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Then she’s uncrossing her arms as I sit down on the bench and pat the space beside me.
“I really want to know why you’ve dragged me out here,” she says quietly, still not moving. “I don’t want to be messed around with, understood?”
“Understood. Crystal clear. Now take a seat.”
The barista slowly and cautiously makes her way over. She sits, continuing to watch me like a zookeeper would watch a hungry lion.
“What is it, Victor? What’s with all the dramatic flair? What’s with surprising me at work? I thought we never were going to see each other again.”
“I guess that changed,” I say.
“Yeah, it did. Evidently. Now, what do you want to see me for?”
“I’ve got a proposal for you, Josie,” I say quietly.
“What?”
“And,” I continue, “as part of this proposal, I can get you the best divorce lawyer in the country. As part of your payment. He’s on my family’s books. I can get you the lawyer completely free until you divorce your husband. That’s what you told me you wanted the other day, right? Divorce?”
“I did.”
“You want one? Well, I can get you one. And, with the best lawyer in the country, you won’t have to worry about a thing.”
Josie takes in a deep breath and continues her unblinking stare aimed in my direction.
“Okay, this is going to come at a price,” she says. “So what is it? What do you want exactly, Victor Penmayne? Tell me.”
14
JOSIE
“I want you to be my girlfriend,” he says.
What?
What?
What the hell?
It takes me a moment to unpack that sentence, and even then, I have no words to say.
Victor, sitting next to me on the park bench, merely smiles at my mouth bobbing open and close at his suggestion. He knows I’m completely speechless. And I have every right to be.
Oh, he’s enjoying this, the bastard. He’s savoring every minutiae of my shock.
“I know I’m launching straight into it,” he says casually as if he – the most famous actor on the planet – hasn’t just asked me to be his girlfriend. “But I just needed to say it. And I need you to take it in. Let me tell you exactly what I want from you so that you can come to understand why I might ask you such a question.”
“Okay...”
It’s the only word I can say. I’m just so... shocked.
This was the last thing I was expecting when I wandered over here.
“I want you and I to enter into a contract,” Victor drawls. “A fake relationship. There’ll be nothing going on between us, but to the world it’s as if we have fallen in love. We’ll be playing a little game, just you and me. I want you to be in a fake relationship with me for the next six months up to the big award ceremony.”
Oh.
I see.
