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“I guess context matters,” I admitted. “Art is subjective, and varies depending on that individual’s circumstances at the time.”
“Well said,” Andrew replied. We smiled at each other. It felt like a truce.
“Let us turn to a lighter discussion,” Tristan announced. “Did you two enjoy the past week together? And was the sex good?”
“The… the sex?” I asked. “I don’t see how it’s any of your business, but yes, Pierce and I have begun sleeping together, within the parameters of the contract I signed.”
“Not Pierce,” Tristan said. “I meant the sex between you and Andrew.”
25
Melinda
Andrew almost spit out his drink. I gawked at Tristan, certain that he had made a mistake.
“Andrew and I have not had sex,” I said.
“But of course you have,” Tristan replied. “That is why you remained here rather than visiting Rhode Island for a week, is it not?”
“I… I told you. I didn’t feel like going home to visit my family.”
“Which was an obvious lie, since you are quite close to your mother and call her nearly every day.” Tristan looked back and forth between us. “Oh. Oh no. You really have not had sex, have you?”
“I already told you no!” I protested.
“We have not,” Andrew said curtly.
“I see.” Tristan sloshed his drink around in the glass. “Well then. Shall we return to discussing A Court of Thorns and Roses? I have opinions on the book’s views on feminism.”
“Why would you think we had sex?” I asked.
“Because of the wording of the contract,” Tristan replied simply. “Pierce told me you discovered the loophole. And, to be quite frank, you and Andrew have appeared quite fond of one-another since I returned today.”
Andrew and I looked at each other. “We’ve been hanging out,” I said.
“Jogging, and watching TV,” Andrew added. “There’s not much else to do around here.”
“Indeed. Hence my skepticism of why you would remain while Pierce was gone.” He finished the rest of the drink and put the glass down. “I must apologize if I made you uncomfortable. It appears I have been operating under several unfounded assumptions.”
“You knew about the loophole?” Andrew asked me.
If I had been sober, I might have gotten up and run away. But the alcohol made me a little more fearless, and a little less embarrassed about the entire situation. Things were already crazy: I was being paid to sleep with a famous billionaire. Compared to that, the loophole was almost laughably quaint.
“My lawyer told me about it,” I said. “Both of you were aware of it already?”
The two of them glanced at each other, then nodded. “Pierce made us aware, yes,” Andrew said.
There was something in the way he said it that piqued my curiosity. Folding my legs underneath me on the couch, I twisted to face him. “Hold on. When I mentioned the loophole to Pierce, he acted like it was just some vague possibility. Hearing you discuss it, though… Did you three talk about it? I mean, the possibility of it being one of you who impregnates me?”
I was shocked, but satisfied, by my own bluntness. The alcohol was definitely helping me be so forward with them. It caught both of them off guard too, which gave me another pang of satisfaction.
“It wasn’t, like, a plan or anything,” Andrew said. “Pierce made us aware of his potential fertility issues. He asked if we would be willing to be donors for a potential surrogate.”
“This was long before you were selected, I might add,” Tristan chimed in.
Andrew nodded. He looked uncomfortable. “It was only a contingency. Something we would discuss in greater detail once we were certain he couldn’t… conceive a child on his own. I assumed that would be months from now, if not longer.”
“I also made the assumption that this was not a pressing concern, but one for a later date.” Tristan gestured toward the couch. “Yet when I saw how fond you two have become…”
