it?”

That shut me up.

He was right.

If I told anyone, they’d just think I was crazy.

So what if he’s rich? Rich people can’t date?

But I couldn’t get past it.

Not because he had money.

It was because I’d been set up from the very beginning, like a puppet on strings.

I thought I was chasing him.

But he was choosing me.

I thought my two thousand dollars moved him.

But two thousand dollars wouldn’t even cover his coffee bill for a month.

I thought I could reach him.

But he’d been bending down for a long time just to let me think I could.

That feeling hurt more than being lied to.

Because he never lied.

He just never let me see how high he really was.