“The position I have open is for a personal CPA. Starting salary is sixty thousand and you would have full medical benefits: dental, emergency, eye care, the works. Your office would be on the fifth floor of the building where you could easily access the financial department if you needed them, but you would answer directly to me on all matters revolving around sound financial decisions.”

“You’re offering me a job,” I said.

“She won’t need it, Dad,” Adam said. “She’s coming to work with me after she graduates.”

“Are you?” Ryan asked.

Dinner had been going so well. My boyfriend—Adam Tucker—and I had been dating since my freshman year of college. I met him in one of my required English courses and fell in love with how much he adored Shakespeare. “An aspiring filmmaker must always seek solace in the greats,” he told me that day.

It was the line that hooked and sank me before my first day of college had wrapped up.

But as I sat there next to him one month before graduation, I realized how much the dynamic of our relationship had changed. He spoke for me when he didn’t need to and always made sure I chose him over anything else. If I was going out with my friends, he would ask to come. If I was meeting them for coffee in between classes, he would always randomly show up. The free-thinking, empowering boy I’d fallen in love with at eighteen had become a dominating force in my life.

And it wasn’t the kind of dominance I enjoyed.

“I’m not sure,” I said as I shot Adam a look. “We haven't really discussed it.”

“But it’s practically a done deal. I need her help at my production company, and she’s the best fit for the job,” Adam said.

“Has she applied for it?” Ryan asked.

Ryan Tucker was Adam’s father. I met him three months into dating Adam, and from then on, we met him for dinner once a month every month, no matter what. He’d whisk us away to somewhere expensive and demand he pay for the meal. And most times he sent a car to pick us up. One time the car Ryan sent for us took us to his private jet, and he proceeded to take us to Italy to have an authentic Italian dinner.

Just because he could.

“We talked about this, Kylie,” Adam said. “You’re going to come help me right after you graduate.”

“Not right after,” I said. “I do want to take a month off after I graduate and enjoy a little bit of my summer: take a breather, relish my accomplishment. But then we said we would talk about it. So, let’s talk about it.”

“Are you actually considering my father’s job offer?”

“Wouldn't you?” I asked.

Dinner had been going so well until Ryan had thrown that down on the table. Adam had been talking about the production company he was starting with a friend of his and how his first-ever indie film was being submitted to Sundance. He was so proud, and I was proud of him. But I saw the Adam I’d come to know all too well over the past year slowly rear his head.

In front of his father.

“The offer is there should you want it,” Ryan said. “Taking a month off after school is fine. You should take the time to enjoy your accomplishment. College is tough, much tougher than when I was going through it.”

“So you’d be okay with me starting at the end of June?” I asked.

“Fine. You can start at the end of June with me,” Adam said.

I shot him another look and kicked his ankle underneath the table. I needed him to stop it. This was my future, my career. It wasn’t his. Yes, he had talked about wanting my help, but the truth of the matter was that Adam was living off loans, taking them out faster than he could pay them back. He refused to work at his father’s computer game development company for extra cash, and he did not want to borrow against his trust fund like his father had offered on several occasions.

He didn’t have the money to pay me what I needed to pay back my own student loans.

But Ryan was offering me a job that would give me that capability and so much more.

“Think about it and get back to me,” Ryan said. “There is no rush. All the applications I’ve received for the position are poor compared to the skills I know you could bring to the job. Your training will be paid, and every new employee in my company starts out with three weeks of paid vacation—with the ability to negotiate more after a positive first-year review of their work.”

I felt Adam’s eyes boring into the profile of my face.

“That’s a very generous offer, Mr. Tucker.”

“It’s the offer I posted for the job, Kylie. Nothing more, nothing less. If you’re interested, let me know. I’ll take up your application and let my HR department know the position has been filled,” Ryan said.

“And I’m telling you, Dad, that won’t be necessary.”

“I’ll take the job,” I said.

Ryan’s eyebrows ticked up as Adam sucked in a breath.

“Your offer is more than acceptable, Mr. Tucker. I’d be honored to work for such a prestigious company.”

His eyes flickered over to his son as I sat there, tiptoeing between the shark-like stare of Ryan’s eyes and the shark-like demeanor of Adam’s anger.

He wouldn't cause a scene in front of his father in this beautiful Portland restaurant, would he?

“You really aren’t going to come work for me?” Adam asked.

My eyes panned over to him for the first time since all this began.

“This is my career, and it’s my choice. We talked about it, but I can’t honestly tell you I was considering it, Adam.”

“And why the hell not?” he asked.

“You’re not making any money right now. You’re living off loans faster than you can take them out. That isn’t a way to run a production company, Adam.”

“And what would you know about that?”

“A lot since I’m a certified personal accountant.”

“Running a business is more than just numbers and money, Kylie. It’s about passion, intrigue. It’s about doing what you want to do for the rest of your life and not stopping until you get it.”

“And being a CPA is what I want to do for the rest of my life. But I also want to make money doing it,” I said.

“So you’re going to go work for my dad.”

“At the end of June, yes,” I said. “June twenty-ninth is the perfect start date by the way.”

“If I’m not mistaken, that’s a Friday. Make it July second. We can start you out on a fresh week leading into a busy summer schedule,” Ryan said.

“This is ridiculous. You’re my girlfriend, Kylie.”

“But that doesn't promise you my talents, Adam. I’m not sure what’s gotten into you this past year, but I think you need to take a long hard look at what this production company is turning you into.”

“One of the perks of having a CPA as a girlfriend while getting a business up and running is your talents, Kylie. What’s wrong with that?”

“So because we’re dating I’m supposed to give that away to you for free?” I asked.

“I’ve done plenty for you without you asking.”

“So you’re holding things I didn’t ask for over my head now?”

Yep. He was going to cause a scene in this restaurant.

“This is bullshit,” Adam said as he got up. “When you invited us out to dinner, Dad, I didn’t think you were going to swipe my employee out from underneath me.”

“In Kylie’s defense, she isn’t your employee,” Ryan said.

“Yeah, she’s yours now. Congratulations.”

“Adam, where are you going?” I asked.

“To take a look at my financials and figure out what my next move is now since my girlfriend is too selfish to do it as a favor for me,” he said.

I watched him storm off through the middle of the restaurant as people stared in our direction. My cheeks heated with a searing pain I couldn't abate. I was mortified, embarrassed, but mostly pissed off. Did Adam really think he had that much of a right to me simply because we were dating?

I settled back into my chair as our desserts were placed on the table. I looked up into Ryan’s eyes as I heard the front door slam from all the way at the back of the restaurant, and the only thing I could think to do was apologize.

“Mr. Tucker, I’m—”

“Don’t,” he said sternly.

He settled back into his chair and crossed his leg over his knee.

“My son is a grown man. He’ll be thirty at the end of this year. If that’s how he chooses to act, then that is on him, not you. Now eat up and then I’ll take you home.”

That was the kind of dominance I enjoyed. Not the overbearing, controlling dominance Adam seemed to exude over the last year, but the kind of dominance that took into account my well-being. I watched as Ryan picked up his fork and dipped it into the dollop of cream atop his dessert. His dark brown hair was parted to the side and not a single strand was out of place. His blue eyes, which usually sparkled, dimmed with a seething glow I could only attribute to his son’s embarrassing outburst. His long wingspan stretched out as he cut bites of his dessert with ease, his back never leaving the seat.

In another world, I would’ve considered Ryan Tucker to be an attractive man for fifty years old.

But in my world, the only thing I considered Ryan Tucker to be was my new boss.