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“How did I even come up in conversation in the first place? Did you start talking about this insane idea and think,Wow, Sutton would be great?” I asked through gritted teeth, and she started giggling.
“It wasn’t like that at all. But once I did think of you, I wondered why I’d never thought of the two of you together before. I mean, the fake hating each other aside,” she said, and I made a sound that stopped her short.
“It’s not fake for me,” I argued before realizing what she’d said. “Wait, why doeshehate me?”
“I don’t know. Something about you trying to burn his balls off.”
I scoffed out loud and leaned forward. “Is that what he told you?”
“Apparently, there was a lighter that got a little too close to his nutsack,” she said, and I shook my head.
“He asked for it,” I ground out before clamping my mouth shut. Of course he’d only tell the part that had me looking crazy and not the whole story.
“Anyway”—she sounded annoyed—“you two have a lot in common, and I never realized it before. That’s all. I think you might actually like each other once you get through the rest of your crap. Like, this arrangement might not actually be torturous for either one of you.”
I closed my eyes for only a second, and I had to fight with everything in me to open them again. When I did, Kayla was staring at me.
“Let me sleep on it. I’m too tired to even consider not hating that man right now.”
“But you will consider it? Right?” She sounded desperate, and she knew it.
“If he doesn’t convince his mom he’s in love, then what? She won’t give him the company? She’ll keep all the shares and hold them over his head forever? Give them to a bastard sibling he doesn’t know exists?” I asked, still not truly giving a crap about Joseph or his future.
Kayla rolled her eyes and huffed out a loud breath. “You read way too many romance books back in college. And I already told you. She’s just worried about him. She’s afraid that if he doesn’t at least try, he’ll never find someone to love, and all he’ll have is work and nothing else. No mother wants that for their only son.”
Fighting back a yawn, I said, “That’s actually kind of nice. Of her. Not him. He’s annoying.”
“It is nice. She just wants him to be happy. And that’s all he wants for her too. They both want the same thing for the other. But the only way she’ll go live her life is if she thinks he’s actually having one.”
I sat in silence for what felt like a million years, my brain spinning in circles. “I don’t know,” was all I could come up with in the moment because I truly didn’t know. “I need sleep.”
“Fine. But this conversation isn’t over,” she said before pushing up from the couch and disappearing into her room.
When I heard her door shut, I got up and did the same.
When I woke up the next morning, I was greeted by various pictures of Joseph taped up all over the apartment. Each one had something written on it in black Sharpie.
How can you resist this face? You could fake kiss it anytime you wanted, read the one on my door.
Down the hallway was a printed picture of a BIC lighter with a redXacross it that read,NO LIGHTERS. That one actually made me laugh.
There were three more pictures of her boss—each one shirtless, mind you—with various things that I could do to the body parts if I agreed. It almost made me grab my vibrator, but I kept walking toward the kitchen instead.
Another picture of Joseph with his mom was on the fridge, asking why I wanted tobreak the old woman’s heart. I rolled my eyes at that one. But when I opened the cupboard to grab my favorite box of cereal, Joseph’s face covered the entire thing, and it had been renamed toJoseph-O’s.
Kayla was never going to let me say no to this.
WHAT DID SHE SAY?
JOSEPH
Iwas on pins and needles, waiting for Kayla to get into the office. I’d tossed and turned all night, delirious and hopeful that she’d get Sutton to agree to this crazy shenanigan. Then, I’d cringe, remembering my poor balls, and wonder what I was thinking. I’d turned into a basket case.
When she finally walked out of the elevator, I was standing there like a stalker, waiting with my arms folded.
“Jeez, obsess much?” she teased before handing me a cup of coffee from my favorite place.
That wasn’t a good sign. Kayla didn’t go around, getting me coffee without being asked, which meant that she was buttering me up for bad news.
