“You are kidding me, right? Please tell me you’re joking,” Happy pleaded with Brig, a hint of desperation mixed with anger.
Brig raised his eyebrows and grinned, “It is what it is. Look. It’s not that big of a deal. We’ll be fine. We can get jobs.” He stopped short of suggesting marriage, but he was thinking it. “This is a good thing. I’m tired of pimping myself out to my Dad. I don’t need him, or his money. I feel fantastic about this.”
“Brig, you don’t understand. You have got to go back and apologize. Beg for his forgiveness. Promise him anything! You may survive without your father’s money, but our relationship won’t.”
Brig chuckled, “Don’t be so dramatic. We’re young. We’re smart…and we’re in lo-o-o-ove.” Brig said the word “love” in a southern drawl trying to be funny. “We’ll be fine.”
“Brigham. You’re not listening. You’re making one of the most expensive mistakes in the history of the world, and it jeopardizes everything you think we have. You have been very generous with your money. I appreciate it. I need it. I have family in Hong Kong that needs it. You haven’t asked, so I haven’t said anything, but I have massive financial responsibilities back home and there isn’t a nine to five in the world that can support your drug habit and my family.”
“What family problems? What family?”
“Exactly Brig. You know almost nothing about me. I look good on your arm. I know how to party and give a good blow job. But the most attractive thing about you, to me, is your money.”
“What?” Brig had not seen that coming. When they first met he suspected that Happy was in it for the money, but over the last few months he had genuinely believed they were in love. He knew he was. “How can you say that? Where is this coming from? I was actually thinking of proposing to you, and now you’re telling me that all I am is a paycheck to you. Do you realize what that makes you?”
“You’re more than a paycheck. You don’t know it, but you’ve saved me and I will be forever grateful. But I need to be honest with you. I don’t love you. I never have. I never could. This thing we have was never going to be long term. My life is in Hong Kong.” Happy stared at Brig, “You are the heir to your family’s fortune. Your dad will die someday, and then the money will be all yours. But only if you go back and apologize.”
“I can’t,” Brig confessed.
“You can’t, or you won’t?” Happy screamed, her frustration boiling over.
“Can’t! I can’t! I’ve already tried. I can’t get within a hundred feet of that asshole. I think he’s hired two guys whose only job is to keep me away from him.”
Happy looked away, realizing that her time in the US was finally over. She picked up her jacket and phone as if to leave.
“Where the hell are you going?” Brig asked as he grabbed Happy by the shoulders.
“I need to get out. I need to think,” Happy said, pulling away.
“I’ll come with you.” Brig sensed that his world was collapsing, and he was powerless to stop it.
“No. I want to be alone.”
“Happy, please,” he begged. “I need you.”
But she was already gone.
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