Page 12

What a Move

Declan

What a fucking move.

Forty thousand dollars.

The girl who’d confessed to having an infestation in an apartment managed by “slumlord jackasses” was demanding forty thousand dollars to spend the weekend golfing, shopping, and eating.

“I will be the best girlfriend—we’re talking next-level goddess—as I accompany you to all the shareholder events from now until Sunday at midnight.”

“I find it hard to believe that you could be the best girlfriend,” I said, remembering her bullshit fan fic about my ass getting stuck in a wall at the gym. “You’re a sarcastic little shit who enjoys stirring the pot. That doesn’t say ‘forty K’ to me.”

“Well that’s because you were forcing my hand tonight with your bossiness,” she said, her fast blink the only tell that she was flustered.

Well, that and the big swallow that brought my eyes down to the soft neck that I knew for a fact smelled good as hell.

“As a volunteer, I will bring my very best work.”

“You can’t use the words volunteer and forty thousand dollars in the same sentence.”

“Just hear me out.”

“I’m listening.”

“Okay.” She cleared her throat and took a deep breath through her nose like she was doing yoga, then said, “You were going to give me your car, which seems like it’s worth more than forty thousand, so the way I see it, you’re getting a bargain.

And I promise that I will wow you with just how perfect of a girlfriend I am. ”

“You have a point about the car.”

“So you’ll consider it?”

She said it like she was shocked, almost as if I was offering her this $40K deal out of the blue instead of it being something she had just thrown at me. No poker face at all . “I’d say we have a deal.”

“Shut. Up ,” she very nearly shouted at me, her eyes huge. “Are you serious right now?”

“Please don’t yell at me, but yes. I am.”

“Holy shit ,” she said, shaking her head back and forth. “This cannot be real. Do you promise you’re serious? Like, you’re not messing with me and the cops are actually on the way here to arrest me?”

“Why would the cops—”

“This is insane!” Her grin was huge as she started pacing back and forth in the living room. “You are saying that you will give me forty thousand dollars to pretend to be your girlfriend this weekend. That is all. I just have to be sweet and enamored of you?”

“And keep the fictional stories about me to a minimum.”

“Donezo,” she said around a laugh.

“But I’m not paying until it’s over.”

Her smile disappeared in an instant. “Wait a second.”

“I’d say that’s fair.”

“No, no, not that,” she said. “That’s totally fair. But how do I know you’re going to pay? You could easily stiff me and there would be nothing I could do about it.”

“I’m not going to stiff you,” I said. If she wasn’t such a question mark, I’d just give her the money now, but I’d yet to really figure her out.

And I’d be damned if I’d set myself up to be swindled out of that much money.

“I don’t think you will, but here’s the thing. You’ve got all the money and power here and you technically could do whatever you wanted in this situation.” She bit down on her lower lip, like she was thinking. “Would you be willing to write me a promissory note and have it notarized?”

I was impressed. Abi Mariano was a quick thinker.

I pulled out my phone, slid into my contacts, then raised the phone to my ear while it rang.

“Is that a yes? Or are you having me thrown out?” she asked, her eyebrows furrowed. “What does this phone call mean?”

“Carl here,” I heard in my ear as Abi continued to ramble while looking at me like I was the erratic one.

“Hey, Carl. Can you come up and notarize something for me?”

She stopped talking.

“Of course, Mr. Powell. I have to finish one other thing, and then I’ll be right up. Five minutes or less.”

I disconnected the call and took a minute to enjoy the expression on her face and the fact that I’d actually managed to render her speechless.

“Shall I write up the promissory note,” I said, “or would you prefer to do the honors?”

“I’ll do it.” She jumped up from the couch and said, “I have a notebook in the other room. Give me two seconds.”

“No problem,” I said, watching her run into the other room.

“So, like,” she yelled as it sounded like she was riffling through a bag, “what do you want everyone to think we are?”

Before I could answer she reappeared with a notebook and pen in her hands.

“Are we casually dating, or very serious?” she asked.

That was easy. “If we’re doing this, let’s make it count. Let’s go with very serious.”

“Ooh,” she said, grinning, as she set the notebook on the table and started writing. “Well, I can totally turn it on, then, if you want. I’ll bring the I’m-head-over-heels-in-love-with-this-man-and-want-to-have-his-babies attitude, if you think you can handle it.”

She looked like a mischievous child, grinning while furiously writing in a notebook whose page she could barely see because her hair was in her face, and I realized that what I’d said to her earlier was the truth.

I really didn’t not like her.

“Oh, I can handle it, Mariano,” I said as I heard Carl’s knock. “I can’t wait to see what forty thousand dollars of love energy looks like.”

“Oh, Dexxie,” she said, raising her eyes to mine and using my nickname without sarcasm for the very first time. “Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.”