Her Suspected Billionaire

Chapter 21

​Evan stopped in his tracks as he heard movement in his kitchen. What was it with him coming back to meet people in his house? He shut the front door behind him and headed to the kitchen. His best friend, Nathan, stood by the kitchen island, wearing an apron and turning some spinach into a bowl of rice that sat in front of him. Evan’s eyes popped wide open as he realized he had totally forgotten that Nathan was coming in today. He was supposed to have picked him up at the airport. Nathan looked up as he heard Evan come in.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my forgetful workaholic friend,” he teased, dropping the bowl of spinach and walking over to Evan. The two friends hugged, patting each other on the back vigorously.

“I’m sorry, Nat. I sincerely forgot. A lot…”

“…has been going on at the office. I know,” Nathan cut in, laughing as he walked back to his food. “It’s a good thing you gave me a spare key to your apartment. I’d have had to just chill out until you got back from work?”

​Evan knew he wasn’t off Nathan’s hook like that. He knew his friend was upset he had forgotten him at the airport after he had reminded him days before, even up until the hour he boarded. But it wasn’t his fault. The whole situation with Liam had made him very tense lately. He still hadn’t told his mother and since she hadn’t called him yet, he guessed Liam hadn’t told her either.

“Look, bro. Please don’t be mad,” Evan kept saying, flinging his jacket on a bar stool.

“Who said I’m mad?” Evan asked, spooning some rice into his mouth. “By the way, your paprika’s finished. I used the last one. You’re gonna have to ask George to get some more.”

“Reginald, not George. I got a new chef,” Evan corrected as he took a seat beside Nathan.

“Oh, wow. What happened to George? Said he couldn’t work for a boss he doesn’t see often?” Nathan asked with a chuckle.

“Funny, but no. He moved to Spain to be with his family. His daughter gave birth. Twins, I think. And he was so thrilled. He just packed up a week after handing me his resignation letter and boom, he was gone.”

“George was always big on family. Anything else new around here?” Evan shook his head and then rolled his eyes like he’d just remembered something.

“Oh, I suspended Liam indefinitely from the company board. I haven’t told mum and as much as I’m freaking out that she will be upset with my decision, I feel it was the best thing to do for the company.” Nathan sat in silence, spooning rice into his mouth and chewing before he finally spoke.

“Evan Sterling is freaking out over a decision he made. Wow. “

​Unlike Evan, Nathan did not come from a family with generational wealth. He and Evan had met in middle school and when Nathan’s parents divorced, Nathan had left the United States of America to Germany to live with his mother, as she was given custody by the court. His parents had divorced on grounds of domestic violence and child negligence, so his father was not an option for him to live with. While divorce proceedings had been going on, his mother had remarried a man who had three kids of his own, so he’d gone to Germany to meet a brand new family. He’d returned to the States for college because he had gotten an athletic scholarship at Yale and that’s when he and Evan met again. This time, they were inseparable.

​They had been roommates for two semesters before Evan got a house off campus. Nathan hadn’t wanted to move in with him because he liked the campus vibe. Evan’s house was in a secluded area where the professors and deans of departments of the school resided. He used to joke that he didn’t feel like helping any of his professors shovel out snow from their driveway on Christmas day because they were neighbours.

​After graduation, Evan had moved to Italy for a sculpting program and Nathan had gone on to play professional basketball. They had kept in touch all through, saw each other when they could and travelled together a lot until Evan had to take up his position as the Chief Executive Officer of Sterling after his father’s death. Nathan had retired early as a result of an injury he got and now he worked as a software engineer. Finally putting my fancy Yale degree to use, he had told Evan and anyone who asked what he did now. He had been planning to surprise Evan with a visit, but every time they spoke or chatted, the moment he had decided to fly down to the States was the time Evan would be flying. Nathan had given up on the surprises and had decided to carefully plan a trip to see his best friend, letting Evan know he was coming. He was also coming back to the States permanently having gotten a job offer from Microsoft, but he hadn’t accepted the offer yet because he still thought of going back to Germany to pursue a Masters degree. He had grown to love the country.

“I’m sorry I was such an asshole and forgot to pick you up from the airport,” Evan apologised again. Nathan ate the last spoon of his rice, turned to face Evan and burped loudly in his face.

“Apology accepted,” he replied, waking over to the sink to wash the plate. “And about your brother. Tell your mum yourself. She’ll understand. I mean, Liam was there and they pulled you out of sculpting school to come run a whole goddamn company. Genevieve definitely has a large degree of trust in you, no matter what you think. Speaking of, is she in the States?”

“Away on vacation to somewhere I don’t know. Vacations are foreign to me. I take business trips now,” Evan teased, patting his hand lightly on his chest, eliciting laughter from Nathan.

“I’ve missed you a lot, bro,” Nathan said.

​Both men settled in the living room after Evan had fixed himself dinner and caught up on what had been happening in their lives.

“Oh, another new thing. I’ve got a new secretary. Grace no longer works for us.”

“Oh it’s Grace now, not Gracie, huh?” Nathan teased. Evan shot him a cold state and Nathan apologized.

“And what’s her name?” He asked Evan.

“Alice. She’s smarter than she looks,” Evan spoke, and smiled as he recalled that day at Winterhill that they’d bumped into each other.

“I met an Alice today. Quite vivacious and lively. She and her friend had a kind heart to drop me off since you abandoned me,” Nathan said dramatically. Evan laughed.

“I’m never gonna hear the end of this, am I?”

“Not as long as you and I both lived, bro. I’m saying both of us, cause even if you think you can leave me and die off, everyone’s going to be hearing about it for as long as I lived.” Evan laughed again and continued to update Nathan with happenings in his life so far. Nathan did the same too.

​Before they retired for bed, they had fixed and agreed on having lunch together the following day to make up for Evan forgetting Nathan at the airport.