“I need him to go back in time and take away all the stupid shit that came out of his mouth so that night never happened the way it did.”

  “It can’t be that bad. You never told me what he said to you anyway,” she pushed, and I shook my head.

  “It was bad. And I’m not repeating it,” I growled.

  The memory of Kayla’s drunken boss being a complete asshole to me for no reason played in my head. I’d thought I’d gotten over it. The man meant nothing to me, but the way I was feeling right now, it could have happened last night—my anger felt so fresh.

  “You’re our only option,” she announced, as if that made it a done deal.

  “I can’t be. There has to be someone else. Anyone else,” I argued. “I don’t have time to go on dates. Why would you do that? Why would you suggest me, of all people? We can’t stand each other.”

  She threw her hands in the air before pulling at her short brown layers. “Because he needs a date or else his mom will never leave and Eat Pray Love her life away!”

  It was my turn to pull hair, and I wrapped my red locks around my fingers. “What? Stop. Slow down. Start from the beginning, and I’ll try to stay awake.” I bit back a yawn. “You’re not making any sense.”

  I listened as Kayla did her best to fill me in on what Joseph’s mom had said to him. The only problem was … I didn’t care. The issue seemed so mundane, so irrelevant to my life that I couldn’t seem to muster up any emotion to actually give a shit.

  “So, what do you think? Will you do it?” my roommate asked, her tone hopeful.

  “No.”

  “No?” she repeated, sounding exasperated. “Why the hell not?”

  Shaking my head, I was too tired to mince words, too exhausted to play nice, so I didn’t. “Because I don’t care, Kayla. Poor little rich boy’s mommy won’t go away and leave him alone to run his multi-million-dollar company? I don’t have time for this kind of thing. It’s stupid. And I’m not stupid.”

  “I already told him you’d do it.”

  She made it sound like I didn’t have a choice in the matter, but this was my life, and I had nothing but choices.

  “Well, that’s on you then. I never said I would. And you knew damn well I wouldn’t agree to this.”

  Her lips formed a snarl as she tossed her head back against the cushions. “Of course I knew you’d say no.” She lifted her head to look me square in the eyes. “But that’s why I asked him for some incentive.”

  What could she have figured I’d possibly want or need that would get me to agree to this potential shitshow?

  “Let me guess,” I started, knowing there was only one thing that motivated people to do things like this for others. “Money?”

  Her eyes grew two sizes too big. “Lots of money, Sutton.”

  “I don’t need his money.” She knew that as much as I did.

  Neither one of us was rolling in tons of cash, but we survived. We’d be doing a little bit better if we didn’t live in the city and had more affordable rent, but we’d scored with this place, and we had no intention of giving it up. It was safe, clean, and in a good neighborhood. The two of us paid our bills on time and still had money left over to have fun on weekends—when I wasn’t studying or in the emergency room.

  “I know you don’t need it. But you’d get out of debt a whole lot quicker than you would otherwise. I know you’ve already had to start paying it back. I get our mail.”

  I nodded because school loans waited for no one and nothing before you had to start breaking the bank each month. The idea of having them paid off was more than a little tempting. I never minded the debt that medical school put me in because I knew it would be worth it in the end, and it was part of what I had to do to become a burn specialist.

  “Starting my career debt-free does have a nice ring to it,” I mumbled out loud instead of to myself, like I had intended.

  Kayla leaned in closer to me, her phone in her hand. “Here, look at him. You haven’t even looked at him.”

  Refusing to look at her phone, I looked everywhere else instead. “I’ve seen him a million times, unfortunately.”

  Over the last three years, I’d seen more pictures of Joseph Martin than I’d ever cared to. Although any female in her right mind would be asking to see pictures of him every single day until she died. Clearly, I was out of mine. But, he had done that. Made me hate him.

  “You haven’t seen him lately,” she added before shoving her phone in front of my face, so close that I couldn’t see anything, except for blurry blobs of color.

