Page 10 of The Billionaire Revenge

Carrie laughed.

“Nice to meet you Jessie and Adam. In fact, he did threaten me” she said “should I be worried?’

“Oh no he would never do that to a pretty lady.” Adam said

“And this place has the best fried chicken in town” Malachi chimed in.

Carrie laughed as they made their way to the dining. She found herself seated between Jessie and Malachi. They ordered lunch and she opted to try the fried chicken Malachi was so fond of.

“So how did you meet that little limey bastard over there?” Jessi whispered as she bit down into a piece of chicken.

“Oh, he works with me at my company” she said

“Oh, he’s working for you huh. What’s a pretty girl like you doing working with a trouble maker like him?”

“Trouble maker? What are you talking about?” she said. “He’s almost completely transformed my business.”

“Well I don’t doubt it” Jessie said “but if you ever need more than he can offer I hope you’ll give me a call,” he teased

Carrie couldn’t help but laughing. It was obvious Jessie wasn’t serious but he was doing his very best to be convincing.

“I think I’m good in the help department,” she said taking a drink. “Plus I have no idea what you do so I’m not sure how much help you would be.”

“I’m refereeing to those things you really can’t pay for” Jessie joked “like someone to fix those leaking pipes or maybe even fire up the grill.”

Carrie couldn’t help it and burst out laughing much louder than she had planned.

“Hey, hey, what’s going on here?” Malachi asked turning away from the conversation he was having with Adam “I hope you’re not trying to hit on my future wife, Jessie! Watch it!”

Carrie stilled as those words left his mouth. She loved him and she had kept it hidden behind her walls waiting for the right time to reveal herself but now as he blurted it out in front of her and his friends she was shocked and beyond elated. By the look on his face she could tell that he was just as shocked as she was by the sudden declaration.

“Woa boy, I didn’t mean to hone in on your girl, sorry” Jessie said breaking the silence. “I’ll leave her alone.”

Carrie could tell by the look on Malachi’s face that something was wrong. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it but he was suddenly aloof and she wondered if it was because he was berating himself for revealing his hand too early or if he thought he had made a mistake. The rest of their lunch hour was spent chatting idly about a few business modifications.

Carrie was so keyed up that by time she got back to work she had no idea what she was going to do.

“I think we should talk about what happened today,” she said to Malachi. He hadn’t been his usual jovial self since lunch and she was on edge trying to figure out whether or not something was wrong.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” he said. “I think we should just forget it all happened.”

Carrie looked at him quizzically.

“You want me to be your wife?” she asked trying to veil her hopefulness.

“I don’t know why I said that” he said trying to joke.

“So you didn’t mean it?” she asked.

“I don’t know what I mean. I think we’re going too fast, maybe we need to be apart for a while”

“What’s going on Malachi?” she asked walking up to him and standing in front of him.

“What’s going on is that our relationship is going too fast for me” he lied.

“Too fast for you?” Carrie shouted. “You’re the one who said you wanted to marry me,” she said

“It was an accident, Carrie. Will you please relax?”