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Love Between Enemies (Grad Night) by Molly E. Lee (5)

Chapter Four

Zoey

“Pumpkin?” My father’s voice rang from the living room as I walked through my front door, still fuming over Gordon.

“I thought you were at the office?” I asked when I found him and Mom sitting on the couch.

“We just got back,” he said. “How’d your speech go?”

I sighed. “Perfectly.”

“Oh good,” Mom said. “It was such a lovely speech.”

One that you weren’t present for.

Braylen’s mom had shot me a look of sympathy as I’d rushed off stage, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t appreciate it. Hell, I’d thought about running to her like she was my own mother—someone who would support me and hate Gordon on principle. Instead, my mother was distant—elegant and brilliant, but distant. The company came first. I’d known that since my fourth birthday, when my party was attended by my nanny only. My parents had been off on some trip to stroke the stock-holders’ egos.

And they wondered why I didn’t want to immediately sink my teeth into the family business.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “Sit down.”

I sat perched on the edge of the loveseat across from them.

He glanced at Mom before returning his focus on me. “We’ve decided to support this whole internship business.”

I raised my eyebrows, a smile on my lips. “Really?” No more arguments, no more threats of taking my car away if I landed the position?

“Yes,” he said, adjusting his cornflower blue tie. “I’ve created a position at the company. An internship. You will be able to work there just as you would at this other company. Doing nothing privileged. Only real, gritty intern things.”

My shoulders sank, and I pinched the bridge of my nose. “That is so not the point.” I shook my head, looking across our glass coffee table, eyeing my parents like they’d lost their minds. Could they really not see why I wanted the internship? How many times did I have to explain it?

I pushed off the couch, standing to look down at them. “I’ve busted my ass since the first day I went to school. I’ve never stopped for a second, and I’ve never asked you for anything. This is about proving who I am without the family name attached to it. Without you ‘creating’ a position for me. This is about…” I struggled to find the right words. “About doing something just for me. For once.”

Their stone silence said more than if they had begun arguing with me again.

“Can either of you even tell me why I want this internship so badly?” My eyes darted between the two of them as they scrambled for an answer.

“Because,” Mom said, “you want to be adventurous. See what it is like outside our company first?”

I shook my head. “Because I’m going to Stanford to get my degree in International Relations, and A&J happens to have a Stanford alum with the same degree at the helm of the corporation. Do you know how invaluable that experience will be for me?” I arched an eyebrow. “Especially when I’ve earned my degree and bring all that knowledge over to your company?”

They each blinked like they were seeing me for the first time. Like they couldn’t believe I’d thought that far ahead, or considered the big picture like that. They would know if they ever listened to me in the first place. And after everything that had happened today, I was so beyond done.

“Right,” I said before they could say anything.

“I never knew two kids could be so…gung ho about business and the future,” he said, a slick smile on his face.

“What?”

“Gordon Meyers called me today,” he said, and my hackles rose at the mention.

“About what?” I snapped, praying he hadn’t mentioned the speech. I don’t know why he would—hell, I didn’t even know why he’d done it in the first place—but I didn’t want my parents to know.

“He wants to show me a business plan regarding his father’s shop’s profit margins and projections.”

I sighed, my shoulders dropping. “You’ve been trying to buy that place to flip for years.” I wondered what made Gordon’s dad decide to sell now. Maybe the market was hot and the price my father offered was too good to refuse. I bet he’d use some of the money to send Gordon to Stanford. So now he really didn’t have a reason to be as pissed off at me as he was. Didn’t get him off the hook, though.

No. He still had to pay. And after Mrs. Rollins told me that he was the other candidate for the internship, I would make sure he had no shot of earning that spot.

“True,” he said. “The kid even agreed to an early morning meeting tomorrow.”

“How early?”

“Seven a.m. sharp.”

“You’re setting him up to fail,” I said before I could stop myself. I was always ready to battle my father, but Gordon had merely been a good solid challenge my whole life. It was hard to not instinctively want to take his side on this matter, but his speech killed any good feelings I may have had about my once semi-friendly foe.

“I’m not. I’m giving him a chance to prove to himself and me what he wants most. If he is serious about the business and its future, he’ll be clear-eyed and ready in the morning. If partying with his friends is his priority, then we’ll know what matters to him.”

I couldn’t fault my father’s logic. He was a ruthless and incredible businessman who usually got what he wanted in the end. “But it’s grad night,” I said, despite knowing he made sense. “Seems like the odds are against him,” I continued, my mind sparking with the cleverest, most diabolical idea to get back at Gordon. I could ruin him in two different ways with one beautiful stone.

“You seem like you’re sticking up for him,” he said. “Isn’t he the same one who’s been nipping at your heels your entire life? Like a little jealous puppy begging for attention?”

