I figured as much so his admission didn’t catch me off guard. I wouldn’t expect anything less from a man who offered so much money. I liked the fact I didn’t have to explain in vivid detail to either Pierce or Oliver what happened to me in San Francisco. One of the best things in Guatemala was that nobody asked me what I was thinking or much about my past.
“I always lived in San Francisco. Had no plans to leave the city, and as much I missed the conveniences of America, I enjoyed my time in Guatemala. I enjoy having a home base.” Even if it was a tiny little shack of an apartment in the middle of nowhere. What did I say? I still couldn’t banish parts of the old me, like my need to own things that were strictly mine. I’d never been good with sharing.
We talked for a moment about the families I worked with in Guatemala and how the organization planned to use the money I would earn from Pierce after my six months were up in Pelican Bay. When I finished, Oliver stared at me with the weirdest expression, but he schooled his features when my story ended.
“It sounds like what you’re doing is spectacular. How do you get electricity in your village?”
I scoffed at the notion of electricity. “Oliver, we’re trying to get clean water first. Electricity is way off in the future.” It wasn’t the money; it was the knowledge and supplies it would take to get someone to run lines all the way from the closest city to our village fifty miles away. Lack of resources was only half the problem. Not having experienced workers was the other.
“I have to confess,” Oliver said as he finished his sandwich and dusted the crumbs from his fingers. “You see, I’m not in Pelican Bay just to see you and Pierce. I’m meeting with a few investors. I’ve spent the last five years working on a better solar power system, something we can move cheaply and install in mostly undeveloped areas.”
“Yes, they have things like that already, but the price is crazy.” How do you teach a farming community the ways to hook up and run solar energy? Troubleshooting? Most of them had never seen a computer.
Oliver nodded as if he understood what I was saying. “That’s the point. I’m working on a source of energy that’s easy for a common person to use and doesn’t cost a ton of money. It’s cheap to get resources here in the states, but getting them to undeveloped areas is costly, and often the materials are broken by the time they get there from damage during shipping. If they aren’t intercepted by fanatical governments first.”
“Is that what you do? Develop new technologies?” Pierce made his money from family investment and from his substantial real estate holdings in the town. Rent was one of the oldest forms of moneymaking. The privileged had been using the method for centuries, as far back as wealthy knights in England taking food from their serf farmers who lived on plots of land the king bequeathed the knights for their heroics. Oliver hadn’t mentioned what he did to earn the funds for his lifestyle.
“No, I’m not a scientist by any means. My parents never touched most of their inheritance. There wasn’t much need for tons of money in Africa, but I want to put mine to work for me. Blending a little of Pierce’s financial suave and working with giving back the way my parents taught me is important.”
I nodded along as he spoke, getting more interested with each word.
“I consider myself more of a facilitator. We invest in new technologies, trying to get them to the public and see success with the number of people we can help. My father is currently working on a prototype of the new solar energy in South Africa. He’s doing the testing for us before we bring anything large scale.”
“I have to be honest with you. It doesn’t sound profitable.” If he charged the villages, he wasn’t being helpful to them in the long run.
Oliver smirked. “It’s not profits, Mari,” he said, sufficiently putting me in my place. “As I said, my parents didn’t use most of their money and still don’t. My brother and I have a living trust and I’ve invested most of it, which allows me to live off the interest and what I don’t need I try to give back.”
I rested my chin on my hands and stared at him as he sauntered from Pierce’s kitchen. I was in Pelican Bay to secure the much-needed two million dollars and maintain a fake relationship with Pierce, but I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to learn more about his cousin.
6
Mari
Pierce paused outside the bakery door with his hand on the latch. “You remember our answers to the FAQs?”
I never housed the notion I would fall in love with Pierce during our fake engagement, but it was good that he was handling things in a true businesslike fashion. Or maybe he was always this calm and calculated in everything.
“Yes.” He’d made me memorize and recite an answer for any question someone in the small town of Pelican Bay could come up with when they saw us together. It was as if he planned for me to be interviewed by the local paper. He’d finally let me out of the house when I answered correctly for each one. Our fake relationship officially had a very real narrative.
Still, as he opened the doors of the town’s bakery on the corner of a short side road and Main Street, nerves tickled my stomach. This would be our first actual test. Oliver wasn’t here to deflect any blows and use his carefree smile to calm my shaking hands.
Pierce and I were left to our own devices and we needed to do our best to pretend to be a happily in love, about to marry, couple.
It sounded easier in my head before we left his mansion.
With a deep breath I walked to the bakery door when he held it open for me, and we were greeted by an enormous smile of a woman wearing a pink apron with the name of Anessa embroidered on the front.
Pierce, with calm and determined steps, made his way to the bakery counter and ordered through a quick conversation with Anessa.
We’d agreed on the food before entering the shop because Pierce said he didn’t want me to dally in front of the racks too long as it gave people time to ask me more questions. The man thought of every angle. We’d settled on two muffins and coffee. Pierce learned the way I took mine during our relationship interview and then waited beside me as I smiled, hoping my voice wouldn’t squeak when she asked a question I’d prepared so diligently to answer.
“You’re the only one here today?” Pierce asked as Anessa poured our two cups of coffee in to go containers.
She nodded as she passed over the coffee to each of our hands and then opened the bakery showcase sliding door. “Yup, Tabitha’s coming in later, and with Katy losing her job, she’s been picking up shifts in the evening until she can find something.”
Pierce became incredibly still as he stared at the lovely woman. “She didn’t tell me she lost her job, only that they reduced her hours.”
Anessa paused mid cookie grab and her eyes grew wide as if she was concerned she’d given out state secrets and now there would be a punishment, like a beheading. “Oh, I’m sure she’ll still be able to pay rent. I wouldn’t worry about it. They lowered her hours earlier this year, but her boss decided to officially retire now, so the office is closing.”
