Page 65 of The Plus One Pact

Romeo.

But the staircase is long. I can't wait for him to arrive.

I try to come up with a response that will put me back in a good light, but something tells me she won't be impressed by the details of my PhD program. Sometimes tells me the late nights studying won’t prove I’m the kind of woman she wants as a daughter-in-law. "I learned a lot from the experience. I know what can go wrong now. I know not to overlook things before I get married."

She nods, accepting my answer, but not necessarily approving. She wears a pretty strong poker face. I'm not sure if she's upset at me, but I can tell she's not embracing me.

Thankfully, my fake boyfriend saves me from his mother’s suspicion. He arrives at the door and drops off my suitcase.

"Mama, why are you interrogating Ivy?" he asks. "It's her first night here."

"Just some, what do you call it, girl talk," she says.

"I'm going to help her set up." He moves further into the room. Until he's at the bed. "But I'll sleep in mine."

She puts her hands over her ears. "I can't hear you. I don't care. I just don't want to hear from your brother." She looks me over one more time, then moves back to the hallway and down the stairs.

She leaves the door wide open, of course.

Romeo shakes his head. "I'm sorry she's being ridiculous. She always is. Let me give her thirty minutes to fall asleep. Then I'll show you a few tricks."

"With her in the next room?" My cheeks flare.

He smiles. "It’s a big house.”

By California standards, it’s a mansion, but it’s not big enough I can trust the sound to not carry.

“Tricks the house. But if you want, sure…"

"Is she a sound sleeper?" I ask.

"No, but I have a trick for that too," he says. "I play wave sounds on my phone if I want to keep her from overhearing…activities. They're a billion times louder than they actually are from outside. I think, here, only Daredevil could hear the waves. But she always says she had the best dreams about the ocean."

"You used that one a lot, huh?" I ask.

He shrugs maybe I did, maybe I didn't.

A playboy who turned into a prostitute.

A pretty reasonable way to turn your hobbies into profit.

I'm a sex positive person. I should see it in a more favorable light.

No. I do see it in a favorable light. As a friend and colleague, I think it's cool. Amazing, actually. A way to expand the field.

As a lover—

Well, that's the thing. We're not lovers. So, there's no reason for me to get jealous. Or to wonder how I could handle dating a man who has sex for money long term. He’s not my boyfriend.

We're not anything.

We're faking that.

And this isn’t for my personal fulfillment. It’s because I need a story that makes listeners tell their friends omg, you have to hear this, so we can add another few hundred thousand subscribers.

No pressure.

Pressure is terrible for sex drive. I try to put that out of mind. To focus on the here and now.