"How much did he pay you?" I demanded, head spinning. "How much did this guy pay you to spend two years of your life pretending to be his girlfriend?"
She jerked her chin back. "Tony's myfriend."
I stared back at her blankly.
"That means I would never charge to help him be with the real love of his life, who, you know, has a really amazing set of pipes and lets Pru and me into the Mimosa Drag Brunch for free. Actually, maybe don't poach her. Pru will kill me if she finds out I'm the reason we suddenly have to pay for bottomless mimosas and drag the next time we go."
I narrowed my eyes at her, assessing her in a new light, given everything I'd just learned. "So, this is what you do? Let everyone else in your life use and take advantage of you, but when I ask you toname your terms for a contract…A contract that would give us—both of us—everything we want from this apparently second fake relationship you are refusing to get paid for, you run all over Vegas to escape actually getting renumerated for your efforts."
"This isn't about getting paid." She shook her head wearily. "I can't enter into the kind of relationship you're asking for?"
"Why not?"
"I just can't."
"Whynot?" I repeated, refusing to take that vague no for an answer. Could she truly not see the sound reason in my proposed arrangement? "This contract makes sense. For both of us."
"Okay, it's late, and I really don't have the energy to fight with you." Sunny dismissed my reasonable argument with a wave of the heels in her hand. "Thank you for saving me in the parking lot. I really do appreciate it—though, you might want to talk to your bestie about better security for those fights. I'm going to bed, and tomorrow, I'll be out of your hair."
She started to walk away.
"Where do you think you can go that I won't shut you out of?" I asked, throwing my words like sharpened icicles into her back.
She stopped short but didn't answer. That was okay. She didn't have to.
"I already made sureyourbestie was occupied tonight. What do you think I'll do if she tries to offer you shelter?"
Sunny's shoulders tightened, letting me know that my words hit their target.
“She has a brother who needs to be in that particular district, right? At least, that's what my source in HR told me. Something about a teen ward with special needs? Hopefully, she's saved up enough money for the court fight when she gets her eviction notice.”
“You wouldn’t!”
Sunny turned around with a fierce glare. God, she was beautiful angry. I had never seen anything like it.
But... "You should be aware after tonight that it's not a great idea to put anything past me. Especially when a contract is on the line. Now, unless you want to drag Prudence into this, too, you’ll stop fighting this thing between us and?—”
“Andwhat?” she demanded before I could finish. “Submit? Is that what you want? To own me like I’m one of your cars?”
“You know what I want, and you want it, too."I removed the space between us in just two strides."You’re the one playing games with my head. Responding to me the way you did, then running away."
"I am not playing games with you. You're the one who plays games. I can't even beat Pru's little brother—the one you're threatening to get your way—at checkers! And you know what? You're the one who ran away. I'm the one who's two years’ worth of horny. I asked you to keep going, and you said, 'Here, first sign this! Who does that?"
"Iaskedyou to sign a contract making the terms of our relationship clear.”
“Then you rendered me homeless and jobless within twenty-four hours of me telling you no the first time. Like a completepsycho! And now you're threatening my innocent friend and her even more innocent brother?" Sunny shook her head at me."I mean, how did you even expect this to go? Do women usually respond to these tactics?”
“I don’t know, Sunny,” I answered coldly. “You’re the only woman I’ve ever had to manipulate into my bed. You seem bent on not only denying me but also denying yourself. Why is that?”
“I don’t know,” she answered, bulging her eyes out at me. “Maybe because you’re apsycho?”
I didn’t love being called a psycho by the woman I wanted in my bed. Twice.
But Ikept my voice detached as I reminded her, “A psycho you said you wanted tonight in that hotel room. And what was that you said in the car about me being‘really freaking handsome’?”
To my great satisfaction, the self-righteous indignation drained out of her face and was replaced by a flustered expression before she spluttered, “The hotel room was amistake. One of the worst mistakes I’ve ever made. I see that now.”
Her words hit me like an arrow through the heart, lethal and unexpected.
