Almost Perfect: A BWWM Billionaire Single Parent Romance (15 page)

The
administrators proposed a one off pay off to Frances but Allen felt
that would be too tacky. Besides he was pretty sure Frances would
refuse it. His counter proposal was that they could take her in. The
administrators were reluctant to do that and insisted on doing a
background check on her. Allen was fine with that, if only because
she’d kept her history pretty close to her chest and Allen was
curious. It was a typical story though; her mother was a crack addict
who over dosed one day when Frances was ten years old. Frances was
home at the time and waited for two days for her mother to come home.
When she didn’t, and Frances got hungry, she ventured out to
look for her and for food. For a few days, she surfed the dumpsters,
and filched fruit at the market. She avoided soup kitchens because
they might want to know where her guardian or parent was. Even at ten
years old, she knew what could happen to her and she wanted no part
of foster homes and she didn’t want to leave her mother. She
went back to the apartment to sleep and check to see if her mother
had returned; until the landlord threw her out for not paying rent.
Then she was out on the street, alone and penniless. She was a
survivor though and quickly found an abandoned building to live in.
She joined up with Karl Valence not long after. The administrators
were worried that Frances would bring her shady past into Allen’s
life with her and tried to dissuade him from his plan to give her
shelter. Frances was fine with just going back to her crib; she had
lived on the street for four years; she was used to it.

“
Shut
up and eat your breakfast,” Allen said the first time Frances
tried to suggest she mosey on out and head back to the bunker before
someone else discovered it.

“
Why?
Would you want to do this to yourself. You don’t really know
me-“ she began to say.

“
You
didn’t know me when you took me home with you,” he
interrupted her.

“
Yeah
well…” Frances smiled and shrugged one shoulder. “You
wouldn’t have survived a week on your own.”

“
True,”
Allen agreed smiling back.

“
You
don’t owe me anything,” Frances said.

“
Sure
I don’t. Do you not want to stay with me?” he asked.

“
What’s
not to want?”Frances asked spreading out her hands to indicate
the lavishness of the room they were breakfasting in.

“
Well
then? Stay.”

“
Okay
then.”

“
Cool,”
Allen said happily.

“
What
shall I do while you’re in school all day?” she asked.

Allen
frowned at her. “You’ll come with me,” he said,
like it was a foregone conclusion.

Frances
frowned. “I don’t think so. I don’t really have any
formal education; I’d have to go to the first grade or
something.”

Allen
looked perturbed. “Oh…well. We could hire a tutor,”
he suggested.

“
Hey,
don’t stir yourself on my account, I’ll be fine.”

Allen
said nothing but the next week, he went to discuss with his
administrators the possibility of getting a tutor for Frances. They
told him that as guardian, his uncle would have to sign off on that.
Allen knew his uncle was resentful of Frances’ presence in
their household, he called her a gold digger to her face and was rude
to her when Allen wasn’t around. Still, Allen had learned to
stand up to him, stand his ground; so he knew he would get what he
wanted. He had his uncle’s number now, knew how to handle him.
So he went in with a proposal; he would agree to endow his uncle with
ten million dollars as soon as he attained his majority if he didn’t
stand in the way of Frances staying with them, and signing off on
anything they needed him to. If he refused, Allen would leave him on
the street as soon as he was legal. His uncle could hardly refuse.

Frances
got a tutor and Allen’s uncle signed off on her staying with
them. She wasn’t in the system which meant nobody was looking
for her. She would have to get into the system at some point, if she
wanted to be a productive member of society so Allen had his lawyers
working on that.

Frances
turned out to be pretty bright and soaked up knowledge like a sponge.
Her tutor was very impressed with her progress and informed Allen’s
uncle as the legal guardian that he most likely had a genius on his
hands. Since Michael St. James couldn’t care less how bright
Frances was, he just grunted and handed the tutor his check for the
week.

*****

Allen
was a popular boy in high school. He had street cred for running away
from home…And bringing back a street kid to live with him. He
was also an orphan, a rich one at that, which added to his allure. He
had no problem getting dates but he didn’t really have a steady
girlfriend. He didn’t feel like anyone really understood
him…except maybe Frances. She was his best friend and
confidante. She made no effort to fit in with his school friends,
tending to go off on her own with a book. But she always had time for
him. His friends thought she was a strange girl, whose hair could use
a trim maybe, possibly a stylist. Frances thought it was a huge
compromise that she combed it everyday so she wasn’t about to
sit in a salon chair and allow herself to be transformed into some
stranger just so Allen’s friends could feel that she was less
strange. She was strange, she accepted that; she didn’t see how
it was anybody’s problem but hers. she figured she was making a
major concession combing her hair every day.

When
Allen was eighteen he met a girl; she was new in town, worked at the
coffee shop where he stopped off every morning on the way to school.
She was tall and blonde; beautiful in a fragile sort of way. Even
though she was almost five foot eleven, there was something delicate
about her that awakened Allen’s protective instincts. The first
time they met, her boyfriend was bothering her at work, and her
supervisor was inclined to let her go because of it; he had no time
for that sort of drama in his establishment. Allen stepped in,
defended her and saved her job. He also gave her (ex) boyfriend a
black eye. It was the beginning of a tumultuous relationship.

Frances
didn’t like her on sight; she felt that Kristen was too clingy,
needy and manipulative for Allen’s good. She didn’t try
to step between them though – she knew it was none of her
business much as she wanted to tell him to kick her to the curb. She
kept to herself instead, especially when Kristen was around. Kristen
didn’t like her either; she viewed her as too much of a threat
since she lived in Allen’s house and was his best friend. She
tried her best to drive a wedge between them as subtly as she could.
She came over during the weekends to see him, and when she found them
together, she got sulky. She tried to complain to Allen about Frances
‘always’ being around like she was cock blocking them.
Allen didn’t see it though; he was used to Frances always
curled up somewhere nearby with a book. It comforted him to know she
was there. And she didn’t really stop them from doing anything.
They could make out if they wanted, or even get to third base,
Frances didn’t so much as look up. She’d seen her fill of
sexual acts on the street; she had told him that she had no interest
in voyeurism as a result. Allen wondered sometimes if she’d
maybe experienced more than witnessing sexual acts because she seemed
to have absolutely no interest. It worried him sometimes, how aloof
she was from the whole teenage romance scene but then she didn’t
go to school; maybe she just hadn’t met anyone she was
interested in. Still, Allen preferred not to leave her completely to
her own devices and he didn’t see why Kristen couldn’t
just get along with her.

Matters
came to a head when Kristen reached a point where she felt
comfortable enough to issue an ultimatum. Frances or her. She accused
Allen of wanting his cake and eating it too; implying that the reason
he wanted Frances around was because he was sleeping with her. He
assured her that wasn’t the case and that was when she said,
“Choose between us.”

She
was very surprised when Allen chose Frances. She was even more
surprised that it was not an agonizing decision; as soon as the
ultimatum was issued, Allen and Kristen were done...

*

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