“Well. I am here to provide you with options. I would be happy to put in a call to Louisa to request that she allow you to reinstate your YouTube channel so that you can resume your vlogging and continue to monetize your videos. Would you be satisfied with that arrangement? That way you will still have your own source of income this summer.”
Well.
Shit.
“Yes. Yes, I would be satisfied with that.”
“Thank you,” he says.
“You’re welcome.”
“Wait. Have you even been to a performance? Did you come see me dance without telling me?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer. “So, you agree to the terms, as discussed?”
“The terms? Is there a contract?”
He opens up his leather briefcase, gets up to hand me a printed-out contract, and then returns to the armchair to watch me look at it. I suddenly feel uncomfortable with the formality of these terms.
I stand up and walk over to the kitchen counter to lean against it while I scan the printed pages. But also to make him anxious while he waits for me to sign. And also so he can get a look at my butt.
We are now at the top part of the rickety old roller coaster ride where the car is about to drop.
CHAPTER 4
OLIVIA
While John’s offer is enticing on many levels, it is not a done deal yet. If he doesn’t agree to allmyterms, I’m out. And I’m definitely not saying that this is one of the main reasons I am considering accepting this arrangement.
However.
My hand accidentally brushed past something once, years ago. It was tucked into the right leg of his jeans, it was harder and bigger than I ever would have expected, and I would have a fake relationship with that thing in a heartbeat if I weren’t so confounded by the person it’s attached to. My brother’s best friend is not only financially prosperous now, but he has always been genitally abundant.
Until today, that moment when I brushed past that thing in his pants was the only time it had occurred to me that my infuriating attraction to Johnny might not have been unrequited. When I was younger, back when he wasn’t actively avoiding me, being around him felt like being in a room with a fly. Always aware of the constant buzzing of his brain, never quite knowing when he’d zip past me. Always ready to swathim away if he landed near me. And when I realized he wasn’t around, I panicked that he might have starved to death because he had forgotten to eat.
It’s in a dancer’s nature to be up for anything, and I am up for this. Obviously I’d love to take time off from waiting tables to go to London and the Cotswolds and New York and my hometown. But there’s something about this whole scenario that intrigues me. Johnny Brandt has graduated from annoyance to enigma, and I want to know more about him.
Every single term he has verbally specified is included in the contract, including the exact amount I make in two weeks times five. “How did you know how much money I make?”
“Research, observation, instinct.” He shrugs. “You’ll note that there is a nondisclosure agreement built in,” he says. “Aside from my chief of staff, no one else will know about this arrangement, including my personal assistant, Sanjay. Or any of our family members or friends, including your roommate. It’s important for them to believe things happened between us in the way that things normally happen when people start dating.”
“Like swiping right, you mean? You want me to lie to my family—to their faces? When we’re in Cleveland?”
“Perhaps by then it won’t be a lie.”
I don’t even laugh at that. I just stare at him. I can’t tell if he’s joking or not.
“Stranger things have happened,” he says. “Regardless, by then I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable with the arrangement.”
“The ruse.”
“Such a stickler for words, Miss Montgomery. And here I thought you preferred to speak body language.”
“I do, but you aren’t exactly fluent in it.”
He quirks a brow. “Is that what you think?”
“Only based on every single interaction I’ve ever had with you. And what is it you propose we’d tell people? That we’ve been secretly dating for months?”
