Propositioning Love

Taking a moment to compose himself, he says, “I don’t understand.”

“I want your company, and I want to use your contacts here in Singapore. But I don’t want to deal with your son Kang. Ever. I also plan on hiring Feng to run the company. No transition period. He will take over for us. That way we don’t lose valuable time with having to catch someone else up to speed,” I say.

“But…” he sputters.

He’s right to be shocked. I’ve offered three percent over the original offer.

“I’m getting married soon. I want this deal wrapped up today. I want Kang off the property and I want the board members gone from these halls. You will remain on the payroll as an advisor in title only. Your real position will be helping me secure further market shares in this country. You’re a respected man, despite what Kang is trying to do to your company,” I say as I pull out my cell phone.

Looking up at the contract, he gives me smile. “And when is the wedding?”

Pulling up a picture I snapped of Zoe, I show her to him. “As soon as I can find a ring that matches the feelings I have in my heart for her.”

Climbing back up the stairs of the plane, I feel as if a weight is finally lifted off my shoulders. I barely got any sleep last night. Between Mr. Wong taking me to his family’s jeweler, and my obsessive need to watch the security cameras in the apartment, I’m falling apart.

I need home. I need Zoe.

Like a vampire, I’m slowly starving. The only thing that will give me any sustenance is quite literally almost ten thousand miles away. Ten thousand miles of heart sickness. I need to feel her in my arms, to feel her very essence surround me like a warm coat. I need to be near her again. I swear I will never leave her for this long again.

I can’t.

It’s like dying slowly every fucking second.

Twenty-One

Zoe

Four to five days feels like an eternity right now. Especially because I’m alone. Bry is gone, and Clara and I aren’t exactly talking after I spilled the beans to her. She’s thinks I’m crazy, and I can’t blame her. I completely understand where she’s coming from. And were the tables turned, I’d tell her to run, not walk, away from the relationship too.

But I can’t. I can’t run away from Bry.

Despite everything that’s stacked against us, I know these things we feel for each other are genuine. And thus, I can’t talk to Clara because I don’t need her logic and reason right now.

This thing between Bry and me defies all logic and reason.

I played it so safe before I met him, so safe I still ended up burned and alone. Fuck, my ex, Jared, was a safe bet on the surface. He had a steady job, his own place, and made an effort to get to know me. He did all the right things and said all the right things, and still fucked me over and ran off in the end.

What can Bry do to me besides break my heart? He has the most to lose here.

It’s even more apparent looking around the apartment. The movers unpacked my belongings and attempted to blend them in with his. The result isn’t pleasant. His luxury items standing beside my thrift store finds just visually symbolizes the huge disparity between us.

At first, it really bummed me out, but after really thinking about it, it just proves how invested he is. He literally gets nothing else out of this deal, but me.

And it’s such a heady feeling.

For once in a long, long time, I have hope that things are going to work out. Maybe, just maybe, if I don’t somehow fuck this up, I’m going to get my happily ever after…

I spend the next three days throwing myself in work. It serves two purposes. The first being that it keeps my mind off of Bry and how much I miss him. We’ve only known each other for a few days, literally, and yet without him I ache.

The second purpose is that I’m determined to find a way to save the company. To let it go down just feels like a huge fucking waste.

Extra-large coffee in hand, I head straight to my cubicle and boot up my computer. Then I drop my ass into the chair and pull up each of the company’s social media pages so I can stare at the screen.

Bry said if he can’t turn the company around, he’ll have to liquidate it. And the only way we’re going to start pulling in a profit again is if we can bring our clients back.

Or gain a ton of new ones.

But how do we do that? I’ve spent every working hour fighting against our bad press, and people aren’t buying it. The public has lost all faith in us, and rightfully so when it was revealed our entire matching algorithm was rigged.