A Promise

I stared at Joaquin, my mouth hanging open as the weight of his words settled in. “You’re the son of Joseph Bryan Greyson? The Joseph Bryan Greyson?”

Joaquin chuckled, clearly amused by my shock. “Yes, that’s me. Surprised?”

I scoffed, settling my coffee down once more after I drank it all in one gulp. “I didn’t think that you’d really be connected to THE Joseph Bryan Greyson since there are a lot of Greysons in the world… but it now made sense that you resemble him.”

He grinned, cocking his head to the side to make fun of me. “I don’t know if you’re just hungover… or really dumb.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Remember… you’re asking for me help.”

He didn’t say anything. I let out a sigh and blinked my eyes, trying to process everything. “But… why would the son of the richest man in the country really need to fake an engagement? Can’t you just do anything you want?”

Joaquin sighed, leaning back in his chair. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But I already told you. My father is… complicated. He has certain expectations, and he doesn’t take no for an answer. This is the only way I can get him off my back and pursue my writing without interference. Stop making me repeat what I just told you.”

I furrowed my brows. I felt my headache worsening from all the thinking I’m doing right this moment when I just woke up. “You don’t want to take over the company? You’re rich. You could do a lot of things you want!”

He rolled his eyes at me. “I pursued my dreams to be a writer. I don’t want to take over what he had started; I want to build my own empire, just focus on writing—so I plan to build my own publishing company.”

I can’t believe what I just heard. From what I read and watched, children of rich people would want to inherit the company and they can do whatever they want!

But it’s a different case for Joaquin.

“May I…” I hesitated, thinking if it’s alright to ask. “…ask you something personal?”

Joaquin shrugged. “Shoot. We are already in this situation, so anything you want to know, whatever it is that I feel sharing and is beneficial to our situation, I’ll answer.”

“Alright.” My lips turned into a tight line when I stared straight into his eyes. He’s unfazed whenever I look at him. Is he that used to talking to a lot of people? “Why do you not want to take your father’s business?”

Joaquin didn’t answer immediately. His face turned serious compared to his playful expression a moment ago. I waited as three seconds ticked by, and he just sighed.

“Well, since we’re already here, fine. I’ll tell you.”

I crossed my legs as I sat and leaned forward, indicating that I’m all ears. He stood up from his chair and sat at the end of the bed, ready to answer the question.

“I’m his eldest son. I was never close with my father and my mother died right after she gave birth to me,” he started, making me nod as I continued listening to him. “I love reading… and I rarely go out to play with friends as he doesn’t want me to go out so often. And so, to escape from this dreadful reality, I began writing since I was a child.”

I gave him a small smile. Who would have thought that the famous author started this way. It was a sad situation, writing stories to escape reality and to get the fun he desires… but I guess it is what shaped him to become a great writer.

“That’s why I don’t want to give writing up,” he said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Despite having a degree and master’s in business, I couldn’t bring my pen—rather laptop, down. I wrote and I wrote… published countless of books behind his back, until he found out. It never stopped me even though we fought on and on.”

“I admire your dedication to your dream,” I commented, genuinely inspired by his drive to continue what he loves doing despite his family against him. “I guess that’s why you understood how stubborn I am.”

He let out a chuckle at that statement. “You caught on well. Despite my constant rejections when you visited before the party, despite me ignoring your emails… I guess you meeting me at the time was something that we both need.”

I playfully rolled my eyes at him, going back to the conversation. “But… that doesn’t make me understand why you don’t want to get married,” I said, making him sigh as he told his reasons.

“Marriage… love… it’s a distraction,” he answered, me widening my eyes in surprise at what he said.

“Oh? You aren’t the type to like… date-to-marry?” I asked, Joaquin shrugging.

“Don’t get me wrong… I tried dating. You could see that in the books I write, why I narrate love so well, but… I’m holding back for a reason.”

“Holding back?” I arched a brow at him, what he said completely piquing my interest. “Are you waiting for someone?”

“I…” he started, but just proceeded to not answer my question. “Enough of this. Just… I don’t want to get married and let love distract me. I want to focus on my dream.”

I’m not letting this go. I straightened my back and crossed my arms in front of my chest, narrowing my eyes at him. “If you want me to help you, then you better tell me about this!”

The corner of his lips tugged into a smirk. “Just like what I told you a while ago, I’ll only answer questions that is beneficial to our situation. Whether I’m waiting for someone or not is none of your concern.”

I pouted. I wanted to get a gossip from him, but it seems that I have to get closer to him so he could tell me all about it!

“Anyway, that’s it,” he added, letting out a sigh. “And why do you want to write?”

“Oh!”

I didn’t expect that the top, famous author would like to ask why I want to write. Weird… often I have answers to questions thrown at me, but his question stumped me.

He looked at me, waiting for an answer. As I contemplated for a while, I smiled, then gave him an unexpected an answer.

“It’s because of a promise I made with someone, I guess.”