by Claire Adams
“I didn’t mess up,” I promised. “Everything’s fine, Mom. She likes me, I like her, and we’re happy on our dates.”
Mom rested against the headboard and closed her eyes, a pleased smile on her face.
“And you’re happy with her, right?” she asked and shook her head. “Of course you are, why would I even ask. She’s wonderful. A woman any mother would be proud to have as a daughter-in-law.”
I gritted my teeth and finished my beer as I agreed. “She really is beautiful.” I knew that objectively Maddie was gorgeous and sexy, with a crazy attractive body that made it difficult to ignore her, but every time I thought of her I had nothing but awful thoughts. Thoughts that I definitely couldn’t tell mom.
“I hope she isn’t worried about me,” mom said. “I mean to say that I hope I haven’t put a damper on any conversations.”
I knew the last thing mom would want was to get in the way of my love life. I shook my head.
“No. Actually, I think it’s made her more eager to settle down,” I said, realizing how ironic the statement was. “You don’t have to worry about a single thing, mom.”
“You have no idea how happy that makes me,” she said and held my hand. “I want you to be happy, that’s all.”
I squeezed her hand in return. “I won’t make any promises,” I said. “But I’m happy with her. That’s all I can say.”
Mom continued praising Maddie’s good looks and charisma, and I forced myself to agree with every word. She was much happier than usual and spent time dreaming about a fake future with Maddie that she would never experience.
“We should all get together, after a few more dates, of course,” she suggested. “I would love to have her over for dinner again.”
“I’ll ask her about it,” I said and checked the time. “I should head out now; she’ll be at the restaurant in a half hour.”
“Gavin!” mom yelled. “You’re not picking her up? You’re making her drive to the date herself?”
“She’s a grown woman, mom,” I argued. “She’s more than capable of driving herself.”
“And here I thought I taught you to be a gentleman.” She shook her head. “I need to apologize to that poor girl for raising such an impolite fool.” She was joking as she spoke, but I had to bite my tongue to keep from spilling the truth about Maddie.
“I’ll apologize for you,” I said and threw the empty beer bottle in the recycling. Karen wished me luck on my date, and I left for the restaurant.
Maddie was late for dinner, and it worsened my already sour mood as I sat at our table and waited. The Jazz Bistro was a cushiony little restaurant in the middle of a fast-paced downtown scene, with a live jazz band every night and a seafood crawl on the weekends. It was spicy Cajun food, priced for the middle class with only a few sophisticated drinks for the upper class. Maddie had taken us to an expensive restaurant the first time; I wanted to knock her down a notch before agreeing to her insane terms.
I ran over my own terms in my head. If we were going to do this, we’re doing it my way. I repeated my rules over and over again in my head as the minutes passed. A waitress brought me my drink and a basket of Cajun-cheddar biscuits, and I watched the jazz band perform on the other side of the restaurant. I had requested a booth to feel more secluded, pretending it was a romantic date and not simply a business meeting. I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea, and as she arrived, I stayed rooted in my seat and didn’t stand to greet her.
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” she gushed and slid into the booth. She wore a black pantsuit that was tight on her breasts and waist, demanding my attention in not so subtle ways. Her hair was pinned up with a single long strand brushing against her outfit, and her eyes were smudged with charcoal. I tried to pay little attention to her face, but it was difficult. She was alluring and beautiful, and it had been rather long since I’ve last been with anyone. “I was doing a cross-promo with my roommate, which took way longer than normal.”
I leaned against the booth as she spoke. “It usually takes maybe an hour, but tonight we were promoting each other along with some meal bars that—”
“I don’t give a shit what you were promoting,” I interrupted. “And I don’t care that you were late.”
Maddie blinked and shut her mouth.
“We’re here because I want to accept your offer, but before I do, I have some ground rules that I want to go over first. Okay?” I asked.
“Sure?” she responded and ordered herself a drink as the waitress returned. We each ordered a small meal, neither of us truly interested in eating.
“This needs to look like a real relationship, to everyone,” I began. “So you’ll have to sleep over at my house a few nights a week. But not in my room. You’ll sleep on the couch or in one of the guest rooms. But you have to come to dinner once a week with my mother, and you have to be the perfect girlfriend, and soon fiancée.”
“I can do that,” she said. She didn’t seem taken back by my requests.
“You have to take lots of pictures of us together, and make them public so that my mom sees,” I said.
“Wait.” She leaned forward. “Your mom is active on social media, but you’re not?”
“I don’t see how that’s relevant,” I said. “We also have to make Ron think it’s real. He’s a fucking terrible liar, and he’ll blab the truth to my mom if he finds out the truth.”
“You’ll lie to your best friend?” she asked, almost in shock. I clenched my fists.
“I’m lying to my dying mother,” I said. “So yes, if I can lie to her, then I can lie to my best friend. And you better lie to your cousin, or else the deal is off.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “Got it, anything else?”
“This relationship is for the public eye only,” I said. “Nothing intimate, or romantic. I don’t even want to be alone with you if I don’t have to. Nothing physical, that’s for sure.” I wasn’t entirely sure why I added that last part.
