“I’m not ready to pretend none of it happened.”
“I don't want you to.”
“I’m also not ready to walk away.”
His breath changed.
“Okay.”
“That is not permission to celebrate.”
“Understood.”
“I need something.”
“Anything.”
“Careful.”
He corrected.
“What?”
Maya looked directly at him.
“No more tests.”
“Ever.”
“If you’re afraid, tell me.”
“If you think I’m after money, say it.”
“If the press is coming, tell me before I see myself online.”
“If being with you means security, board dinners, reporters, women who hate me, and people searching my mother’s history, I need the truth before it happens.”
Alex nodded.
“Yes.”
“And I keep working.”
“Yes.”
“You do not buy my mother a house.”
He almost smiled.
“Wasn’t planning—”
“Alex.”
“Right.”
“No house.”
“No secret bank accounts.”
“No career arranged.”
“Yes.”
“If I ever ask for help, you can offer.”
“Until then, do not turn love into a rescue plan.”
Alex looked at her for a long moment.
Then said:
“I think that might be the most important thing anyone has ever said to me.”
Maya’s expression softened.
“Good.”
He hesitated.
“Can I ask for one thing?”
“What?”
“Dinner.”
She laughed.
“Start small.”
“Coffee?”
“Fine.”
“Today?”
“Now.”
Alex smiled.
This time, Maya smiled back.
Their second beginning was slower.
Better.
Alex stopped hiding.
Maya attended one board dinner and hated almost every minute.
She told him afterward.
“Your directors talk about human beings like spreadsheet cells.”
Alex laughed.
“Not all of them.”
“Seven out of nine.”
“Fair.”
She attended another anyway.
Alex met Maya’s mother properly.
Rosa interrogated him for forty minutes.
“How much do you sleep?”
“Five hours.”
“Bad.”
“Yes.”
“Do you cook?”
“Poorly.”
“Can you change tire?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Do you expect my daughter to stop working?”
“No.”
Rosa stared.
“Correct answer.”
Alex smiled.
Then Rosa leaned closer.
“If you hurt her, your money will not protect you from an old Puerto Rican woman with arthritis.”
“I believe you.”
“Good.”
Maya watched from kitchen, laughing silently.
Lily and Rosa became immediate allies.
That was dangerous for everyone.
The public eventually discovered the relationship.
A photograph appeared online of Maya and Alex leaving a neighborhood restaurant.
Headline emphasized one fact:
BILLIONAIRE CEO DATING DELIVERY DRIVER.
Maya stared at it.
“Of course.”
Alex read.
“I look terrible.”
She looked.
“You do.”
“Thank you.”
“Your hair.”
“Rain.”
“Excuse.”
More stories followed.
Some romantic.