Moving In With Your Man So Soon?
Day 165 of The Andie Chronicles
Cooper picked up my suitcase like it was nothing.
I could barely lift it in when I checked it in at the airport last week. He made it look effortless, like the way he would throw a wrestler around the ring. Or the way he threw me onto the bed.
“Are you sure this is ok?” I asked him, as we returned to his place and he put my suitcase in the corner of his bedroom.
“Paying for that hotel is a waste of money. You’re better off saving the dollars for your business.”
I was wearing the sample t-shirt I had on the other night. I found myself reaching for it almost every day since arriving in Queensland, especially after the waitress complimented me on it. It was my badge of honour.
“I know I should. I’m going to need every dollar I can get.”
I felt it inside, the urge to tell Cooper more about my life in Melbourne. Why I had run away and what my cool, kind friends were really like. The fact they had turned to my ex for help was a part I had left out the other day. There were the ugly bits, I reasoned at the time, and then there was disfigured.
The fear of telling a man about my problems set in. What if he’s just like Alex Mertens who wants to stay with me because the sideshow is so entertaining?
What if he’s like Douglas, who thinks he can take over my business and do it better, to spite me?
Or what if he’s like Taylor, there for me in secret but not in public when it counts?
My heart couldn’t handle another man who wasn’t on my team, wasn’t there for me.
“Tell me to shut up, but where is the initial funding for the business coming from?” Cooper enquired whilst pulling out a stack of clothes, hanging in his wardrobe, and moving them into an archive box.
“It’s pretty hard to get backers nowadays.”
Chris was telling me the exact same thing as Cooper trained with the students in the class. People like Douglas, financial whales, didn’t come around very often.
Did that make me foolish for wanting to reject Mr Gallo’s money?
“Yeah, I don’t have any money. GG and Sophia were the investors, and James and I were the creatives. They worked. We developed. Then, one day, James said he had an offer from someone better. My ex. So now the business is owned by him, and the three of us working in his office to build for the launch.”
Tears tumbled from my lash line. “It’s not my business anymore.”
“How does that work? Did you sign a contract?”
The contract, again. Everyone seemed to know about contracts but me.
“Well, there was a contract. But I don’t remember signing it. It was thrusted at me.” The words were becoming more challenging to say, let alone preventing the tears.
“So you have a shot at getting your business back? Is that what you want?”
“Yeah, it is. It’s all I want.” And Cooper, I thought privately. I wanted him, too.
“Take what’s yours then. Fight for it. You know you can.”
He said it so quickly, without a hint of doubt in his voice. He didn’t even know me that well, and yet he has this undeniable confidence. Was it that he didn’t know me that he could make this declaration?
Or was it that he saw me all too well?
You’re reading The Andie Chronicles, the 2023 romance-fiction series from the 1 Lovelock Drive (1LD) universe.
By the way, this all started when Andie turned thirty-five, and her then-boyfriend didn’t call her.
Or the day after that.
Or the day after that, too.
Everything started to unravel when her BFFs got into bed with her ex, too… ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
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A little lost on what’s happening at 1 Lovelock Drive?
Well, you see, Andie’s break-up started back in February and so much has happened since then. These stories will help you catch right up! xx