  I moved her hand a safe distance away, and my heart literally leaped into my throat at the visual.

  Stupid heart. Stay where you belong.

  “He’s gorgeous.”

  “He said the exact same thing about you,” she said with a sly grin.

  “Stop trying to butter me up.”

  “I’m not. He really did say that.”

  I hated that one look at his picture had me actually considering doing this. Twenty seconds ago, I couldn’t have cared less about his existence, and now, I was practically drooling on Kayla’s phone.

  When was the last time I had sex? I couldn’t even remember. That was the issue. I blamed my girl parts for going all stupid at the sight of his dark scruff and blue eyes.

  “This is not a yes, but what does he want? Or what does he need exactly?”

  Kayla rubbed her hands together like she had just masterminded some sinister plot to take over the world. “He needs to show his mom that he’s happy and in love. All without the actual love part, of course. But she won’t be an easy sell, so you’d have to actually make it believable.”

  I felt ridiculous for even wanting to know more, but here I was, curiouser and curiouser. “Why can’t he find someone else? I’m sure a guy like that has a million women at his beck and call.”

  “You’d think so, huh? He really doesn’t. I mean, there’re a couple of women he fucks, but you’ve seen what they call him in the press. Or at least, you’ve heard me tell you.”

  I nodded because I knew exactly what they called him. “I’m familiar with the names.”

  “He doesn’t want to give anyone the wrong idea. Or give them hope for a future he doesn’t have time for. It needs to be an arrangement, and he’s super uncomfortable with me hiring a firm that could do this instead.”

  “Can we go back to the couple of women he fucks part?” I asked, realizing that he was a typical male, no matter what Kayla said.

  “I knew you’d get hung up on that.” She brushed her hair back. “It’s just sex. He doesn’t even see them that often. Honestly, he’s usually too tired.”

  “Hmm,” I said, not believing her.

  “I mean it, Sutton. He’s not a power-hungry asshole even though he could be. He totally could be.”

  Most men in his position would be using all that power and influence in every way imaginable, and I found it somewhat endearing, albeit a little unbelievable, that Joseph didn’t.

  “How did I even come up in conversation in the first place? Did you start talking about this insane idea and think, Wow, Sutton would be great?” I asked through gritted teeth, and she started giggling.

  “It wasn’t like that at all. But once I did think of you, I wondered why I’d never thought of the two of you together before. I mean, the fake hating each other aside,” she said, and I made a sound that stopped her short.

  “It’s not fake for me,” I argued before realizing what she’d said. “Wait, why does he hate me?”

  “I don’t know. Something about you trying to burn his balls off.”

  I scoffed out loud and leaned forward. “Is that what he told you?”

  “Apparently, there was a lighter that got a little too close to his nutsack,” she said, and I shook my head.

  “He asked for it,” I ground out before clamping my mouth shut. Of course he’d only tell the part that had me looking crazy and not the whole story.

  “Anyway”—she sounded annoyed—“you two have a lot in common, and I never realized it before. That’s all. I think you might actually like each other once you get through the rest of your crap. Like, this arrangement might not actually be torturous for either one of you.”

  I closed my eyes for only a second, and I had to fight with everything in me to open them again. When I did, Kayla was staring at me.

  “Let me sleep on it. I’m too tired to even consider not hating that man right now.”

  “But you will consider it? Right?” She sounded desperate, and she knew it.

  “If he doesn’t convince his mom he’s in love, then what? She won’t give him the company? She’ll keep all the shares and hold them over his head forever? Give them to a bastard sibling he doesn’t know exists?” I asked, still not truly giving a crap about Joseph or his future.

  Kayla rolled her eyes and huffed out a loud breath. “You read way too many romance books back in college. And I already told you. She’s just worried about him. She’s afraid that if he doesn’t at least try, he’ll never find someone to love, and all he’ll have is work and nothing else. No mother wants that for their only son.”

