Page 23 of Fixed Up Ever After
They both spoke at once, laughing nervously, but it eased some of the tension away. “So, I guess I’ll start,” Lola said, placing both hands atop her journal. He couldn’t see much underneath her arms, but he caught a few words and her feminine handwriting.
“I wanted to give you an out before we take this thing any further. I realize how inappropriate the situation was and understand if you are uncomfortable moving forward.” Lola looked up at him through heavy lashes. He saw how stressed she was over this whole conversation and he wanted to alleviate that.
“I don’t want an out. I stand by what I said. If you’ll have me, I’d love to be your date to this wedding.” He had no idea whose wedding this was or where it would be held, but he figured those details would be coming soon.
“Well, in that case.” Lola grabbed a sparkly pink pen with a fuzzy pom at the top of it and turned to a blank page in her journal. “We need to discuss ground rules.”
CHAPTER15
Lola
Awell-planned checklist was Lola’s idea of a good time. To-do lists, grocery lists, book lists…there were endless possibilities and it kept her tasks manageable and organized. With so much of her life in the hands of others and her unable to hold the reins, Lola desperately wanted some semblance of power back.
Hence, the checklist.
“So I think we should start with compensation,” she said, ignoring Javi’s cute, confused face. His brow furrowed and he scrunched up his nose as if deep in thought. She had not been prepared to see him looking all sexy in his denim jeans and long-sleeved white shirt. He made it hard to concentrate while the fabric pulled taut over the muscles he hid underneath.
She had practiced what she was going to say with Mona last night, probably a million times before her friend threatened to call the cops on her for torture.
“I would like to hire you as both my contractor and my date for my sister’s wedding,” she started, giving Javi a tiny insight into the wedding. She wasn’t ready to give him all the details yet, though they would come in due time. “I would like to offer you two hundred thousand dollars. One hundred thousand to one hundred and twenty thousand going into my shop and labor for your workers, and the rest to you for all the trouble I’m causing you. I’ll pay you half now and the rest after the wedding.”
Javi completely short-circuited. Was he breathing? He had to be breathing. His eyes were the size of saucers, staring unblinkingly at her. His mouth opened and closed but no words came out, none that were coherent anyway. Not even his chest rose and fell with his breathing. Had she successfully broken the man?
“Javi? You good?” She thought about poking him to make sure he was still with her, but felt like that might send him overboard, so she kept her fingers to herself.
“Lola. I—you can’t—you—I…” he babbled, his brain going faster than his mouth. She had expected some pushback because it was a lot of damn money. Enough to change a person’s financial situation for a while.
“I can, actually,” she said as he continued to sputter. “My father gave me access to a good sum of money to invest in my new business. It is more money than I will ever need and I can only use it for work-related purposes. Granted, my father probably didn’t think about having my contractor escort me to my sister’s wedding as work-related expenses, but here we are. The money is yours, and I’m prepared to give you half now to start on the renovations, and the other half at the end of our deal. Before you say no or try a bullshit attempt at telling me how I should spend my money, you should know that once my mind is made up, I rarely ever change it.”
Mona told her she needed to be firm. There was no place for a wishy-washy attitude when it came to this amount of money. It was also important that both parties knew where they stood.
“Please say something. I need to know I’m not wasting either of our time. If you don’t want to go through with the date, I understand and still want to offer you the renovation job.” Lola’s leg began to shake, a nervous habit she picked up in childhood that always made her mother smack her leg to keep from bouncing.
Javi miraculously learned to speak again and put her out of her misery. “That’s a lot of fucking money, preciosa. I should turn it down because I’m getting the far better deal. You don’t get much out of this.”
Lola snorted, trying not to conjure up memories of the last time he called her preciosa. The way it lit a fire deep inside her, made her wish she could hear him whisper it in her ear.
She quickly shooed those thoughts away. “Don’t I, though? I get my dream bookstore and I don’t have to lift a finger. I also get saved from endless discussions with my family about how if I only ate more salads and less burgers and exercised every once in a while, I would have a man. The crazy thing is, I don’t even like burgers and I do yoga every day!”
Javi rolled his sleeves up, exposing more of his toned arms. His body stiffened and his arms flexed. When she met his gaze again, his lips were pressed together in a thin line, eyes narrowed. “They comment on your weight?”
“I mean, yeah. Mostly my mom. My sister will give backhanded compliments, but my mother instigates it.” She shrugged like it was no big deal since she had been living like this her entire life. It was just one of her mother’s many quirks.
“And you’re fine with excusing her behavior?”
The question was so unexpected and frankly uncalled for that it stunned her, taking her longer to compose her thoughts. “Well of course I’m not okay with it. It’s not like I ask my mom to comment on my weight. I’m tired of fighting back. After you’ve lived with it your entire life, you become desensitized.”
There was no mistaking her anger, and Javi had the decency to look thoroughly reprimanded. “Right. Sorry. I just don’t like that someone makes you feel inferior about one of the most beautiful parts of you.”
Fucking swoon.
What person didn’t like being told they were beautiful every now and again? To feel desired and cherished. It wasn’t a bad thing to want someone to lust for her body and she wouldn’t feel ashamed in thinking so.
“You’re forgiven, but now you know just a fraction of what I’m up against. Your presence is going to be a big help. Honestly, when you meet my family, you’ll feel cheated out of more money. I assure you.”
Javi still didn’t look comfortable and she wished she could read his thoughts. She wanted to know what was going through his mind and try to help ease his worry. She would never ask him, but she didn’t know how much he made and with a daughter, she imagined the bills added up. Being a single dad was a full-time job, and an expensive one, so if this could help him, she wanted to make it happen.
Lola didn’t pressure him. She let him stew in his own thoughts as she marked compensation off her checklist. The next thing she wanted to talk about was the wedding dates. She guessed Javi would have to make arrangements for his daughter and she wondered if that was going to be a problem. A small part of her also felt guilty for stealing time away from the girl when his time seemed limited as it was.
