Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 21955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 110(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 110(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
“So now, do you still have the company? I don’t understand that part,” Joe was saying.
“I still have the company, I just sold the license to the application to the manufacturer. The company holds all the patents.”
My mom chimed in, “How did you think up the app in the first place, Nick?”
“I just made the fitness app I wanted to use myself. I kept going back and forth between all these gadgets and online fitness programs, but I wanted everything integrated together.”
“That’s so amazing. I always knew you would do something amazing, didn’t you, Julia?” My mom really won’t let stuff go, can you tell?
“So Nick,” I said, “You’re a billionaire now, huh?”
“Ugh. People keep using that word. There’s a difference between my company’s net worth and my own liquid assets. I don’t have a billion-dollar bill in my wallet, if that’s what you mean.”
“Damn it. Because I was hoping you’d get me a small impoverished nation for Christmas. Preferably something tropical, where they grow coffee or chocolate. Any chance I’ll find that under the tree?”
He just grinned at me. “I’ll see what I can do.” He relaxed then. I guess he thought that since I was joking around with him, all was forgiven and forgotten. He was wrong.
~ <> ~
The day that split my life in two started out as the happiest one I’d ever known. It was almost three years ago. I’d had a crush on Nick practically from the day my mom and his dad took us out to dinner to tell us they were getting married. It seemed like the biggest cheat on earth that the one guy who had ever captured my full attention was about to be off limits. I might as well have fallen in love with a movie star—it had the same chance of ever working out. I could tell that Nick thought of me as his kid sister, nothing more. Just someone to tease. Obviously he wasn’t interested in me, because he always paraded his many, many girls in front of me. He would flirt and touch them in a way that made me feel an almost sickening mixture of desire and rage.
We were out at the lake with our friends, and I was pissed at him, so when he challenged me to race with him, I stupidly did it. I could barely swim then, but I kept that information to myself.
I started off okay, but pretty soon I was exhausted. I knew I was in trouble, but there was nobody to call for help. Nick had pulled far ahead. With the little air I could get between gulps of lake water, I called his name, but he didn’t hear me. I had somehow blundered out into deep water, and I just couldn’t stay up on the surface. I remember looking up at the sky, trying to keep my head above water, but failing. Water kept coming into my mouth and nose, and I started to panic. I thrashed with my arms and legs, but it didn’t help, and then the air was way up above and I was down in the cold dark water. I looked up through the water, and I could still see the light in the sky, slowly getting smaller as I sank down.
The next thing I knew, someone grabbed me from behind and yanked my head above the surface, which I seemed to break with a big crash. I gasped for a huge breath of air, but it made me cough, and that made me panic again and flail around.
Nick spoke in my ear. “I have you Julia. You’re okay.” He held onto me from behind, and his firm warm arms around me and the rumbling sound of his voice gave me the strength to calm down.
“Just breathe slowly and relax,” he said, and he started to swim on his back for shore, with me above him, my back pressed to his front.
When we got to shallow water, he asked if I could walk, and I nodded. He kept his arm around me, supporting me, but my knees were wobbly, and I sank down on them when we were in about a foot of water.
He knelt right in front of me and peered into my face. His hands moved my hair back, and then his thumb traced my cheek, caressed my face. The other hand strayed to my shoulder as he kept looking into my eyes.
“My god, Julia, I thought I’d lost you. I’d want to die without you. Tell me you’re okay.”
“Oh, Nick,” I said. My feelings were too big for words, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his.
In the next moment he roughly pulled me to his chest, and brought his lips to mine. His mouth was an unstoppable force of nature. His lips pulled at mine, hungrily taking them. He took my bottom lip between both of his. His lips opened, and his questing tongue traced the line between my closed lips, and I yielded my mouth to him. Our tongues met, and for the first time I knew what it was like to swirl deliriously into a kiss. My whole body, which had been so cold when trapped by the lake, felt like it was about to ignite. My hands went to Nick’s hair, buried themselves in it, in an attempt to bring him closer still. All the feelings for Nick that I’d hidden and tried to deny, burst forth, and I poured all of them into that kiss.