The CEO and Fate✔️

Chapter 22

Blake had his arm thrown casually around my waist, hugging me tight as he argued with Jake about whatever business deal they were currently working on. Skylar looked just about as uninterested as me as she also was sucked next to Jake, but unlike her, my mind was aching with the battle between past and present.

After Blake had picked me up from the airport, I hesitated to return to my penthouse and be left alone. So, after much insistence, I stayed the night with him. And it most certainly helped. But it wasn't enough for me to be completed emerged in my New York life with no reminder of Michigan.

Throughout today he had gently tried to pry into what had happened, but each time I firmly shut him down and refused. It wasn't until he caught me on the verge of walking out and disappearing to escape my guilt that he backed off and accepted I wouldn't talk about it.

It was his idea to have dinner at the penthouse tonight, to surround me with my friends in order to soothe me. That's when Skylar and Jake showed up at the door with arms full of groceries. I couldn't exactly turn them away when they looked so excited that I had come back.

Suddenly I felt a poke in my side.

"Well, whatever you do, don't let her take our ingredients and make pancakes. She'll burn them," Blake teased.

I made a face. "I was practically cooking with crumbs. I didn't hear any complaints."

"Well, that was because my mouth and yours was—"

Then it was I who jabbed my elbow in his side to keep him from finishing that sentence. He winced.

I examined the array of ingredients spread on their counter. Like Blake's Hampton house, I highly doubted their kitchen appliances were ever used for anything other than coffee and leftovers.

"Skylar and I will make dessert," I declared. "Blake, because you're feeling so high and mighty, you can make dinner."

"Fine by me," he smirked. "I'll show you how a real man cooks a steak."

Skylar snickered. "A real man? If this is anything like the coffee episode, I suggest you find a different partner than Jake if that's your goal."

Jake's mouth dropped. "What? This is outrageous. Who was it that made you a bagel this morning?"

"You did not make the bagel," she rolled her eyes.

"I paid for it. And if I paid for it, then I made it."

I grabbed Skylar and a handful of ingredients. "Just make the dinner. Let's see if you can backup how much you talk."

Blake winked at me. I melted. I was in trouble.

We situated ourselves over on the island while the boys began to figure out the dinner on the other side of the kitchen.

As Skylar began searching up a recipe for chocolate truffles, I sorted the food and searched for the measuring tools. And I didn't complain. In fact, I savored the opportunity.

I wanted nothing more than to put Michigan behind me. There was no need for it to even rank in my priorities. I had built myself a storybook life in New York and I wanted to enjoy it for as long as possible with what little time I had left.