Page 18 of Opening It Up (Humbled Superstars #2)
Harley
I stared at the latest revenue reports from my accountant and I couldn’t ignore them any longer.
Ever since I had suggested an open marriage, my life had been in a tailspin.
I was miserable, frustrated, depressed, and painfully, achingly lonely. I missed my wife.
I had fucked up the best thing in my life and I didn’t know how to fix it.
If I never addressed my last episode, my podcast career as a celebrity marriage and family therapist would be over.
But I felt like a fucking fraud.
What advice did I have to offer?
I was a jackass who had lied to my wife and had the stupid delusion that having the freedom to sow the wild oats I had never done in my 20s would be fun.
Well, there was a reason I had clung to Lily-Mae as soon as I had met her. My podcast had only been successful in the first place because I was so radiantly, transparently happy.
And then all this success had gone to my head.
What if she wanted to continue the open marriage? Forever?
There could never be anyone for me but Lily-Mae.
I knew that now. No one woman could ever compare with her.
She was the total package: looks, sex appeal, personality, and character.
So if she decided she’d like to continue to also have sex with men whose dicks were renowned around the office, I would just have to bear it, even though it would be agony.
But first I would have to take some steps to make sure she knew I had changed and could keep my ego in check.
And unfortunately, the first stop was to somewhere I absolutely didn’t want to go.
“Can you—is it possible to lower the rent?” I asked Leopold stiffly.
He raised one salt-and-pepper eyebrow at me and leaned back in his chair.
“Lower the rent?” he asked, like the concept had never occurred to the harsh old bastard.
“My—podcast has taken a dip and revenue is struggling at the moment.”
Leopold smiled, but it wasn’t a very nice smile.
“I’m not going to lower the rent for you. But I do have an alternate suggestion. There is a smaller suite opening up on the 13 th floor. I believe it’s right next to Pete’s Premium Pet Emporium. You could switch your lease over to there. I have a bigger account I could put on the 27 th floor.”
Go under the 20 th floor? Share a space with Pete’s Premium Pet Emporium?
It was definitely a downgrade, but what option did I have?
The rents would be ruinous with the way my listenership had declined lately.
And I didn’t need to have that 27 th floor anyways.
It was just for my ego. It was time to stop running things based on my ego.
So I swallowed my pride.
“Yes, thank you. That would be great.”
Pete was very enthused to see me.
“Mostly have rodents these days,” he said, waving an arm around at the big, spacious glass enclosures filled with rats, mice, guinea pigs, hamster, and gerbils, all in their proper spaces. “But Pet’s Premium Rodent Emporium doesn’t have quite the same ring, you know?”
“I can see that,” I said.
My next step was to make sure the boys knew that I’d be coming home from work on time from now on. They both expressed such genuine happiness at that that I felt even more like a disgusting worm.
How could I have been so blind not to see that this was all I needed?
“I appreciate all you do to help us around the house and with the boys,” I told my father-in-law as he sat in the easy chair reading one of his haberdashery books.
“Would you like to have your own place? I’ve been thinking, there’s plenty of room back there in the yard.
We could build a little cottage just for you? So you could have your own space?”
Julius’ eyes gleamed with joy, and the magazine dropped so I could see he had tucked the Personals section of the newspaper into it.
“That is a marvelous idea! I fear enough time has passed. I am ready to start looking for wife #5 and no time to lose at my age.”
I grinned and almost automatically turned to catch Lily-Mae’s eye, then remembered of course she wasn’t here.
She was out with another man.
All I could do was show her how much I appreciated her and our family and how I was never going to do anything this stupid ever again.