Billionaire Cashback System: I Can't Go Broke!-Chapter 48: Path

Ryan broke it first.

"It’s been a while," he said.

Her voice came back even. "Since you kissed me and then went ghost for days. Yeah."

"I’m sorry."

"For what, Ryan."

He looked at the blank television screen. "For being distant." He paused, and said the rest of it because he’d decided before he called that he was going to say it properly or not at all. "You make me feel something I told myself I wasn’t going to feel again. And I hate to be this honest, but for both our sakes — I think it’s better if we don’t get too attached."

He’d been thinking about this since the balcony. Since the morning after when he’d woken up still thinking about the way she’d said ’I think so’ when he asked if the line was working.

Since he’d caught himself mid-conversation with Sophie thinking about Zara’s laugh or feeling the slightest pang of guilt. Since he’d realized that what he was doing — the company, the plan, the system, all of it — required a specific kind of clarity that certain feelings made very difficult to maintain.

Sophie he understood. That was direct and uncomplicated in the way it needed to be.

Zara was different. Zara made his brain do something inconvenient.

He couldn’t have that right now.

The path he planned on taking didn’t allow him exclusivity to one woman. And he concluded Zara couldn’t walk that path with him.

The line was quiet for a moment.

Then Zara said, "You know, I never thought I’d see the day a guy pushed me away." A pause. "Probably because I’ve never actually gotten close to one before."

Ryan waited.

"That was my first kiss," she said.

"I don’t believe that."

"It was." She said it without defensiveness, just flat delivery used when stating something true. "I’ve never had a boyfriend. Never been in anything that wasn’t professional with a man." She paused. "The attention — it always made me want to go the other direction. Everyone who ever came toward me wanting something made me want to be somewhere they weren’t."

Ryan sat forward on the couch.

He remembered the gallery. The men approaching with their careful compliments and their positioning, and Zara handling each one with warm automatic efficiency, someone who had done it a thousand times.

How she’d looked at the painting, alone, before they arrived. The way she’d bought him a drink instead.

"All of them," she said. "Every one of them was the same thing in a different suit. Rich, handsome, persistent. And I couldn’t make myself care about any of them. Not even slightly." Her voice was even throughout, not sad, just honest. "I started to think maybe that was just how I was."

"And then," Ryan said.

"And then you insulted a painting I liked and I bought you a drink out of spite."

He almost smiled. "And."

She was quiet for a second.

"You know what’s funny," she said.

"Tell me."

"When you got my number at the gallery and didn’t call for two weeks — it made me think about you more, not less." She paused. "And when I called you that morning after the shopping we did and you sounded like you wanted off the phone, I couldn’t stop thinking about why." Another pause. "And when you didn’t call after the balcony — I picked up my phone probably eight times a day to look at your contact and put it back down."

Ryan said nothing.

"And now," she said, "you’re telling me you don’t want to get attached. That it’s better if we keep distance." Her voice didn’t break, didn’t strain. "And I’m sitting here on my couch knowing I should probably agree with you and feeling the complete opposite." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"Zara—"

"Every time you pull back," she said, "I’m drawn closer even more. I don’t know what that says about me. Probably something a therapist would find interesting." A beat. "But it’s true."

The line was quiet again.

Ryan sat with what she’d just said and felt the weight of it — less as something to be managed or filed or used, it felt handed to him at considerable personal cost because honesty was expensive and she’d paid it anyway.

His phone buzzed faintly against his hand. He glanced at the screen.

> TARGET INFO UNLOCKED.

He looked at the notification for a moment, then turned the screen face down.

"You’ve never wanted someone before," he said.

"No."

"And the fact that I’m not trying—"

"Makes it worse," she said. "Yes."

Ryan leaned back against the couch and looked at the ceiling.

He’d called to create distance. He’d laid it out plainly and honestly and she’d received it the same way — no games or manipulation, just truth.

And somehow the distance he’d tried to build had collapsed before he’d finished building it.

Not because she’d argued against it. Because she’d agreed with it and told him it didn’t matter, and that was a harder thing to walk away from than any argument would have been.

"I don’t know what to do with that," he said.

"Neither do I," she said. "First time for both of us."

The quiet settled again, comfortable in the way it had been at the start of the call, the city outside doing its evening thing in both their windows.

Ryan processed.

"Well," he said.

"Well," she said.

Another silence.

"Zara."

"Yeah."

"Do you want to go on a date with me?" he said. "Dinner. Sunday."

There was a pause.

"I’d love to Ryan."

"Zara," He paused. "I think I’m gonna stop fighting this."

The line went quiet.

When she spoke again her voice had a different quality to it — less managed.

"I’ll see you Friday, Ryan," she said.

"I’ll see you Friday."

"Also."

"Yeah."

"No awful shirts, it won’t work again."

He laughed before he could stop it — a real one, sudden and unguarded.

"Goodnight Zara," he said.

"Goodnight."

The call ended.

Ryan sat on the couch in the quiet of his apartment for a long time after that, phone in his hand, the television still off, the Brooklyn Nets playing somewhere without him.

He considered what she’d said. About every push pulling her closer. The specific cruelty of wanting something you’re trying not to want.

> TARGET INFO UNLOCKED.

Perhaps, there was a chance yet - that Zara could walk the path.