Page 203 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10

“What I was leading up to before I got distracted was…you said you thought you were in love with Penny.” He stared at me. “So…are you or are you not?”

I knew that I wasn’t worthy of Penny’s love. I knew that. But that knowledge had no effect on how I felt. And there wasn’t a doubt in my mind now. “I love her. I’m in love with her.”

Obsessed - Chapter 36

Monday

I locked eyes with Penny as I walked into the classroom and smiled. I wasn’t sure I had ever started a day being this excited about something. Someone. But then I noticed the expression on her face. She looked fucking pissed. At me.What did I do now?All I wanted to do was speak with her. To figure out what it was that was bothering her. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything about it right now. It killed me to see her upset. It killed me more that my position made it impossible to fix it.

I cleared my throat. I just needed to get through this class and then I could talk with her in private. "Okay, time for speeches. I'm excited to learn why all of you chose your majors." I pulled the podium to the middle of the room and made my way to the seat in front of Tyler. I smelled Penny’s cherry perfume everywhere, which made it almost impossible to focus on the class. I pulled out my papers to grade the speeches with. "Adam Zabek, you're up.”

Adam and a few other people went and then it was Penny’s turn. Would she let me know what was wrong in her speech? Somehow let me know? The flirting in her answers was usually subtle. She could give me a hint now. Let me in.

"Penny Taylor,” I said. I hoped it came out the way I’d called all the other names. And not like I was in the middle of fucking her brains out. I was getting used to groaning her name instead of saying it like this.

"Good luck, Penny," Tyler said.

Fucking Tyler. Friendship rose my ass.

"Thanks," she said.

I watched her make her way to the front of the room. Her jeans hugged her ass perfectly. And she didn’t even trip on anything, which was a relief. If any students laughed at her again, I was pretty sure I’d lose it. Especially today when she already seemed upset about…something. No, not just something. She was definitely upset with me.

She gripped the sides of the podium. And just stood there. She just stood there awkwardly staring down at her notes.

Say something. Tell me what’s wrong. Say anything, Penny.

Someone in the front row cleared their throat.

She finally looked up and locked eyes with me. And I was pretty sure she looked even angrier than she had when I first walked into the room.

"I am currently majoring in marketing. And for some reason I'm having a really hard time remembering why I chose it." She lifted her paper off the podium and waved it around. "I have a whole list of reasons on here why marketing is a great major, but I'm not sure how much of that I can believe anymore.”

Am I marketing in this weird metaphor?

“Because sometimes you think you know something, but actually you have no idea what it's really like. Marketing is like that. It's a complete lie. I mean, we're all taught that marketing is sexy,right?" Her cheeks flushed. "But it's really not. Marketing is ugly on the inside. Hideous, really."

Ouch.I wanted to believe that she really just hated her major. But when she was looking at me like that? It was me. I was definitely marketing in this scenario. Her words echoed around me. There wasn’t any hiding from her words.Hideous on the inside.I told her the truth and that’s what she thought? What the fuck? Where was this coming from? I thought we were on the same page. We were in a good place when I saw her on Saturday night. A great place. What the hell happened between then and now? It was impossible to sit here and listen to this. I wanted to make it right. But all I could do was bite my tongue.

"Marketing lures you into getting something that you don't really need or want,” she continued. “A product can't cheat on you. A product can't lie to you. But a marketer can.”

It felt like she’d slapped me across the face. I’d just opened up so much to her.

“And a marketer doesn't blink an eye when they lie and cheat. They hook you in and sell you awful products that you don't even want. You know what? I'm actually thinking about changing my major because of this assignment. Because I can't for the life of me think of a reason to continue pursuing marketing. Because marketing is a fucking joke."

"That's enough!" I slammed my fist on the desk.Jesus.What the hell was I doing? I couldn’t talk to a student that way. But she wasn’t just a fucking student. She was Penny. She was mine. I was losing her. And I couldn’t do anything about it right here.

"Marketing can go to hell." She grabbed her paper and ran out of the room.

"Penny!" Tyler yelled from behind me.

The whole class was silent.What the hell do I say now?A chair squeaked across the floor. A pen dropped. I could feel my pulse ricocheting around my body. I did the only thing I could do. I called the next name on my roster. “Tyler Stevens.”

What the hell just happened?

Tyler made his way to the front of the room. The last thing I wanted to do right now was listen to his speech. I wanted to run after Penny. I needed to run after her.

“I chose to major in economics because a major in business seemed like a logical choice,” Tyler said. “A safe choice. And I added on a second major of finance because it was easy to get both at the same time.” Tyler laughed even though what he just said wasn’t funny.