All Free Novel
Chapter 23
23 Two Wishes Left
(Winona)
"Are you settling okay?" Jayden asks. He looks tired with dark shadows under his eyes.
"Honestly, if this is all you wanted to say to me, I'm leaving." I just can't do small talk with him while things are the way they are..NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.
"No." He looks gloomy behind his desk. "That's not all.
He stands up and walks towards me. "Go out with me tonight."
"What?!"
"You heard. Go out with me."
I regained my composure. "Why?"
""Why not?"
"Because Phillip and I are seeing each other right now
"But are you? Are you really?"
I sigh. "Jayden, I'm here to work as a consultant. I'm not here to have my personal life and my integrity questioned wherever I go. It's not fair."
"You're right. Look, I've been talking to Lance lately. I do need your expertise, and Phillip's. Things have already started to turn around. We've also talked over the past a little. I'm happy to let bygones be bygones." "Really? You mean a clean slate. No more hassles over the past. Just us getting on with our separate lives, and doing business together." I'm super doubtful this can happen.
"Clean slate. Yes. Like you and I have never met before."
"What about Ashlyn? Are you two back together?"
"No. But I'll see that she stays away from you. She and I are having therapy. I'll see how it goes. I'm not sure there's a future there but that's my own feelings, not because of you." ""Right. And your mother?"
"Mother? What do you mean?"
"She was waiting for me this morning at my office. She's still convinced I'm here for you. I'm not."
"Was she now? Well, I'll make that stop."
"Great. So as business colleagues we can start from the beginning. I'm not in love with you anymore Jayden. I'd like to build a life with Phillip."
"And your daughter?"
I hid my surprise at his knowledge. "Yes, and mine and Phillip's daughter.
23 Two Wishes Left
"You could have just said you had a child with him."
"As if. Not the way minds work around here. I don't want her involved with the toxicity."
"So you and Phillip, you really just co-parenting, yes?"
Oh, how do I handle this? "For now, but he is everything any woman could want in a stable marriage."
"Yet here you are, not married to him,"
Damn, I may have just said too much.
"I like to take things slowly."
"I see. Well, thanks for coming and clearing all that up with me. I appreciate it." He smiles that smile.
My stomach flutters a little but I'm the world's expert at cock-blocking Jayden Brennan and his attempts to get me to go out with him. Wait? Is that what's happening here?
"No problem." I say. "Glad it's cleared up as well and I'll be left in peace to do my work. If that's all, I'll head back to my office..."
"Apparently, you still owe me two wishes."
I'm shocked to hear those words.
"This is for you. A gift for the graduating student with the highest marks."
"No, Jayden. It's way too much. You know I can't afford to buy you anything this expensive."
"You don't have to."
"Maybe not, but I'd want to and I'd never forget how I come from nothing and you are filthy rich."
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"This is what really bothers you about being with me, isn't it?"
"It doesn't just bother me. Your mother has been awful. She hates me because I'm not fancy enough for her. How do you think that makes me feel?"
"I don't care what she says."
"Maybe not, but who wants a lifetime of that?"
1 want a lifetime of you."
"I'm not taking this necklace, Jayden."
"What if you give me something more precious than diamonds?"
"Are you crazy? What could that even be?"
"Grant me three wishes and I'll call it even. No matter what, no matter where, when I ask you for one of those wishes you must say yes."
"You are stone-cold crazy, you know that?"
23 Two Wishes Lett
"It will never be anything that puts you in danger. If you trust me as a friend and you love me as much as I know I love you, just agree and take the necklace. You never have to wear it if you don't want to."
I take the sparkling heart shaped diamond necklace from him and close my hand protectively around it." Okay," I breathe the word out thinking I must be stone cold crazy too. But I do trust him and love him more than anything else in this world. "I am asking you now for my first wish." His blue eyes shine brighter than diamonds. "Marry me."
"Only if we wait till after college." My studies are very important to me. I'd just won a major scholarship to the best college.
I'd spent my college years being his fiancé, going to partles and enduring his mother's cold stare and hatred of me.
Then when we had that pregnancy scare after we graduated from college, we went to Vegas to get married right away, despite his mother's threats. Even though it was a miscarriage, we both knew we wanted a family together.
But my condition wasn't exactly favorable for getting pregnant or carrying a baby to full term.
The last two wishes were never cashed in because of the accident. Actually, till now I'd forgotten all about it. Even when I saw that necklace on Ashlyn, that promise never occurred to me.
"Go to dinner with me tonight. That's my second wish." Jayden's voice breaks into my thoughts.
That brought back a lot of memories. The question is, has Jayden remembered any of that or has he been told about it. The whole gang, including Ashlyn, knew about the wishes. But what if he is remembering and he really wants me back?