  Fighting back a yawn, I said, “That’s actually kind of nice. Of her. Not him. He’s annoying.”

  “It is nice. She just wants him to be happy. And that’s all he wants for her too. They both want the same thing for the other. But the only way she’ll go live her life is if she thinks he’s actually having one.”

  I sat in silence for what felt like a million years, my brain spinning in circles. “I don’t know,” was all I could come up with in the moment because I truly didn’t know. “I need sleep.”

  “Fine. But this conversation isn’t over,” she said before pushing up from the couch and disappearing into her room.

  When I heard her door shut, I got up and did the same.

  When I woke up the next morning, I was greeted by various pictures of Joseph taped up all over the apartment. Each one had something written on it in black Sharpie.

  How can you resist this face? You could fake kiss it anytime you wanted, read the one on my door.

  Down the hallway was a printed picture of a BIC lighter with a red X across it that read, NO LIGHTERS. That one actually made me laugh.

  There were three more pictures of her boss—each one shirtless, mind you—with various things that I could do to the body parts if I agreed. It almost made me grab my vibrator, but I kept walking toward the kitchen instead.

  Another picture of Joseph with his mom was on the fridge, asking why I wanted to break the old woman’s heart. I rolled my eyes at that one. But when I opened the cupboard to grab my favorite box of cereal, Joseph’s face covered the entire thing, and it had been renamed to Joseph-O’s.

  Kayla was never going to let me say no to this.

  WHAT DID SHE SAY?

  JOSEPH

  I was on pins and needles, waiting for Kayla to get into the office. I’d tossed and turned all night, delirious and hopeful that she’d get Sutton to agree to this crazy shenanigan. Then, I’d cringe, remembering my poor balls, and wonder what I was thinking. I’d turned into a basket case.

  When she finally walked out of the elevator, I was standing there like a stalker, waiting with my arms folded.

  “Jeez, obsess much?” she teased before handing me a cup of coffee from my favorite place.

  That wasn’t a good sign. Kayla didn’t go around, getting me coffee without being asked, which meant that she was buttering me up for bad news.

  “She said no,” I said as I sipped, careful not to spill it all over my jacket.

  “Not exactly.” She leveled me with a look before nodding toward my office, where we could talk more privately.

  “Well, what did she say?” I asked the second the doors closed behind us.

  “She didn’t say yes,” Kayla started and made a sound to stop me from launching into a speech she knew I’d give. “But she didn’t say no either. She’s still considering it, even if she acts like she isn’t.”

  “What do you think she’ll say?”

  She started laughing. “Yes. Eventually.”

  “How do you know this?” I wondered as my heart rate finally started to normalize, and I moved to sit at my desk.

  “I can be very persuasive,” she said, a smile still plastered on her face. “But I almost forgot.”

  “What?”

  “I told her you’d give her money.” She braced for my response.

  I blew out a half-annoyed breath. I’d already assumed that I’d be paying her for her services.

  “We established that yesterday.”

  “But I said it was a lot of money.” Her eyes widened with the words, and I felt my body tense.

  “How much?”

  Kayla shrugged. “I didn’t mention a number. I just said it would be a lot.”

  “Is two hundred thousand enough?” I blurted out the first amount that came to my head before thinking.

  “I think that’s fair,” she answered, and she actually meant it.

  “Fair? You think two hundred thousand dollars is fair?” I almost choked on the saliva in my mouth. It seemed a hell of a lot more than just fair. “Do you know how many lighters she could buy with two hundred K?”

  “No wonder she hates you,” she ground out. “Anyway, I researched the firms last night, and you’d be paying close to that, if not more, depending on the number of events and who you ended up choosing. So, yeah, I think it’s a fair amount.” She huffed. “Plus, it will help sway her. That’s not a number she could easily brush off. No matter how much she hates you.”

