Some employees found it odd that she was working the front desk, given her last name, but it didn’t take long for them to realize which branch of the family tree she came from.
“There is nothing wrong with going home.”
“I need to hear more. Continue.”
“Oh, I want to tell you.” She grinned at his familiar, adorable smirk. Plenty of guys in college were cocky, but he’d never been arrogant. He never bragged about his family, any wealth he might’ve come from, or what his parents did. He didn’t even ask about her past. It had always just been about the two of them, in the moment, as they were then and now. “My grandmother, she’s a smart one. She set up an investment for me years ago when I was a kid and let it ride. When the place that hired me was looking for investors, I thought, I believe in what they are doing and I’m here working my ass off too, why not try for more?”
“That’s bold,” she said. “Most might just let that ride as a big nest egg.”
“I was a little cocky ten years ago.”
He’d been more than a little, but in a harmless way around her. For his career, sounded as if he knew what he was doing and went after it.
After seeing him two days ago she’d been having flashbacks of them in college.
His brown hair was longer now, slightly unkempt, but still held that familiar wave.
His beard wasn’t neatly trimmed, but not overly thick either. More like he shaved whenever the mood struck. And his brown eyes? They were almost always lit with laughter.
He never gave two pennies what other people thought of him and said it as it was.
She wished she’d had that confidence back then.
If people talked about her or thought poorly of her, it hurt, but she let no one see it. She kept those feelings tucked away, hidden where no one could reach them, sometimes not even herself.
It was how she got through her remaining time there. Arik had been the first to get her to open up some and relax, but knowing he was leaving zipped her back up.
“Not you,” she said.
“There. Let it out. Be free with your words.”
A giggle escaped. “So you’ve got money and you’re willing to take a risk?”
“I did and I had. On top of the shares they gave me when I was hired, I put in almost all of what I had. I didn’t tell my grandmother. God, I’m not sure I could sit for a week with the lashing she’d give me.”
“You proved her wrong, from the sound of it.”
“And everyone else. Four years later, it sold and I went from a six-figure investment to now eight.”
The fork stopped on its way to her mouth. “You were a millionaire at twenty-six years old?”
“Twenty-seven. Right after my birthday.”
“Good for you,” she said.
“I was still cocky though.” The way his eyebrows were wiggling with the massive smirk, she knew where this was going.
“Did you do it again?” she asked.
“You should see how wide your eyes just got. What do you think?”
“I think the challenge would be too great for you to pass up.”
“You’d be right. I wasn’t crazy enough to invest it all though.”
“I’d hope not.”
“But it was much more than I had the first time. Another tech company I went to work for. Same thing. Got a lot of stock options going in. I actually took more for a reduced salary.”