“No sex?” she clarified. “I think I can live with that.”
“Which means nothing romantic with anyone else either,” I added. “The last thing I need is for someone to think you’re cheating on me.”
“And vice versa?” she asked. “You won’t sleep with anyone else?”
“Of course not,” I said. “As far as everyone else knows, I’ll have eyes only for you.”
Our dinner arrived, and Maddie happily dug in. She didn’t seem nearly as upset about the entire situation as I was. I barely touched my food throughout the rest of the meal. I did, however, finish my drinks.
“So, I’ll stay at your house a few nights a week. Dinner with your mom once a week. Be the perfect fiancée, and take lots of pictures. Tell everyone that we’re in love, and refrain from sleeping with anyone else, but I can’t sleep with you.” Maddie summed it all up. “Are those all the rules?”
“I reserve the right to add more if necessary,” I said. “But yes, those are the rules. Do you think you can handle that?”
Maddie took a long swig of her drink and tore off a piece of bread. She had finished her chowder, and dunked the bread into my soup. It somehow came off as an intimate moment, and I wanted to yell at her for it.
“I think I can handle that,” she said. “Actually, I know I can. I accept.”
I nodded, expecting as much.
“Now, you said you wanted to be compensated for this. How much?” I asked.
It seemed Maddie hadn’t truly considered it until then. She bit her lip and looked at the ceiling as she said, “Half a million.”
I heard her, but I asked her to repeat herself.
“Half a million,” she said. “Up front.”
I ran my hand down my jaw and stood. “Half a million,” I scoffed and shook my head.
“Up front,” she repeated.
I left before I destroyed something and returned to my car without looking back. I punched the steering wheel as her words repeated in my head.
Half a mil
lion dollars to convince my mom that I was in love so that she would be happy in her last remaining months.
The last thing I wanted to do was give that bitch a single dollar, but as I thought about my mother and how happy she had been to hear who I was dating, I realized that I was going to have to give her exactly what she asked for.
I only prayed that I could figure out some way to make sure that Maddie was fucking miserable through the entire ordeal. She’d earn every damn dollar I threw her way.
Chapter Twelve
Maddie
I stayed to finish my drink. Gavin had run off yet again, leaving me with a guilt that would never be erased. The waitress apologized after taking our finished plates away as if she had anything to do with my date leaving early. I told her it was expected, and that I just had the worst luck when it came to dating. She glanced around us, at the several men who had been staring at me the entire night, and chuckled.
“The beautiful ones always do, I suppose,” she said and left me to my drinking. I realized I had been doing a lot of it lately, as if the alcohol would help me feel less like a shitty person. Was half a million too much? I had blurted out a number without really thinking about it. But that was practically chump change for someone with several billion dollars, right? And it’s not like the situation would have been easy for me either. I had to convince everyone in my life that I was head over heels and in love with a man who I had seen three times in the past decade. That wouldn’t be as easy as I’d hoped. And not to mention all of his ridiculous rules.
I groaned and leaned back as the last few drops of my cocktail slid down my throat. I should have gotten straight shots, but I was driving myself home, and it didn’t take more than a single shot to leave me passed out on the floor.
All of Gavin’s rules made sense, I supposed. One dinner a week with his mother was the entire reason why the situation would have existed. Convince everyone that we were in love. It would have to be a great act if we were going to be engaged shortly. But maybe the hardest one was not sleeping with anyone else. It wasn’t as if I wanted to sleep with other men. I hadn’t bothered with that in a while, too long possibly, but I at least appreciated having the choice. I hadn’t realized that pretending to be his pretend fiancée meant giving that up. And it wasn’t like we were going to be sleeping together either. It would be six months of cold showers, for the both of us apparently.
I shook my head and contemplated ordering another drink. It wouldn’t make me feel any better, but maybe it would make me forget about the dinner for a while. The waitress returned saying my date had paid the bill at least. It was a surprise to the both of us.
I decided against ordering another drink and readied my stuff to leave. A man with a balding head and dark blue eyes approached me as I slipped into a leather coat, and introduced himself politely.
“I just can’t believe any man would be dumb enough to walk out on a woman like you,” he said. It was a compliment that any other day would have made me blush, but tonight it only irritated me.
“A woman like me?” I asked. “What does that mean?” He had no idea what a woman like me was capable of.
“Oh,” he stumbled, “I just meant that you’re beautiful. Definitely the best-looking woman I’ve seen in a while.”
“So, he should have stayed just because I was beautiful?” I knew I was being unfair to this poor man who had just wanted to pick up a woman who had been abandoned by her date, but the drinks had made me bold, and my own actions made me angry.
The man held up his hands. “I didn’t mean anything by it, I swear,” he said. “I just wanted to compliment you.”
I opened my mouth to tell him to save his compliments for someone who cared, but I remembered that I needed to add more followers.
“I’m sorry,” I said and lowered my tone of voice. “It’s just been a rough night. Can I buy you a drink?”
He smiled and relaxed. “I’d love that.”
