Beauty and the Billionaire

"Quinn?" Owen caught me with my hand on the doorknob of my dorm room. He pulled me closer and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist. "I know what we haven't been talking about is a really hard thing to talk about. Just know this."

He kissed me. Light and simple, but he let it linger until I had no doubt our thoughts were the same.

"Who needs to talk?" I asked. "We seem to be doing fine."

"Quinn, is that you?"

My blood froze as the door opened and my father stood staring at us. Owen's arms dropped away and all the blood drained from my face.

"Father? What are you doing here? Is Mother okay?" I asked.

"I'm right here," she said. My mother came into view, her arms crossed and one foot tapping. "The question is where have you been and what on earth have you been doing?"

"Certainly not studying," my father said. He stepped aside and all but ordered Owen and I inside the room.

I was surprised when Owen followed me. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas," he said.

"What are you doing here, Owen?" my father asked. "Please tell me you know why this is a cause for concern."

"Frankly, I don't," Owen said.

"I don't know what you think you are doing to our family, but Quinn is in danger of losing her place in the nursing program. Anything you do is harmful to my girls, to Quinn, don't you see that?" my father asked.

"I'm losing my place in the nursing program?" I prayed my hopeful tone had not been heard.

"No," my father said. "Your mother and I drove here and convinced your advisor otherwise. You are on probation, but you will be able to work your way back up. We'll discuss it as soon as this thoughtless, careless, waste of space leaves."

"Father! You can't talk to Owen that way," I protested.

"No, it’s okay, Quinn. I understand. Your father needs someone to blame and it should be me," Owen said. "Better me than Sienna or you or anyone else. Listen to them, don't lose what you have here before you know what you want."

His words hurt, but I still followed him to the door and grabbed his hand. He squeezed mine before pulling free. "See you around."

"I'm sorry, Owen. This is horrible," I said. I stood frozen as he winked at me and left the room. Then my anger boiled to the surface. "How dare you blame Owen. You know he was never anything but wonderful to Sienna and to me."

"There is no you and Owen, Quinn," my mother said. "That is a ridiculous and terrible thought. You need to get yourself together."

"And that is why we waited to talk to you," my father said. "Because you are now on probation and because we pay a large part of your tuition, you will be coming home every weekend so we can ensure you are studying."

"I'm not a child," I said.

"Then stop acting that way and get serious about your career," my father said.

They left before I could even begin to explain the ideas I had for my own life or my own career. Under the harsh fluorescent lights of my dorm room, it seemed like I only had one choice and it had been made for me.

#

"The problem is that I really did love nursing when I started," I said. "It’s just that it was always overshadowed by Sienna and then it didn't seem like my choice. And, well, the rest kind of unraveled by itself."

Darla sat on my bed and nodded. "You're good at nursing. I know you'd make a spectacular nurse, but who says that's a good reason for staying in a profession? It’s better to be having these thoughts now than three, four years out of school. Rent, car payments, bills, it could get real ugly, then trying to drop a good nursing paycheck and reach for your dreams."

"What dreams? What if I'm just escaping and the whole gamer world is the easiest path?"

"Easy? I die like fifteen times every time I try to play. If you've survived this long, won a tournament, then maybe you should keep going," Darla said. "What I can't believe is that you agreed to go home weekends."

"Well, they never said I'd be under house arrest. They just want to see that I'm keeping up with my studying," I said.

"So, you're really going home to be closer to Owen. Now that, I get."