Page 120 of Irresistibly Us
Dad
I was planning ahead.
Me
How can a weekend be impromptu if you were planning ahead?
Dad
I’m an enigma, Soph. It’s part of my charm.
I stare at my dad’s message, trying to figure out what the fuck he’s talking about, but my brain is tired, and all I want is to get to Tyler. The second Luke told me I was choosing between right and right, it was like a switch flipped in my brain, and I felt stupid for being so angsty about this in the first place. There is only one right for me, and it’s the one where I get to be with Tyler. To build a life with him. Where I get to run the foundation my dad built and gave to me. Where I can drop by myparents’ house on a random weekday and have family dinners and margarita nights with the girls and where I’m surrounded by family, friends, and all the love in the world.
There isn’t a job in the universe worth giving up the life I’ve built—the life I have waiting for me if only I can get the fuck home and grab it. As soon as I walked out of MasterLab an hour ago, I started looking for a flight home, but obviously there wasn’t a single one that would get me to Pittsburgh in time for birthday night, and that’s unacceptable to me. Asking my dad to use the plane is something I literally never do, so of course the one time I need to play thedaughter of a billionairecard, that option isn’t available.
“Dammit,” I huff, twirling a tinsel-threaded curl around my finger and forcing my brain to think. When my phone dings, I flop back on the bed, wincing when I land directly on the Vitamin C serum I was sure I lost in this room, the sharp edge of the square-shaped bottle digging into my back. Why did I bring Vitamin C serum with me when I have literally never used a serum in my entire life? No one knows. Pulling out the bottle and tossing it into the open suitcase on the floor, I turn my attention to the phone.
Dad
Any particular reason you need it?
Me
Because I need to get home to Tyler. I’m not taking the job, and I never should have come out here when what I really want to do is spend birthday night with him, but I can’t do that when I’m stuck a zillion miles away.
Dad
Knew it. Your mom owes me a hundred dollars.
Me
For what?
Dad
We knew you weren’t going to take the job. I had you realizing it the second you walked into the building today. Your mom thought you would ruminate a few more days before you turned it down.
Me
You knew?
Dad
Of course we knew. Your place is here, Soph, and not just because of Tyler. Because this is your home. It’s where your family is. It’s where the job you love is. You were never leaving.
Me
You couldn’t have maybe told me this before I ended up alone in California on my birthday when everyone I love most in the world is on the other side of the country and Tyler and I are missing spending our birthdays together for the first time in almost twenty years?
Dad
This was something you had to figure out on your own. It’s shit timing, but if we told you what we thought, you would always wonder if you made a mistake by listening. Now you won’t.
Sorry about the whole plane thing though.
Me
Yeah, that is not ideal. You don’t have a rich, powerful friend out here with a plane I can borrow, do you?
