Page 71 of Exchange of Heart

Mum turned to me with wide eyes. ‘Excuse me?’

I tried for one of Corey’s charming smiles. ‘I mean, Nora is great at her job, why would she leave it?’

‘Like I said, she might want to—’

‘Yeah, yeah. Broaden her horizons, but what about loyalty?’ I insisted.

‘Loyalty isn’t a quality worth rewarding these days.’ Corey piped up with my delicate voice.

Jealousy wedged into my previously pleasant thoughts, and my eyes narrowed into slim slits of rage. ‘And what is? Blood relations?’

Hurt reflected through Corey’s face. My face. The same look I would have displayed after Freddie’s name fell from Mark’s lips as the winner.

‘Come on, you know the saying, don’t put all your eggs in one basket,’ said Corey.

‘Ah, Nora, always so optimistic.’ Rowan smiled, but no one else smiled along with him.

They were too busy bouncing curious looks between me and Corey.

‘It’s only the eggs laid in the nest that matter. You’re either born into it, or you give your blood, sweat, and tears for nothing. Right?’ I snarled.

‘The right job with the right company is out there somewhere.’ He leaned back and crossed his arms.

Mum, Rowan, and Oliver fiddled with napkins and scraped their forks against their plates in awkward silence while I stared at Corey debating whether to fling the plate at his head like a discus or stab my knife through his hand. For someone who’s never had to worry about their work performance, he sure had a lot of opinions on it.

‘Who wants dessert?’ Mum blurted, mouth and eyes stretched into a wild contortion.

Not me. I wanted my bloody life back, along with the job I deserved.

Corey pulled the car into the gutter outside Paddy’s apartment after our uncomfortably silent drive home.

‘Your, ah – your mum is hilarious.’ Corey’s words reached to me like an olive branch.

‘I think she uses humour as a coping mechanism. That, and verbally pissing on men at every chance she gets, which is kinda funny when you think about the fact she raised two boys.’ I shrugged.

‘Coping with what?’ Corey asked.

I’d seen the way Corey’s dad shaped his life, and I was ready for him to see the way my dad shaped mine. Especially now that he’d met my mum and brothers. ‘My asshole father? He walked out on us when I was four, right before the twins’ second birthday. Mum quit her job to raise us, so it wasn’t exactly easy financially considering she had such a large gap on her résumé. She had to start from the bottom of the corporate ladder again, and they never considered her for promotions because she’d need sick days to look after us sometimes. Apparently, she ‘wasn’t committed enough to the company’, and they always gave them to men who had wives at home to care for their family. She got a second job because she didn’t want us to miss things like team sports or music lessons, and they’re not exactly cheap. I think the world’s come a long way since then, but not quite far enough.’

Corey’s eyes widened. ‘Is that why you’re so hellbent on getting that promotion?’

I shuffled in my seat to face him, my gaze trying to convey how important these next words were to me. He needed to understand why I could never accept how easily his life was handed to him, or the benefits it brings him. Not when for someone like me, it’s a milestone I have to work my ass off for. It’s the entire reason I am who I am. ‘I never want to rely on someone for anything. Ever.’

Tension loosened from my chest. I hadn’t realised how tight I’d been wound keeping that in until the words crawled from my mouth one by one. Corey twisted my face into an expression I’d used when I’d seen him help someone clean up a spill in the cafeteria months ago. Pure astonishment.

‘Nora—’ Laughter cut off his words, and he shook his head.

I threw my hands in the air. ‘It’s not funny to want to be independent.’

Not funny at all. My mother encouraged me to insist on equal treatment, not fall into the love, marriage, baby trap that sends women backwards in their careers, and always be responsible for my own finances. Despite Hayley’s fairytale dream that occasionally crept into my mind, I’d clawed my way this far, and I wouldn’t back down now. Not that Corey had ever expected me to.

He stopped laughing and cleared his throat, but his signature smirk made its way onto my sweet face. ‘You’re right. It’s not funny to want to be independent, but it is funny that you think you wouldn’t be. I mean, you could work part-time on minimum wage at a grocery store and I’m positive you wouldn’t need anything from anybody. You’re amazing like that.’ He lowered his gaze from mine to stare at the floor of the car.

His words were twine, stitching us closer to an understanding, and my lips lifted in a small smile of appreciation. Not only did he understand, but he also saw me as so much more than I ever realised. I mean, he just praised me. Corey never saw me as a weak duckling. I was Mother Duck. Leader.

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘The promotion would give me the raise I need for a better life. I’m pretty much living week to week at the moment. Especially because of rent prices.’

‘I didn’t realise.’