Divorce to Destiny: Reclaiming My CEO Husband novel Chapter 24

24 Am I Crazy? 

(Winona) 

I’m speechless. I stare at Jayden and sit down in the chair opposite him. What does this really all mean? Apart from the wish thing, which is stupid anyway, I do need to be able to get along with him from a business perspective. 

There will be times we need to be out together. Maybe it is better to rip the sticking plaster off quickly and get it over with 

As if he reads my mind. “A business date. That’s all. Honestly, we can’t always be in the office. It’s just one date” 

I can’t help remembering the first time he asked me out. 

It’s junior year of high school. I watch the two fools passing notes in a math exam and one drops, floating over to land closer to my desk than to theirs. It’s not that they were not brainy enough, they were just too lazy to bother focusing. Of course they had money to fall back on. 

And the math teacher, commonly known amongst the students as Old Man Bulldog, is someone who doesn’t tolerate this kind of behavior, no matter how much money your family has. I see he’s turned around and spotted the paper on the floor. 

Automatically and god knows why, I pick up the note as he advances. 

“Winona? What is that?” 

“Sorry, Mr. Brown. Honest mistake. I had flash cards before class, and one must have stayed in my pocket.” 

He eyes me cautiously. I smile at him. 

“I see. Well, in future, be more careful. Anyone else and I’d throw out of class. But you are the last person who needs to cheat. Probably more on one flash card of yours than the class put together knows.” 

“Thanks. I won’t be so careless again.” 

And that is how I attracted the attention of the richest student in the school. 

After that, Jayden seemed to be everywhere I was. I’d never seen him outside of class before. He’d say hi and I’d just mumble and keep walking. I’ve seen the movies, I know someone like him showing someone like me attention is going to end badly. It’s what they do for kicks. 

I was going through a pretty hard time at home. I was studying every second I got and his constant stalking” became almost a comfort for me. He made me smile despite myself. Before long, I was falling for his infectious attitude and him being around. 

“Go out with me!” He begs for the 100th time. “Come on. It’s just one date…” 

“… Okay.” 

“Well, no problem, I’ll ask you tomorrow. No… wait. Did you just say yes?!” 

+25 BONUS 

24 Am I Crazy? 

He picks me up and spins me around in front of all his friends. I guess he really doesn’t care what anyone thinks. But it still bothers me. 

The memory of a younger version of Jayden brings a sad smile to my lips. Now here he is sitting across from me with no clue about the history we’d built together. Yet I have the same dilemma, him asking me to go out with him and me being reluctant. 

“Earth to Winona! Are you going to give me an answer or just sit there mooning all day?” 

“There’s a lot to consider. I’m trying my hardest to move on and let you do the same,” I answer honestly. 

“But you know we’ll have to be out together for business from time to time. May as well get it over with.” There he goes again, being logical. “I can’t see what the problem is really.” 

No, you never could see what the problem was, I don’t think he ever really understood how our backgrounds made it so difficult. We quarreled a lot over those differences. But that never deterred him from wanting to be with me. 

While he loved me and I him, I don’t think he ever had empathy for why I felt the way I did about us. guess that would have come with time, once he’d spent time in my world more. But that time got cut 

short. 

“You aren’t going to try and make it personal? I don’t want to mix those two things up. That’s not going to be taken favorably by the board.”