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Her eyes widen. “Oops.”
I massage my forehead, fighting the rapidly increasing headache. “This is going to be a long six months.”
Maria snickers.
This is getting out of hand. I point to Violet. “You. Go finish packing. And you, stop laughing. Also, give me your email address so my lawyers can have you sign an NDA.”
Maria rolls her eyes and starts unpacking her groceries. “Do you really want to tell your company lawyers you’re paying a woman to live with you for six months so you can defraud people?”
“I...lying about a relationship isn’tfraud,” I sputter.
Maria shrugs. “Whatever. All I know is that if you lie and it affects the stock price, you’re in big trouble.”
“It’snotabout the stock price.” But she’s right that the last thing I want to do is explain the situation to my company lawyers. One of whom might feel tempted to tip off my mother.
Maria grabs a beer from the fridge and opens it.
She doesn’t offer me one.
“You’re Tom’s friend, right?” she asks, studying me.
“Yes,” I say, wondering what she’s getting at.
“Tom’s good people.”
“The best,” I say.
It’s the truth. Tom’s the kind of guy who’s got a heart so big people were always trying to take advantage of it. Me and our other friend Jaylen spent a decent amount of college convincing him that he didn’t need to donate to every single person who shared a sob story on social media asking for money. He’s a smart guy, but if he thinks someone might be in real trouble, his heart takes over and his brain shuts up.
Luckily Tom married a woman who’s just as kind as him but has considerably more common sense.
Maria nods judiciously like she’s come to a decision. “Okay. I’ll keep your dumb secret, as long asVioletwants me to. But if you break her heart, I will make you regret it.”
I can relate to wanting to protect a friend, but that threat is patently ridiculous. She’s five foot nothing, and I’m pretty sure I could buy everything in this apartment a million times over.
“You going to carve me with a kitchen knife?” I ask sarcastically.
“No,” she says sweetly. “I’m going to go online and tell every fortune-hunting woman in the world that poor little Gage Crawford is so lonely he had to pay a woman to be his fiancée. If only he could just meet the right woman...”
I think of that potential tsunami of unwanted attention and wince.
Maria goes in for the kill. “AndthenI’m going to make sure they know your home address, your work address, and anywhere else you like to hang out.”
“Touché. I swear, I’ll be the perfect gentleman.”
Violet emerges from the bedroom with a suitcase and duffel bag. She’s also swapped out her work clothes for a cropped V-neck t-shirt speckled with paint, and leggings that show off her legs.
“Okay you two,” she says, “Enough sparring. Gage let’s get going. Maria, I’ll call you later.”
The two women hug, and then Violet grabs her bags and heads past me out the door.
For a second I just stare after her, blinking. Those leggings didgreatthings for her ass.
“Hey!” Maria barks, snapping her fingers in front of my face, like she can tell what I’m thinking. “Perfect gentleman! No heartbreak! You promised.”
“You can’t break someone’s heart when they’ve made it very clear they don’t even like you,” I mutter, but I feel a flash of guilt.
If Tom knew the fantasies I was having about his little sister’s ass...
