Fair enough.
***
I sat in the back of the car reading one of Asher's books while Jeremy went into a local all day breakfast and pancake restaurant to get us some food. I would have gone in with him—I wanted to, actually—but that might not have been the best idea right now. This place wasn't the busiest restaurant ever, but seeing as a mass of news reporters was on the look out for me, it paid to be prudent.
Unfortunately prudence and patience was boring. Asher left a Kindle in the back seat of this car, for who knew what reason, and apparently it had a bunch of business non-fiction on it. Which, I thought, was probably why he left it here, because it was boring. He had one novel, and it was good, but not quite to my preferences. Dune was science fiction of a sort, with maybe some fantasy speculation added in? I wasn't really sure. I read a couple of paragraphs, stopped and looked to see if Jeremy was coming back yet, read a few more, stopped, and continued that for who knew how long.
Eventually Jeremy showed up carrying our take-out in a paper bag. I stuffed the Kindle into the back seat pocket and followed his path with my eyes. It was just food, but it was more exciting than sitting here being bored.
He opened the driver's side door and handed me the bag, then sat and started up the car. I took our food and tore through it, checking both the styrofoam containers to figure out which was which. I found mine, practically ripped it out of the bag, and put it in my lap. Jeremy had barely started driving out of the parking lot before I stuffed a piece of pancake covered in apple pie topping, cinnamon, and powdered sugar in my mouth.
"Classy," he said. "No fork or anything, huh? Just rip that pancake into pieces and shove it into your mouth. Real classy, Jessika."
"Shut up," I said, my mouth full of food. It might have sounded more like "Shuft uph" but I didn't care. I plucked up a soft gooey piece of apple and plopped it into my mouth.
"I don't even know what that is," Jeremy said. "It doesn't smell like any sort of breakfast, though. More like dessert. Actually, it smells like a pie. It looked like one, too. Just a giant pie pretending to be a pancake, shoved into a box, and now being shoved into your mouth. Definitely a healthy adult breakfast, that's for sure."
"I'm hungry!" I whined.
"Yeah, yeah," he laughed. "Just don't eat mine, alright?"
"What'd you get?" I asked. I asked this while already putting aside my own take-out container and rifling through the bag to check his. "Ooh, what kind of omelette is this? Is that spinach? What's the sauce on top? You got sausage, too. Can I have one of your sausages? I didn't think to get a side of sausage."
"You realize you're asking me if you can have a sausage, but I can see you in the rear view mirror and you're already eating it?"
I was... nibbling. That's it. I was nibbling on his sausage, but once he caught me I bit off half of it and put the other half back.
"Just eat the whole thing!" he said, laughing. "I don't want a half-eaten sausage. I thought they fed people in hospitals? You're going rabid or something."
"I'm not sure what happened," I said, finishing off the other half of Jeremy's sausage. Satisfied for now, I put his food back in the bag, and mine, too. "I don't remember a lot. Asher said they sedated me, and I woke up for a bit last night, but then we slept after that, and in the morning um... it got a little hectic from there. I don't remember eating anything since the party, so I don't think I did."
"Ah," Jeremy said. "I guess that would explain it. Well, I'm glad to be of assistance?"
I smiled and put my hand on his head, scratching lightly. "Thank you so much, Jeremy. Seriously, I mean it. I know it sounds dumb, but thank you. You're always there for Asher. You're there for me, too. You don't have to be, but you are. You're a great friend."
"Yeah, yeah," he said. "I mean, Asher pays me, too, so it's not like I'm doing everything for nothing, either."
I rolled my eyes at him, not caring if he couldn't see it. "I'm almost positive most of the things you do aren't exactly in your job description. You're a nice person, and, yes, maybe Asher pays you to drive him places, but even if he didn't he'd still want you around."
"True," Jeremy said. "You make a really good point. He pays me to drive him places, but I don't think anyone's ever paid me to drive you places. I'm thinking a thousand dollars an hour is a reasonable rate, right? You're married to a billionaire, so you should be able to afford it."