“It’s not like that,” I said, more focused on the plan in my head than the conversation at hand. “We’ve had a good long battle of wins and losses. He never wanted attention from me…” Or did he? Well, he certainly got my attention today. Another wave of embarrassment crashed over my body and I glanced at my cell. “I have exactly ten minutes to get ready and then I have a project that desperately needs my attention. I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

I spun on my heels, hurrying to my bedroom to get dressed. I no longer wanted to hear about the internship, or my father’s interest in what Gordon had to say. Sure, he didn’t know what he’d done to me, but I did. I could still feel the ache in my bones from the blow he’d landed, and I wasn’t going to sit on my bed and eat Ben & Jerry’s all night.

No, I was going to get even.

“I’ll have to swipe his keys,” I said, pacing the length of my room after divulging the plan to Julie.

“Isn’t there a security system?” Julie asked on the other end of the line. “Oh, wait. That’s why you want me to call—”

“You can totally talk Jay into it. Look,” I said, cutting Julie off and switching my cell to my other ear. “This plan is foolproof, but only if we follow every single step to the T. One slip, and we all go down. So, are you in or not?”

“Girl, you know I’m in. This will be so epic.” Julie was more than happy to indulge my plan, especially since it involved her underclassman boyfriend Jay—Gordon’s cousin—who was wicked mopey about not being invited to Lennon’s party tonight. He shouldn’t have taken it personally, only seniors and up were invited to the grad night party, but now he’d have other things to occupy his time. Several underclassmen would.

“Thank you,” I said, chewing on my lip. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Later.”

I hung up the phone and raked my fingers through my hair, sighing as I sank onto my bed. Anger had turned into a solid, pulsing thing in my blood, and I would be damned if I’d let Gordon get away with something like this. It didn’t matter that not everyone took his speech as seriously—as I learned from the texts on the way home. It mattered to me. I knew he’d done it to hurt me. And he’d succeeded. Now I would return the favor.

He’d be at Lennon’s tonight because the entire senior class would be there. And that was where I’d take my revenge. But it wouldn’t stop there. Oh no. I intended to ensure that not only would he know never to mess with me again, I would make sure the internship was mine. No contest.

A sliver of guilt slipped into my chest, but I pushed it away. I’d never once fought dirty in my entire life. I’d always gotten what I wanted through hard work and a hell of a lot of sacrifice. But today was different. Today, Gordon deserved to get dirty, and I was more than happy to help.

I stared at my closed door, taking my last few minutes left to breathe. I half hoped my father would knock on it and come in apologizing for his stance on the internship. Hell, I’d even take it if he was mad. Something. Anything from my parents would be a nice change to the monotone they usually adapted.

Neither one of them had tried to follow me after I’d stormed off. If Bray had snapped at her mom like that, she wouldn’t leave the house for a week, but things were different in my family. It was 90 percent business, 10 percent actual connection. There were moments when the suit persona would slip from my father, and he’d say or notice something that I thought he had no clue about—like the one time he’d shown up with coffee at the children’s hospital where I volunteered on the graveyard shift one summer. There were always at least forty other moments to negate those gems, though—times when he’d try to grill into my brain the importance of the company, of the role it played in our lives, how the only reason it was successful was because of the sacrifices they’d made for it in the beginning.

I knew all about sacrifice.

I knew that’s why they were never around throughout my childhood. And before I’d bonded with Bray freshman year, I was dead set on never fitting in with a family. I was all about doing things on my own, still was, but Bray and her mother had given me so much over the past four years—they showed me what it was like to be a real family, and while I would be grateful to them for the rest of my life, it also showed me how much of a disconnect there was between my parents and me.

And yet, knowing that, I still hoped.

I wanted to connect. I wanted them to see me for me, not some asset they’d created as a result of two important people getting married. I worked as hard as I did because they doubted me at every turn. I needed to prove that I was more than capable of doing and earning every single thing on my own. Not just for myself. I wanted them to realize it, too.

I resisted the urge to call Bray and beg her to meet me before the party. She was dealing with major Fynn stuff at the moment. And she’d talk me right out of my plan for Gordon. Bray had too big a heart for revenge, and while I always listened to her because she was my absolute best friend, I couldn’t afford to unload everything on her right now. After it was all over, we’d have a confession session, but for tonight, I’d leave her in the dark.

I slipped on a pair of silver leggings, some sparkly gold flats, and a flowing black top. My blonde curls only needed a little fluffing, and I was ready to go. I hadn’t been to many of Lennon’s parties, but tonight wasn’t about reveling in that experience. Tonight was about getting even with Gordon, and doing whatever it took to take the internship from him. Because while before it had been a friendly competition, today he’d made it personal.

And two could play that game.

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