We spent the better part of an hour chatting at the bar and enjoying the jazz band. He placed his hand on the upper part of my thigh, and I decided against moving it. Nancie always explained that we were technically selling ourselves while looking for potential followers and that every once in a while, it wasn’t a bad idea to let them a little closer than I’d like.
He wasn’t so bad, to be honest. His eyes were captivating, and while he wasn’t as muscular as Gavin, many guys weren’t; he at least had a good body with a great smile. Gavin made him look like a has-been, but my handsome sugar daddy did that to most men. He was gorgeous, rich, and hated me. I let out a soft sigh as I thought about it.
“There’s something about jazz that really lifts the spirit,” he said as the band finished a song. He glanced at me. “Hopefully you’re feeling better now, right?”
“I am, thanks,” I said. “I barely even remember the guy’s face.” It was a blatant lie. It would be impossible to forget Gavin’s face.
“I can’t believe the asshole,” he said. I frowned; it wasn’t fair to Gavin that he was known as an asshole.
“I wouldn’t really blame him,” I said. “He said he had something important to take care of. And it was just a first date; I don’t expect him to tell me private matters.”
“Look at you, making excuses for him.” He shook his head. “The guy is an asshole; you can say it.”
“No,” I said sternly. “I really can’t. Look, I should probably get home.”
“But you haven’t even taken a sip of your drink,” he said and gestured at my full glass. I had only ordered it to make it look like I would be drinking. “I won’t talk about your date, I promise.”
“Thanks, but I need to get home,” I said and swung my purse over my shoulder.
“Well, here’s my number,” he said and handed me a piece of paper. I wondered briefly if the number on a napkin trope would ever die. “Call me if you’re ever feeling lonely again.”
“Thanks,” I said and pocketed it. As I was leaving the restaurant, I realized that I didn’t even know his name.
A shadow hung near my car, giant and tall, and I looked for my miniature can of pepper spray buried deep within my purse.
“Maddie,” Gavin said and walked out of the shadows. I gasped and pulled my hand out of my purse.
“You scared the shit out of me,” I said with a slight chuckle.
Gavin didn’t laugh, didn’t even crack a smile. He had his hands stuffed into his pockets, with sleeves rolled up to the elbow and a shadow beneath his eyes. He hadn’t had a good night either.
“I’ll do it,” he said. There was a single light on the street that illuminated his face with a golden hue. It made his blue eyes even brighter and showed off the muscles where his sleeves hugged his arms. “I’ll do it, for a half million. But half of that up front, and the rest afterward.”
“Afterward?” I asked, but a single grimace from Gavin was my answer. After his mom died, of course.
“But if you violate any of my rules, and I mean any of them, you don’t get the money. I’ll sue the shit out of you if you break a single one. Understood?”
I gulped; it was a big agreement. A huge decision that would affect the rest of the year.
“You can’t tell anyone about it being fake. Not a single person,” he reminded me. I realized that I had told Nancie about the deal, but she wouldn’t be too difficult to convince.
“Okay,” I said after a moment’s hesitation. “Agreed.”
He nodded, and said, “I’ll draw up an official agreement and contract, and I’ll send it to your email. Text me your email when you get home.”
“Okay,” I said, unable to say anything else.
“Dinner with me and my mother on Saturday,” he said. “I don’t want to see you until then.”
“Saturday, dinner, got it.”
He nodded and turned away. “Half a million,” he mumbled with a shake of his head and walked away.
I bit my tongue to keep from screaming, but my nerves were on edge,
and my heart was thumping so loud that even he probably could have heard it. Half a million dollars! Never once in my life did I ever imagine I’d have so much money. Half now, half in six months. I thought about everything that I could do with it. Move to Hollywood, start a new life, build a better career. Start with modeling and move to being an actress, maybe.
But waiting the six months would be hard for so many reasons. The guilt worsened, eating at me as I slipped into the car and turned the key. The engine stalled for a moment before roaring to life; just another reminder of how desperate for money I was. I was a terrible person. I would get the rest of the money after his mother died.
I was more than just a terrible person. I was a greedy piece of shit.
Nancie was still awake when I arrived at our apartment, sitting on the couch while munching on salt-free and butter-free popcorn. She turned to me briefly with a subtle wave and returned her attention to the TV.
“What are you watching?” I asked and sat my purse on the counter. A plate of black bean brownies sat beside the sink. I tore off a piece and chewed on it. It had been a gift from one of Nancie’s admirers, a teenager who knew she was attempting a gluten-free diet. I had been given a handful of gifts over time as well, a few free books from fans and several coupons for free candy. Nancie always tried to throw out the coupons before I could redeem them.
“Some documentary about serial killers,” she said. “It was the first one on the recommendation list, and I didn’t feel like browsing.” The TV had been depicting a gruesome death that occurred in the hills of Hollywood nearly 20 years prior, with a couple hanging over the signs and a man in the shadows watching. I shivered, remembering Nancie’s offer to move to California. A part of me secretly hoped she wouldn’t go.
“By yourself?” I sat beside her. “I don’t think I could ever watch a scary documentary alone in an apartment.”
“It’s a safe neighborhood,” she said. “Plus, I figured you’d be home soon from your date, or whatever you call it. How did it go?”