Bought by The Mafia Boss

Chapter 24

The next few weeks passed in a monotonous routine. My roommates were really nice, but quite young and always seemed to have a new round of friends over almost every night. They rotated through men faster than I could keep up with, although I began to notice that one girl who was straight and guy who was gay, remained constant through the fluctuation of people.

Lily had met me in town a few times but hadn't come to my apartment yet during her adventures of wedding preparations. I didn't mind since that seemed to turn my apartment into a little bit of a sanctuary. Everything that had happened between Oliver and I was slowly fading and the driving ache that pushed me towards him was something I experienced less and less frequently.

Tonight, I silently plodded out into the kitchen from my room. I passed the group of people sitting on the couch with Shelby and Marissa and grabbed a clean glass from the cupboards as my phone buzzed in my pocket. A new text message had appeared on my screen and I unlocked the phone to see what Nathan had said.

I was surprised to hear from Nathan. He had been my lead manager when it came to the humanitarian aid project so it had been radio silence since the funds ended from him. Until now. CHECK YOUR EMAIL he had sent me in all caps. I leaned against the counter and quickly flipped to my email app and my mouth dropped open.

The top email subject line read 'Project is Back on'. I opened the email and read through it as quickly as I could before silently freaking out. We had funds. An investor had found our project and we were back on. Part of me was in denial that I wouldn't have to be stuck doing this insanely boring desk job but the other half was extremely ecstatic.

I called Nathan and listened to the phone line ring on the other end. "AEDLIN!" He screeched into the phone in excitement.

"How is this possible?" I said back, doing everything I could to remain calm despite the bubbling joy that was pulsing through my body.

"I don't even care how it is, but it is happening. It looks like we will be heading back out next month!" Nathan replied back and I squealed, no longer able to contain my excitement. The apartment became quiet and I could feel all eyes were trained on me. Biting down on my bottom lip, I chewed on it for a moment waiting for Oliver to stop me but of course, he wasn't there to do so. I let it fall out from between my teeth and sighed.

"Does everyone know?" I asked, as my apartment began talking again.

"They should. Emails with better details should be coming through this week but we are all good to go." Nathan answered. I quickly thanked him and then hung up the phone. I placed my palms against the counter and leaned forward in disbelief. All the hurt, all the numbing pain had all been worth it. It had felt like a lifetime of obstacles and agony, failure and disappointment for this to finally go right.

The email had said we had enough funds to completely finish the project. No possibility of failure this time. I looked up from the countertop to see Shelby and Marissa watching me. They quickly looked away as soon as they realized I had seen them looking and resumed conversing with their friends.

My curiosity for the first time in a while peaked again and pulled me into their conversation. I was a little taken aback when I realized what they were talking about. "I think it's the real one. She didn't let me actually check and see if the initials were on it, but she wears this emerald necklace that doesn't seem fake all the time too. If she can afford something like that, she can definitely afford that dress." Shelby was saying.

"She said the dress was a gift, Shelby. Besides, it's a small emerald and probably not real." Marissa answered.

Their gay friend who's name I learned the other day was Adam spoke next. "Oh it's real. She probably thinks I am so strange because I stare at it all the time, but it's totally real. My mother has a fake one she flaunts to try and make people think she has all this money so I know the difference."