“Seems like you don’t make time for much.” His words might sting if it weren’t for their underlying truth.
I look for something to throw at him, but since the only thing within range is a glass beer bottle, I figure I should abstain. “Yeah, yeah.”
“How did it go at the bakery today?”
I shrug, swigging the last of my beer. “It was mostly good, I think. Emma is basically the nicest person I’ve ever met so she should be an easy boss to work for. Can’t say baking is going to suddenly be my new life’s passion, but I think of all the options so far, it’s the least painful.”
“Maybe you just need to give it some time. You might surprise yourself.”
I roll my eyes. “Easy for you to say. You’re the golden boy who somehow managed to escape all of this with no tasks involved.”
Ben sets down his beer. “I have a task.”
It’s a good thing I’m out of beer, because I would have choked on it. “I’m sorry, what?”
Ben sighs, rubbing his hands down the thighs of his jeans, drawing my attention to the toned muscles of his legs. “I have a task, I just haven’t told you about it.”
I stand, crossing to the fridge and grabbing two more beers. “Wait a minute, so you mean to tell me while I’ve been sitting here every night letting you see how badly I’ve been failing at everything I try, you’ve been working on your own tasks and not giving me the details?”
Ben takes both beers, popping the lids before handing one back to me. “Seems so.”
“Rude.” I wait an appropriate amount of time to let him give me the info I obviously need. “This is the part where you tell me about whatever it is Mimi’s making you do.”
“No can do, sweetheart.”
I study him as he very purposefully avoids my gaze. “Hmm. Well, I know it has nothing to do with your job. Does it have to do with your love life? You did willingly go on a blind date, so you might actually be looking for a real relationship.”
“It’s not love related.” His answer is a little too quick. I bookmark that response to examine further later.
“Family related, then?” I realize then that I know nothing about Ben’s family, probably because I’ve never taken the time to ask.
He shrugs. “Nope.”
“Of course not. You probably have one of those families where you all like one another and get along and enjoy being together.”
“I don’t think that’s as rare as you think it is, sweetheart.” He taps his fingers on his beer bottle. “But yeah, mine are pretty great. One sister, two parents who are still in love and happily married. I got pretty lucky in that department.”
I wonder what that must be like. “Sometimes I wish for a family like that.”
“You might make it easier to have one like that if you talked to yours, told them how you really feel about things.”
“I’ve never been good at making things easier for myself.” I sip from the bottle of beer and lean back in my chair.
Ben leans back too, though this time his eyes stay firmly trained on me. “Why is that, do you think?”
“Uh oh, did Mimi send you to psychoanalyze me? Is this your task? Get inside my head and figure out why the fuck I can’t just find a way to be happy with this prescribed little life?”
Ben doesn’t say anything. Damn him for being able to sit quietly, a trait I’ve never been able to master.
I chug half the beer before spewing out my story. “My family is a lot. My grandmother was one of the first women to graduate from Harvard Law School.” I shoot him a side-eyed glance, watching for his reaction, though he doesn’t give me much of one. “She started this law firm in New York and basically turned it into one of the biggest and most successful in the country. We specialize in mergers and acquisitions.” Raising my eyebrows, I throw Ben a questioning look.
“I’ve heard of it from Sophie, but don’t really know what it entails.”
“Basically, we help big businesses buy other businesses.”
Ben purses his lips. “I’m assuming by that you mean you help greedy corporations acquire struggling independent companies?”
I ignore the judgment in his nonquestion. “Yup. And we do it well. I do it well. I knew by the time I was five years old that I was going to be a lawyer, just like Grandmother. I knew by the time I was ten I was going to be the bestlawyer, just like Grandmother. And I knew by the time I was twenty I was going to run the firm one day, just like Grandmother.”