"Are you blackmailing me!" I shouted at him, laughing.
He laughed, too. "I've got to eat, you know? I have to buy two or three meals for every one I want to actually eat, since someone keeps stealing my food. The world is getting really cutthroat lately. It's crazy. Gas prices, too. They just keep going up."
Glaring at him, trying not to smile or laugh, I flung open his take-out container and snatched another sausage. Wielding it like a weapon, I thrust my hand between the front seats. Without missing a beat, Jeremy turned his head to the side, grabbed the sausage with his mouth, and started chewing. We drove onwards, moving down quiet side streets away from the center of the city.
"Thanks," Jeremy said. He chomped, eating the entire sausage in one go.
I didn't know where we were going, but this area looked familiar. I hadn't been here in just over a year, but I remembered it well. "Where are we going?" I asked.
He shrugged. Once he finished chewing and swallowing his food, he said, "No idea. I was just going to drive around until you said something."
"I have an idea but it's kind of weird sounding," I said.
"Weirder than giving some nurse your shoes and then hobbling over to the car like the ground is lava?" he asked.
"There were rocks and little pebbles and things. It hurt!"
"I could be wrong, but I think that's why people don't usually give their shoes away to random strangers when they don't have a spare pair on hand."
"Her name is April and she's very nice. I didn't have anything else to give her."
Jeremy grinned. "It was a nice thing to do, but maybe not that well thought out. It reminds me of something Asher would have done."
I smiled. That sounded nice. Asher was a little gruff sometimes, coming across as closed off in public, but I thought it was more because he didn't always know how to handle situations. No matter what Jeremy said, Asher probably wouldn't randomly give someone his own shoes, but he'd do something else. Something different.
When I first met Asher, he'd... well, long story short, he'd ruined my shirt. Within an hour or so, he bought me something to replace it, though. He never told me he was going to, nor did he show up to give it to me himself. He just did it. Some people loved giving other people presents to see their reactions, or maybe to get gratification from being thanked, but not Asher. He disliked that sort of thing. He didn't want to give people things for any reason of his own, and he had told me he felt awkward doing it, too. He just wanted to give gift and show his appreciation because he was truly thankful, that's all. He didn't expect, nor want, anything in return for it. Knowing they liked it by seeing them use whatever it was he gave them was good enough for him. He preferred it that way.
Asher might not give anyone his shoes, but he'd send them a box with a pair in them. I didn't give April my shoes because I wanted her thanks, either, though. I didn't really know why I did it. At the time it seemed like the right thing to do. And now I had no shoes.
I could get more soon, though.
"Turn left here, alright?" I said. I leaned forward, ignoring the fact that I should be sitting nicely and with my seatbelt buckled. Pointing, I showed him the direction I meant.
"I hope you realize I know which way left is?" Jeremy said.
"You're really grumpy today, huh?"
"I'm not grumpy," he said.
"Do you want to order a pizza?"
"What? We just got breakfast. Seriously, how hungry are you? Are you alright? Are you..."
He didn't finish that thought, but I knew what he was going to say. Are you pregnant? No, I probably wasn't. Asher a
nd I had been trying for awhile now with no results. I was a little sad about that, but it didn't matter. It didn't change how much I loved Asher, or how much he loved me. It didn't change anything at all.
"Right there," I said, pointing again. "Right, I mean. Turn right at that spot um... right there."
"Right," he said.
"Are you agreeing with me or are you confirming directions?"
"Perhaps."
"What's that even mean?"
He laughed, though it sounded more like an enigmatic cackle. I huffed and sat back, giving him space so he could do the driving on his own. I just wanted to help! I didn't think that was so bad, was it?
Jeremy turned right at the right place.
"Where to now?" he asked.
"You see that blue sign a couple buildings down? There's a sort of alley there on the left. Turn down that and um... it goes to a small parking lot, kind of. It's really small. Way at the back there should be a spot labeled with an—"
"Eight?" he guessed.
"Yes."
From my vantage point in the back, I saw him lift one brow through the center rearview mirror, but he didn't say anything. That was well and good, though; I didn't really know how to respond if he did.
