“And maybe go on a fake date or two, to really sell it.”
“Torture for four grand.” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Yeah, but then you won’t have to worry about little Fido.”
“Fido?” I laughed.
“Given how much youlovedogs, I assumed that was what we were dealing with. Is the patient a cat?”
“Something like that,” I snarked.
“I want to meet him, whatever he is,” Drew insisted. “If I’m paying I at least want to see my investment.”
“I haven’t agreed to your scheme yet.” I walked away from him.
“But you will. I know it,” he insisted as he followed behind me.
I made a frustrated noise and kept walking.
His smugness certainly had me aching to tell him no, just to get him off his high horse. But I didn’t have the luxury of being petulant—no matter how tempting it might be. Like it or not, getting the money from him was a better option than anything else I could come up with. I was still paying off the new back door, the very one that had led to the mess I was now facing. Winston’s vet bill on top of the rest of my construction invoices made me feel seasick.
I whirled back to face him. “Quadruple it and I’ll do it.”
“Sixteen thousand? Are you serious? How many dogs do you have?”
“I don’t have any dogs.” I did the math wrong. I’d thought I was asking for twenty thousand, dammit.
He narrowed his eyes. “This is blackmail.”
“You’re the one who announced on camera that we were engaged, sunshine. Deal with it.” I was already calculating how fast I could get some of the renos done on the house with that amount of money.
“Five thousand.”
“Twenty,” I countered.
“You’re not supposed to increase the dollar amount past the initial demand. That’s not how negotiations work,” he said.
“So, you admit that we’re negotiating? Good to know.” He frowned at that and I couldn’t resist smirking at him. At the very least, I’m getting under his skin and I was very okay with that.
“Eight.”
“Twelve.”
“Ten.”
“Deal.” I held my hand out to shake his. “But I need paymenttoday. Or should I say, the vet does. I refuse to put it on my card and then have you backtrack and say that I wasn’t lovey-dovey enough and now you’re pulling out of the arrangement. Zelle it to me.”
“Wow, you really don’t trust me,” he mused.
“Have you given me a reason to?”
“Fine, let’s go right now and I’ll pay the vet directly and give you a check for the rest. The show is wrapping up and I have a couple offlexible hours ahead of me tonight since I didn’t know how long this was going to go. I need to meet this fluffy little whatever.”
“Oh, you’re in for a treat.” I fake grinned at him. “You’re going to love Winston.”
He’d better. I wasn’t sure how he was going to react to the old man bestie, but it would be a huge tell. Anyone who called him weird or ugly was immediately disqualified from my life.
The door opened and a PA peeked her head in. “Hiii. Is it okay if I grab your mics?”
