“That thought never occurred to me.”
“That said, when do I get paid?” She wanted this done. The sooner the better.
Avery fished out his phone, tapped the screen a few times, and tucked it back in his pocket. “Done.”
As soon as she powered hers up, it vibrated. That was quick. But the notification wasn’t from her cash app. The buzzing continued as text after text rolled in at the top of her screen. She tried to ignore them as she waited for the payment to show up.
“Is that Murdick?” Avery asked. “Is he harassing you?”
She shook her head. “Walt. Most of them, anyway.”
A few were from Chase. And wow, a couple from Lydia and one from Georgia. Interesting, but they’d have to wait until she got home.
“Is that another ex? Walt?”
She might have laughed, but the way he growled the question did funny things to her insides. He sounded almost jealous, but it was probably just the idea of having to deal with more of her drama. “Walt is my father.”
“You call him Walt?”
“More baggage.” One of two men she’d let in her life who’d let her down.
“Hmm, we can unpack that later.”
“I’m not staying, remember? Five weeks and you’ll never see me again, so no need to bore you with any of that.”
The notification from the cash app finally appeared. She blinked at the payment posted. What the fuck? He’d paid her for the entire five week’s sum. “Why’d you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Pay me in full. What if I don’t want to continue with this? What ifyoudon’t?” Now, she’d have to send back what he’d overpaid. A sum that big was bound to raise red flags if it hadn’t already.
He frowned. “I paid what we agreed.”
“Yeah, but this obligates me to finish out the five weeks. I’d rather you pay me per date.”
“I did. Ten K per date. That’s what I agreed to.”
Her jaw dropped. “No, I mean, yes, but I meant ten thousand for five weeks.”
“Then you’re selling yourself short. Besides, you’re worth every penny. You had my family eating out of your hands.”
“You mean before everything went to shit. Face it, this is proving harder than either of us thought.”
He shrugged. “We just need to tweak it a bit.”
“So, after all this, you still want to go through with it?”
“Don’t you?”
Did she? Ten thousand dollars a date was a hell of an incentive to keep faking it. It meant a new apartment sooner, and in five weeks… Holy macaron, at ten K a week, more if something else came up, she’d be almost halfway to her dream. The bank might even reconsider a loan.
“Look,” he said, “I want this to work, but I need you to commit. No waffling or threatening to quit. Can you do that?”
“Can your idiot friends keep their mouths shut?”
“It was Maverick, wasn’t it? He told Olivia, and she told you.”
Jo opened her mouth to deny it, but she couldn’t get the words past the lump of guilt clogging her throat. Clearly, he’d been stewing in a black pit of broken trust, trying to work out which of his friends had betrayed him. She snapped her mouth shut and bit down on both lips.
