_OceanofPDF

The bathroom door opened, and Ella smiled at me, as preened and
beautiful as a siren calling me to be the man no one who loved me thought I
was capable of being.
That meant nothing.
When I’d said those words, I wasn’t really speaking to her. I’d needed
to remind myself that the urgency of our connection had made me
emotionally lazy. In the dancing and laughter, the constant buzz of anxiety
had bubbled and popped like the champagne I’d drunk, and something else
had slipped in.
I’d felt things.
Feeling things meant I’d lost control, and that was unacceptable if we
were going to get through this.
“Hey,” Ella said, taking my arm. “Sorry I took so long.”
“It’s fine.” I led her back to the party.
“‘Elevator that lifts me up’?”
“You heard?” I expected her to mention my mother’s doubts so we
could plan our next course of action. For the first time since my father’s
ultimatum, getting the top spot at Crowne wasn’t the first thing on my
mind. I needed my mother soothed immediately.
“Please say you didn’t come up with that line,” Ella said. “We’ll have to
take you behind the shed and shoot you.”
“Was it that bad?”
“You were doing okay for a minute. Gravity was a little soft, but ending
on the elevator—”
“Was it so bad she wouldn’t believe it?” I interrupted.
“I don’t think your way with words is going to make her believe you
love me.”
Great.
I didn’t even know how to convince my own mother.
“So”—Ella leaned into me as we entered the crowd—“do I get a ride in
your red Ferrari?”
“I never said red.”
“It was red… the one we just—”
“I’m not getting a red car,” I snapped, attention forward as if I was
driving. “If you knew me, that would be obvious.”
“Okay. What color then?”
“Black. Make a note.”