“We both know there’s no accounting for taste. I’m not going to bet my virtue on the whims of a rich collector. They buy and sell the same art constantly.”
“Just dinner,” Gavin confirms.
“Why? Are you going to mess with my food?” Like I already did to him.
Gavin crinkles his nose. “No.”
“Are you going to steal my phone and smartwatch and abandon me in the woods?”
“Why are you like this?”
“Because of the time you set my ringtone to sex moans and it went off in the middle of my own auction.” Good thing I’m talented and made everyone laugh it off. It actually loosened everyone up and made them willing to spend more, in the end.
“And in retaliation you hired a woman to barge into my auction and accuse me of fathering her child.”
“Iallegedlyhired that woman. It was never proven.” There, this is where I’m more comfortable. Back in this rivalry. Not thinking about us having sex.
“Dinner. No sex.” Gavin tries to bring the conversation back to the original point.
“Why though?”
“Because you’re hot. Frighteningly intense. But hot.” His face is serious. Not even his ever-present smirk is here now, a first that I’ve seen. But he doesn’t look happy with the fact that he finds me hot.
I’m not happy about the unexpected turn either.
It’sGavin. In college I begrudgingly accepted that I found him attractive, when I realized I couldn’t change how I saw him. But I never imagined that he would feel anything similar toward me. He was just dating a Renaissance goddess, who is as far away as she can be from me in the looks arena.
Finding out he does find me attractive is shocking me into silence. When the silence stretches out for longer than is comfortable, I clear my throat and try to get back to confident, take-no-prisoners Priya. By changing the subject. “What do I get if I win?”
There. My voice isn’t as strong as I want it to be, but it’s getting there.
“What do you want?”
“Five million dollars,” I throw out, brain still not functioning at 100 percent, since a large percentage of it is stuck on Gavin’s new revelations.
“I’m not giving you five million dollars on a bet.”
“Okay. Now who doesn’t believe in himself?”
“What do you wantwithin reason?”
“Chicken.” I lean back in my chair, a bit more comfortable now that Gavin is looking annoyed. Better than his intensity when he was talking about finding me attractive. “I want...you...to...” I drag it out. Let him suffer some.
“Don’t keep me in suspense, Gupta.” He motions me to get on with it.
“I wasn’t keeping you in suspense. I don’t want anything from you, so this is kind of hard to think of.” Maybe make him do an auction in his underwear? But then I might be a little affected by that image.
No, that would backfire too much on me.
“You’ve got me in the palm of your hand.”
Fat chance of that being true, with how contrary Gavin can be. But an idea does come. “Oh, you have to potty train my dog!” I smile to myself.
“You have a dog?”
“No. Because I don’t want it to pee on my carpets. So when I win, I’m going to get an English bulldog. And you’re going to potty train them.”
“That’s seriously what you want? Unlike you, I’m fine with being naked at your beck and call.”
