Ethan

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“YOU GOING TO HUDSON makes you look like one hell of a hypocrite...”

I pulled a blanket over Rachel the next morning, kissing her forehead before getting dressed. Despite having sex all over our house for the entire night, I hadn’t been able to get some of her words out of my head, and I was still slightly upset.

She didn’t even give me a chance to explain that the program was only for a year (Hence the word “accelerated”) and I was guaranteed a six-figure job upon completion. I was going to tell her that I planned to take a gap-year afterwards and pursue writing for a while.

Then again, I should’ve known that she would react that way.

She’s still a goddamn hot-head...

“Where are you going?” She murmured, rolling over. “Ethan?”

“To my dad’s office. You want something on my way back?”

“Yeah...” She looked at me. “Can you let me see the first few pages of your novel? You never let me read it.”

“I’ll think about it,” I said, walking over and kissing her forehead. “By ‘something,’ I was referring to what you may want from a store or a café.”

“Hot chocolate from Gayle’s. Two cups.”

I laughed and hit the lights. “I’ll be back with that in twenty.”

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FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, I walked into the office suite at my dad’s construction company and set my intention letter for Hudson University on his desk.

“Wow.” He picked up the paper and smiled. “Now, this is the type of ‘creative writing’ I’m talking about, Ethan. These are the type of words that will get you someplace in life.”

“I didn’t come here to talk,” I said. “I just wanted to let you know I’ll be moving away soon.”

“Well, thank you for taking the right path.” He smiled as he leaned back in his chair. “I can’t wait until you finish, so I can show you all the things you’re going to love about running this place. Okay, well, maybe not love, but it’ll pay your bills and you’ll get to do things you love on your off days.”

“Right.” I rolled my eyes and picked up my letter. “Like I said, I’m not here to talk, and I’m not sure if I want to work at your company when I’m finished anyway. I told you I’d consider it.”

His expression hardened. “Ethan, this is a seven-figure business that I’m willing to give you, no questions asked. Do you have any idea how I would’ve felt if my father promised the same for me when I was your age?”

I can make a pretty good guess... “I have no idea.”

“Well, I would’ve felt honored, and you should feel the same,” he said, pulling out his laptop. “Show me your school’s log-in portal so I can see what specialties you’ll work on during the first few months. I’ll do my best to tailor my lessons in sync with yours.”

“You do know that Hudson University is in New York, right?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “What better way to finally Skype each other since you’ll be doing that to reach all your future clients? Oh, and since you’re doing an accelerated program instead of the standard one, that means I don’t have as much time to get all the transition guides ready for you.” He turned the laptop’s screen toward me, talking a mile a minute about shit I couldn’t care less about, and for a split second, I wondered if Rachel had a point.