Billionaire Undone(6)

“He hurt you,” Travis stated neutrally.

Ally dropped into the chair in front of Travis’s desk, depleted. “My whole life revolved around his career for years. I stopped going to college after my bachelor’s degree instead of trying to go on for my MBA so he could finish first. It made sense at the time. Or I thought it did. I sacrificed everything I wanted, but I had a plan to make everything work out. I’d work hard, help him finish school, and then it would be my turn. Except, now that it’s supposed to be my turn, it isn’t,” she answered quietly, her anger spent.

“I didn’t realize you worked another job. What do you do?” Travis leaned back in his chair, but he didn’t look away from her, his dark eyes watching her intently.

“I’m a bartender. I work at Sully’s Oasis almost every night of the week. I started as a cocktail waitress, and the owner taught me to make drinks. Eventually, I got good at it. The bartending pays better.”

Travis lifted an eyebrow. “Better than I pay you?”

“No. Better than being a cocktail waitress. I had to work my way up to bartending.” It had taken her two years, but she’d gotten a raise at Sully’s. “The tips are good. You pay me a very good salary. I could never match it with bartending. But the extra job helps to pay the bills. I need to sell the house, get clear of the debt my cheating fiancé racked up, and get rid of the extra job so I can go back to school part-time.”

“You look tired, Alison,” Travis observed, his eyes traveling over her face.

“I’ve been exhausted for years. I’m used to it.” Ally laughed, trying to make light of the situation. This wasn’t the type of conversation she usually had with Travis, and she was feeling raw and awkward. She was much more comfortable fighting with him.

“She better be a good temp.” Travis finally spoke after a moment of silence. “I still need you in Colorado, but you can have the time off before we leave. Just bump it up a week so you’re back before I have to go. I assume since you’re not getting married, what time you take off doesn’t really matter.”

Ally looked at Travis in surprise. “He is a very good temp, and that would mean I’d have to go on vacation next week.”

“Then go.” Travis shrugged.

“What are we doing in Colorado?” she asked curiously.

Travis grimaced. “A fundraiser. I need an escort.”

Ally gaped at him. “I’m not going as your date to a fundraiser. That’s personal. I thought you had business there.”

“I do. And you aren’t technically my date. I have to attend this function, and I don’t want to go alone,” Travis rumbled. “It’s not that difficult. You go. You talk nicely to people and try not to call them self-centered bastards. And then you eat and drink whatever they have to offer. Tate Colter has been a business associate and a friend of mine for years. He agreed to do this charity ball only if I’d come to Colorado because I haven’t visited for a while. He wants me to be there. Going alone would be—” Travis coughed before finishing. “Awkward.”

“Why?” Ally crossed her arms in front of her. There was nothing strange about going to a fundraiser alone. There had to be something Travis wasn’t telling her. “You attend these types of things all the time. You don’t need me there.”

“This one is…different,” Travis said hesitantly. “I just need you to be there, Alison. It is technically business. Your presence is required. The temp can stay and hold down the fort with Kade while we’re gone.”

Ally eyed Travis curiously, wondering what he wasn’t saying. “I don’t have the necessary attire for that kind of function. I’ve never needed anything but office attire.”

“I’ll provide it. You’re dismissed back to your duties.” He waved a hand at her like she was a pesky fly.

God, Ally hated it when Travis did that. She felt like a naughty schoolgirl. “And how long will we be gone?”

“Leave Friday, return Monday. The actual ball is on Saturday night,” Travis answered absently, as though he had already put the whole thing out of his mind.

Ally stood, brushing imaginary wrinkles away on her tight skirt and tugging it down her hips. “Diet,” she reminded herself, turning to leave the office. She wanted to argue with Travis, but she couldn’t. He’d never asked her to travel with him, and it was part of her job as his assistant. The fact that Travis was a loner, and preferred it that way, was one of the reasons she was actually able to work a second job. He was usually alone, and didn’t feel the need for an entourage. And he never required anything from her outside of work hours. She’d do this for him just because he wasn’t demanding in that way, and he very well could have been. Somehow, although he was making light of it, it seemed important to him, and he’d never asked her to travel to events with him before.