***
Jeremy carried our breakfast take-out bag and followed me through the halls of the apartment building. Neither of us said anything. To be honest, I was too nervous to break the silence. I didn't know what he would think, or what Asher would think if he knew, or why I'd even done what I did. I didn't know a lot of things right now, but for some reason this felt right.
I stopped outside one of the doors. I didn't have my purse or my keys, but I didn't need them for this. Standing on tiptoes, I reached above the door casing and pulled down a solitary key. Jeremy raised one brow at me. I ignored him, put the key in the lock, turned it, and then opened the door.
I pulled the key out. Stepping inside quickly, I put the key on one of the kitchen counters, then waited, anxious. Jeremy came in behind me and closed the door.
He stared at me. I stared back.
"What?" I said finally.
He wasn't saying anything, and actually he wasn't even looking at me now. He busied himself with putting the take-out bag on the kitchen counter and pulling our food out. Still without saying anything, he opened one of the cabinets, grunting noncommittally when he found plates and glasses inside. They were cheap plates and plastic glasses, nowhere up to the standards of Asher's mansion, but I liked them.
Jeremy took out two plates and set them by our food containers, then he went in search of forks and knives. I hurried to grab the plates and rinsed them off, shaking the water from them after.
Jeremy started shoveling his food from the container to one of the plates, using a fork he'd found. He offered me a fork of my own and nudged my pancake box over to me, too.
"Are you going to say anything?" I asked.
"What do you want me to say?" he said. "Should I be asking you why you still have keys to your old apartment when you moved out almost a year ago? The keys are probably the least of it, to be honest. All your stuff is still here, too. I mean, I only came here a couple times to help you out, so I could be missing something, but it looks like you've got your plates, forks, knives, spoons. There's a couch over there in the living room, I guess? Is that even a living room? Kind of connected to the kitchen, but there's rugs, so maybe. Little dining table? Even your old TV that looks like it belongs in a museum."
I didn't really know what to say to that. Besides everything here, my bed was still in the bedroom, too. I kept a spare toothbrush in the bathroom, an extra pair of sheets in the closet in my bedroom, and a dresser with some of my clothes, plus a few things hanging up in the closet. They weren't the nicest outfits, but they were all things I used to wear. They were clothes I wouldn't wear now—or ones I felt like I couldn't wear—but they were mine. They were my past. They were...
"I don't want you to get the wrong idea," I said. "I didn't keep all of this for any particular reason."
"Sure," Jeremy said in between stuffing his mouth with a bite of fluffy omelette. "I can get behind that reasoning."
"I'm serious, Jeremy. I know what it looks like, alright? You're probably thinking that I kept this because I didn't think things would work out with Asher, so I'd have a place to go. I'm sure that's what it looks like, but it's not. I didn't do that. I wouldn't. It's just... I needed this. I needed something of my own, you know?"
He shrugged. I really wished he would have said something.
"I sound ungrateful, I bet. I love Asher. I love everything about him, but it's just so strange to me sometimes. Who wouldn't love living in a mansion? It's wonderful. Why do I feel more comfortable in the guest house, then? Asher buys me all of these beautiful clothes, but sometimes I just want to wear old pajamas and comfy slippers. It's nice to have macaroni and cheese for dinner sometimes, too. It's nice to not have to worry about everything and to just be normal. I don't know. This is so stupid. I don't know why I said we should come here."
"Look," Jeremy said. He took my hand, the one still holding a fork, and guided it to my food. The prongs of my fork poked into a pancake and he shook my hand until I had a little piece loose. "Eat. I don't care about the apartment or anything else. I get it, alright? How do you think I feel? I'm just some random guy who happens to be friends with a billionaire. Maybe you feel uncomfortable, but at least you're married to him. What about me? I have a room in the mansion, everything's paid for, free food, the works. And then on top of that Asher gives me a paycheck every week that's way too much considering I only drive you and him around for maybe ten or twenty hours?"
