How to Marry Your Frenemy - London Casey Page 0,92

weird. Okay? Jackson stepped into my personal life without asking. He did something I didn’t want - or need - him to do. I’m not looking to be loved or saved or anything.”

“And that’s what he was trying to do?”

“What else could it be?” I asked.

“Maybe he loves you,” Misha said. She shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe he wanted to show you what it was like to be taken care of. You do realize nobody has ever taken care of you, right? Ever. For as long as I’ve known you, Callie, you’ve-”

“Jackson does not love me,” I said.

“Are you sure about that?” Misha asked.

I looked at his office and saw him standing at his window.

I shook my head.

“No way,” I whispered.

“Maybe at the end of this you can get your bonus, and have the real thing happen,” Misha said.

I kept shaking my head.

There was no way Jackson loved me.

Why?

Because if he loved me, then that meant I loved him.

Jackson said goodbye before leaving.

It was a quick knock and wave.

I nodded like he wasn’t even there.

I was such a cold bitch to him.

That was okay.

I was busy working.

The space company that Vince wanted to jump into bed with was… a mess.

There was so much money spent, so much needed, and so much that went into the company, it was impossible. I rarely felt that way about a project, but this one was going to lose a lot of money if we invested in it.

Vince wanted it because it was space.

He was like a kid turning a cardboard box into a spaceship, pretending to fly to Saturn to skateboard on the rings around the planet.

Except now this was real. This was real money. And this company wasn’t going to make it through the end of the year. If anything, they were better off shutting down operations and liquidating everything they could. And if any of their intellectual property was worth something, they could sell or maybe license it.

I wasn’t sure how that part of it would work.

That would be for lawyers to dissect.

As an investment… this was terrible.

The graphics that Frank worked on were stellar. They were bright, colorful, with the allure of space, stars, and the universe on each graphic. I had to keep them hidden on the side of my desk because if Vince saw them, this situation would get even worse.

Now I had to find a way to tell Vince this couldn’t happen.

I knew that all along.

I knew it from the moment I saw the company.

I knew it again from the second I sat behind my desk this morning.

So why was I still at the office? Long after everyone else was gone…

Jackson.

I didn’t want to go home.

I didn’t want to sneak down the hall to get into my apartment.

I didn’t want him to knock on the door and bother me and end up messing with my heart more than he had already done.

So I stayed at the office.

And I would stay as long as I needed to.

I had to get something in order to tame Vince.

What I needed was to find another company to invest in. So I could casually switch his attention to something better.

I wasn’t sure what was cooler than space…

“You’re still here?”

I looked up from my desk and Vince was in the doorway.

“Hey,” I said. “Uh, what are you doing here?”

“I own the place,” he said.

“True. I was just…”

“Sending me to space?”

“Vince…”

He waved his hands. “Don’t worry about that at the moment. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Sure.”

He walked to my desk, then sat on the side of it.

“How are things?” Vince asked.

“Great,” I said. “Why?”

“You haven’t killed him yet.”

“Not yet,” I said. “I’d prefer the money over going to jail.”

Vince laughed. “You know, throughout this, you’ve really shown me who you are.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Not just that whole team player bullshit. But the ferocity to get what you want. I appreciate that. I see that. That’s what made this company what it is. Can I tell you something?”

I nodded.

“My brother… Big Jack… he didn’t have this vision, Callie. He was… I don’t know how to explain it. If a house was on fire, Jack was the kind of guy that would run into the house to risk his life to save some kid’s teddy bear. Right? Now me? I would look at the burning house and wonder how I could build a house that would never burn down…”

“Okay,” I said.

“See the difference?” Vince asked. “Jack could solve a singular problem. But I could solve the