Josieholdsthepaddlewith my number printed on the front.
Mine.Not hers.
"What are you doing?" I hiss, shooting a look at my manager who is too focused on the task at hand. Akira sits beside her, looking way too entertained.
Both are up to no good. "Something that needs to be done," Josie says, flat and final, before turning back to the stage.
When Akira invited me to this charity event as her plus one, I told myself,Why not?
I could do with a distraction. Something good.
After how last night ended, I needed one.
I was mad. At myself for letting my guard down, and athimfor assuming I needed saving.
I don’t.
Obviously.
The man on stage calls out bids, his gaze flicking between the crowd and Josie.
Behind us, someone keeps raising the stakes. Again, and again, and again.
Who spends this kind of money...on adate?
And not just any date.
A date withhim.
The most arrogant, egotistical, infuriating man alive.
I mean...yeah, he’s hot.
It's too bad he ruined that when he opened his mouth the other night.
"And what is it that needs to be done, exactly?" I ask through gritted teeth, forcing a smile as a camera pans to us.
Josie shoves the bidding paddle in my hand. Before I can stop her, she raises it in the air.
Another donation.
Ahugeone.
I blink at the screen, the number flashing like it’s mocking me.
How am I supposed to pay for that?
Seriously, how is it even legal to bid on people?
"And how do you expect me to pay for this?" My eyebrows shoot up to my hairline, my nostrils flaring as I glance at Josie, then at the woman a few tables back, practically vibrating in her seat for a night with Avery.
"We’re not paying for any of it.Thatguy is." Josie tips her chin at the man on stage. "He’s given us a shit-ton of money to bid on a date with his client, so you—" she says, waving her own paddle in my face, "and him," with a nod over her shoulder, "can look loved up."
I scowl at her. "What the hell for? We’ve interacted a total ofonetime, and he was an absolute ass about it. The less I have to do with him, the better."
It’s as if the man on stage heard me, because the moment we make eye contact, a smile forms on his lips.
‘No,’I silently mouth towards him with a firm shake of my head, to which he replies to the crowd, "Oh, yes." Nobody seems to notice that he’s talking to me and not them, so he continues. "If I had known auctioning a date with Avery would’ve caused this much chaos and raised so much money, I would’ve started the tradition years ago."
