Maid for Each Other(74)
“I kept my job and got to dress cool for a weekend. I am forever in your debt.”
“Okay, so, remember you just said that,” he said, looking toward the sky with his eyebrows raised like he was thinking through something. “Because I might have a proposition for you.”
“What is it?” I asked as I hit the total button and pointed to the credit card machine.
“I hadn’t thought of this,” he said as he tapped his card, “but as I stand here in your line, I’m realizing you could be the answer to all my problems.”
“Well, I’m sure I am, because that’s just my role in the world, but you might want to explain.”
He grinned and nodded while his receipt started printing. “Okay, so I have to go to a wedding in Ashland this weekend and I’m dreading it because since my girlfriend and I broke up last month, my mother is convinced I am depressed and dying inside. She doesn’t know that I’m having the fucking time of my life, because that would only worry her if I told her I’ve been going out a lot. But if I showed up with a new date, well, that might really ease her mind.”
A little knot formed in my stomach, even though I wasn’t exactly sure why, but something felt off. I ripped off his receipt and held it out to him.
“It’s my mom’s side of the family, which is all super farmer-type people so it won’t be anybody that Declan knows. Would you consider being my fake date for the wedding? I don’t need what you gave Declan—hell, I don’t even have the kind of money to get that sort of a deal,” he said around a laugh. “I just need somebody to pretend to be my date. We can even say it’s our first date and you know nothing about me. But I can totally, like, buy you a hotel stay if that’s what it takes. What do you think?”
What did I think?
What did I think?
I think I want to die right now.
My brain tried to fully process everything he just said.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that Declan’s friend saw me as a business transaction, as a benefit he could also utilize for the small price of lodging, his comment made me wonder if Dex had told him we’d slept together.
Is that what he meant by not needing what I gave Declan and not being able to afford…that? Did he think Declan paid me all that money for me to throw in sex as part of our deal?
Did Declan think that was part of our deal?
We’d discussed that it wasn’t, but in his head did he think that it was?
My cheeks were burning and I knew they were bright red. I wanted to throw up. It was hard to swallow around the knot in my throat, because I wanted to cry. All this physical trauma was happening as this asshole looked at me with a hopeful smile on his face, waiting to see if I could be bought yet again.
“I’m so sorry,” I managed, trying to sound like I was very funny and cool about this. “But I am out of the business now.”
“Oh, come on,” he said, and I could tell he wasn’t a jerk. He was a nice guy, just like Declan.
A nice guy who was rich enough to think I could be bought.
Which obviously I could.
God, I was such a fool.
“You’re sure?” he asked. “There isn’t anything I can give you so you’d help me out here?”
“Nothing in the world could convince me to do that again,” I said.
“Okay, well, let me know if you change your mind,” he said, and I smiled and nodded mechanically as he walked away.
I didn’t realize until he was out of the building that I was shaking.
I don’t know that I’d ever hated myself as much as I did at that moment.
40
WTF
Declan
It had been hours since Abi had responded to any of my texts, and it was driving me crazy. I knew she had her own life, and a few weeks ago I hadn’t known she existed.
But her silence was stressing me out.
And I missed her, damn it.
I hit the FaceTime button, knowing it was kind of a dick move to not text her first before doing it, but I also knew she was off tonight so she was probably at home. Hell, she was probably baking in my kitchen or binge-watching something on my TV.
It rang and rang, to the point that I almost hung up, but then she answered.
I was immediately grinning like a total chump because I loved her face. I loved her stubborn chin and freckle-sprinkled nose and those brown eyes that I could stare at for hours and never tire of.
“Why have you been ignoring me all day?” I asked. “Too busy joyriding in my car to talk to me?”
“No, I was just really busy,” she said, and I realized at that moment she looked more serious than she ever did.
And she wasn’t really looking at me, she was looking down.
“Something wrong, Mariano?” I asked, unease settling into my gut.
“No,” she said, lifting her chin. “Everything’s fine.”
But the fact that she wasn’t saying anything else meant everything was definitely not fine. And then I noticed the background.
“Where are you? I assumed you would be lounging around my place.”
“Yeah, I actually started moving back home this afternoon,” she said, like it was no big deal.
“Why?” I asked, dread settling into my stomach. “You still have time left on our deal, remember?”