Is this really happening?
“You wanna—”
“Yep.” Calla nods, her knee bumping into mine. She laces her fingers together, folding them in her lap, while straightening her back.Thisis Miss Becker; the one who ensnares clients until they fall at her feet. I can’t say I’m any different. Nor do I want to be.
“Do you think we’ll need rules?”
“Rules.”
She raises a manicured eyebrow independently. “Are you just going to repeat everything I say?”
“No,” I cough, clearing my throat. “I don’t think we’ll need rules, do you? It seems pretty self-explanatory to me.”
“I would have thought you’d want to make a list and stick it to your fridge – dos and don’ts – but I guess I’m wrong.” She shrugs. “So, when do we start?”
My heart rams against my ribcage, as if trying to break free, vehemently protesting the deal I’ve proposed to Calla. The tip of my tongue sticks to the ladder-like roof of my mouth, which is silly, I know, seeing as howI’mthe one who offered myself as a sacrifice for this whole situation, but still…
Swallowing dryly, I push the words from my tongue until they have no choice but to escape. “Whenever you’d like.”
“Mhm.” I watch as Calla licks her lips and shoves her tongue into the flesh of her cheek, creating a bulge that looks very similar too—
“Today?”
I swallow harshly again. “Sounds good.”
What the fuck have I agreed to?
“I think we should pretend to be together for a couple of months, by which point I’m hoping Thomas will have found someone else – poor girl – and then we can announce an amicable breakup. How does that sound?”
It’s all I can do but nod.
“We’re allowed to tell one other person. One.” Calla holds up a single finger. “So, we’re not completely going around the twist.”
“Sure.”
“Sex?”
I swear my eyes nearly bug out of my head. “What?”
“Sex,” Calla repeats. “Are we having it or not?”
“As in…”
“As in… are we sleeping together or not?”
I desperately try to school my features into nonchalance. “Whatever makes the storyline more believable.”
Calla shakes her head, blonde ponytail swishes behind her. I close my fingers to form a fist when I have the sudden urge to reach over and yank on it. “Sex makes things too complicated… but it also makes the chemistry more believable.Hm.”
She makes a little humming noise at the back of her throat. Something that only further drives me to the brink of insanity.
Is this a dream?
A nightmare?
Am I hallucinating?
“Let’s shelve the idea for the time being, okay? We can just… see where we go from here.”