  I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything about Sutton, and I couldn’t believe that I was actually pushing for this as hard as I was, but I needed her help.

  “What else will we need to get her to agree?”

  “I thought about this all night. We need to go over the schedule, so I can see how many events you plan on attending and when they are. Sutton’s schedule is crazy, so for this to even work, she’d need to know exact dates and times.”

  “We can do that,” I said before it all hit me. “Kayla?”

  “Yeah?” She looked up from her coffee, her head crooked as she watched me.

  “What if we can’t pull it off?” Fear tore through me. “It won’t work if she genuinely hates me as much as you say she does.”

  “She doesn’t hate you,” she said firmly. “She just thinks she does.”

  I shook my head because that wasn’t any kind of logic that made sense to me at all.

  “You two are basically the same person. Just one of you has a penis.”

  “No thanks to her,” I spat, and Kayla laughed.

  “Don’t forget about my raise,” she said before exiting my office, leaving me to worry on my own.

  JUST SAY YES ALREADY

  SUTTON

  I’d actually gotten home before Kayla, and I was grateful for the reprieve. It gave me a little time to sit down and think about any questions I might have about this insane arrangement offer. I’d been contemplating everything that we’d talked about from the night before. At least, what I could remember of it. I’d spent most of the day trying to talk my way out of helping her boss for no reason other than just to be difficult … and the fact that I hated him.

  But she’d mentioned money. Again, not that I needed it, but it would be nice to get out of debt twenty years earlier than I’d originally planned. If I said no, it would only be to prove a point. But I wasn’t sure exactly what point I was trying to make or who exactly I was trying to make it to. I was being stubborn just for the sake of being stubborn, and I knew it. I could be that way sometimes.

  When Kayla eventually sauntered through our front door, I watched as a grin spread across her face when she noticed the pictures of Joseph still plastered all over.

  No, I haven’t taken them down yet.

  And, no, I’m not reading into why.

  “He is nice to look at, right?” she said with a grin, and I gave a nonchalant shrug.

  “I guess,” I answered before adding, “I have some questions.”

  I decided to jump right in and get this over with. There was no use in delaying the inevitable. If I knew my best friend at all, an additional conversation about the topic was only moments away. And more than likely, Kayla had come home prepared, ready for battle.

  Before I knew what hit me, Kayla was sitting down at our two-person kitchen table, insisting I did the same as she pulled out a file folder and opened it.

  “I’m ready for your questions,” she said as she rested her hands in front of her and leveled me with an innocent look.

  “What would be required of me exactly?”

  “He needs a date.” She paused before adding more details, “The same date, to the events he attends during Social Month.”

  “And these events are all formal, yes?” I asked, knowing damn well that they were.

  She nodded slowly. “Yes.”

  “Like fancy dresses and stuff, right?”

  “Uh-huh. But Joseph has accounts all over the city, and you can buy whatever you want and put it on his charge card,” she said before tapping a finger against her lips. “That’s actually good. People will believe that you’re really dating if he’s buying you clothes.”

  “I have my own dresses.”

  “I know. And some of those might totally work. But there’s no harm in getting a few new pieces, right?”

  “I guess not,” I agreed. “But I can’t go to wherever he needs me to for thirty whole days. You know I’m busy.” I sounded defensive, but my work was important, too, and I wasn’t going to pretend like it wasn’t.

  Luckily for Kayla—and her jerk boss—my upcoming schedule would actually allow for this ridiculous potential plan. My shift would be changing soon due to doctor vacations, which would give me more leniency than ever for the next twenty days. I was still expected to be at work, of course, but I had been told that it would be more studying and attending lectures while my specific training doctors were away.

  “Joseph never attends all the events. I talked to him already and found out which ones he wants to go to and which ones he thinks you should be with him at. For whatever reason, you wouldn’t be required to attend them all. Here’s the list,” she said, pulling out a single sheet of paper from her file folder and pushing it across the table toward me.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11