"You're Asher's friend, though," I said. I stuffed a bite of pancake in my mouth, chewed fast, then swallowed. "You've known him longer than I have. You do other things for him, too."
Jeremy laughed. "I don't know about you, but where I come from, wives are kind of important, too. If you're going to pull the 'but you're Asher's friend' card, I'm going to use the 'Jessika, you're Asher's wife' one on you. It goes both ways."
"Maybe," I said, reluctant to admit it.
Jeremy nodded twice, agreeing with me agreeing with him. "The thing is, I don't think we can stop it."
"What do you mean?" I asked. Poking my fork into a piece of pancake and apple, I took another bite.
"I'm guessing you haven't told Asher about this?" he asked; I shook my head, no. "Right. So it's a secret, and I get that, but if you tell him, he'll probably love it. He won't even be mad. It's weird."
"I don't know how you can know that."
"I know that because I've done stuff like that before. I told Asher that maybe I should get another job or go to college and get some degree in something or other, or that I should find my own place. You know what he said? Sure, that's fine, he said. I'll help you. I told him I'd wait and help him look for a new driver if he wanted, but he said he'd probably just start driving himself, so it was no big deal. If I wanted, I could drive weekends only, he told me. No pay cut or anything, same pay for two days instead of seven? It's not even seven now, it's more like four or five, which makes it even worse. And to top it all of, he barely has me drive him around on weekends as it is."
"Well... I don't know?" I said. "He does really like you."
"Asher's great," Jeremy said. "I think he's a great guy and a really great friend and most of the time I forget it all and I have a great time. Every single day is different and interesting, even if some of it's the same. I get to go on vacations and have a fun time. Sometimes I even get to plan out escape routes from hospitals for two people who are being hounded by the press."
"It's just a little weird sometimes, though," I said. "I know what you mean."
He smirked. "Yeah, a little bit. I feel like I'm standing in someone's shadow, but he doesn't even know it. It's impossible for me to ever have half of what Asher has, but he'd never treat me like that. He'd never treat you like that, either. I want to appreciate it, but I do
n't know how I can ever thank Asher enough, and it gets overwhelming."
"Maybe we should do something?" I said. "We could plan out a surprise?"
"Oh yeah? Like what?" Jeremy grinned, then stole some of my pancake.
"Hey!" I started to steal one of his sausages, but I remembered I already had. Perhaps turnabout was fair play. "I gave that to you," I said, sticking my nose up at him. "You didn't steal it."
"How about this one?" And he stole more!
"Jeremy!" I pulled my plate away, hovering over it to protect it from his pilfering fork.
"In all seriousness," Jeremy said, smiling. "You should tell Asher about this. It might be nice for the two of you. Sometimes I don't think he sees everything around him. It's there, everything is, but he doesn't realize he goes to work every day in some huge tower office building that he owns, or that he lives in a mansion with a guest house next door bigger than most people's regular houses. He doesn't see it because I don't think he thinks it's important. I bet he'd love coming here with you, because if it's important to you, I think he'd see that and it'd be important to him, too."
"You think so?" I asked. "I think he might get mad, wondering why I kept paying rent for a place like this. It's kind of shabby. He's never even been here. I was embarrassed to show him, so when I lived here I never brought him over."
"I guess that makes me awesome, then," Jeremy said, before taking a bite of sausage. "I've been here four times now, or something? I don't remember."
"Don't let it get to your head. You're only invited because you won't make fun of my TV."
"That," he said, "is where you're wrong. I will definitely make fun of your TV. Do you still have cable? I bet you don't even have any of the premium channels. How are you going to watch HBO on that thing, huh? It's definitely not HD."
My mind whirred with seemingly inconsequential thoughts, but somehow they came together into an odd mix of genius rationale. Or, at least I thought it was fairly intelligent. I did still have cable. I'd paid for it along with the rent, the electricity, heat, and water. Not that any of those bills were excessive, seeing as I hadn't been here in a year, but I still paid them. Everything was still connected.
His Absolute Insistence: A Scandalous Billionaire Love Story (Jessika, #2) Page 5
