“You’re joking, right? Please tell me you’re joking. I mean, you’ve got to be. Nobody would suggest something like this for real.”

“Quite to the contrary, Elsie. I’m one hundred percent serious. I thought you understood when you agreed to this job.”

“Understood? Understood what? I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about?”

“Understood that this job doesn’t have the same kind of nine to five parameters of your average job. I was under the impression that Travis had made that very clear.”

Elsie found that she was at an utter loss for words, which was something of a rarity for her. She was sort of known for her sass and a sarcastic wit that had a bad habit of getting her into trouble, but in this unbelievable conversation she was having with Caleb, she couldn’t seem to access any of that. All she could do was stand there and glare at him with her hands on her hips in that universal pose that told a man that the woman he was talking to was supremely pissed off. At least she hoped that’s what her stance was telling Caleb Grant because pissed off was exactly what she was. She was pissed off to the max, and if she’d had the luxury of doing so, she would have shouted it from the top of Caleb’s extravagantly tall building.

Caleb’s exit had been perfect, and Elsie had been deliciously pleased with the sudden turn of fortune that his intervention had allowed her to have. For the first time since hearing Caleb’s name in conjunction with her own, Elsie wasn’t totally turned off by the idea of working with him. His handling of Chad and Randy’s chauvinistic, borderline sexual harassment had been masterful, and mastery was something worth giving a nod to. Unfortunately, those semi-positive feelings about Caleb hadn’t lasted for more than about five minutes before everything got shot to hell and put her right back where she had been when she started. Except that now things were worse because instead of just disliking what Caleb was about, now she was stuck taking orders from him without even knowing why she was really there.

It had started almost the moment Elsie had been ushered into Caleb’s office. He’d shut the door and immediately headed to his large glass top desk, getting onto his computer without giving her a second glance. Elsie was glad to be behind closed doors where nobody else could see her because she almost immediately felt just as silly and exposed as she had out in the lobby. He was making himself very busy, like one would expect out of a very busy and important man, and in doing so, he was leaving her to stand in her short, tight dress and heels in the middle of his office without having a clue what she was supposed to do next.

“So much for being a gracious, chivalrous host,” she whispered to herself, not sure if he could hear her or not—and not really caring if he could. She had a half a mind to kick her shoes off and make herself right at home, if this was the way he was going to act. She didn’t of course, at least didn’t do the kicking off her shoes part, but she did march right up to the chairs he probably reserved for more important guests and clients and sat herself down. She crossed her legs and then her arms, then stared at him, willing him to look up from his computer screen and pay her some fucking attention.  When he finally did look up, she could see that he wasn’t at all concerned with whether or not she was happy. He wasn’t there to make her happy, a fact they were now both acutely aware of.

“You look less than thrilled, Elsie, I have to say. Is that intentional, or is that just your typical face? I only ask because if it’s your typical face, you’ll have to work on it some. It’s important that you look the part.”

“Which would be what, exactly?”

“The part, in this case, means the sort of woman I would make the effort to settle down with. I’ve got a reputation, I guess you could say.”

“Oh yeah? I had no idea.”

She kept a straight face while she answered Caleb’s ridiculous assessment of himself, but she couldn’t help but put an exaggerated amount of surprise in her voice, which of course Caleb picked up on immediately. She thought he was going to say something about it, give her a little dressing down for her poor attitude, but after a moment of thought, he continued as if she’d never said a single word.

“Yes, a reputation. I’ve never been known to have someone I would call a girlfriend, but I’ve had plenty of women friends, and it’s well known what sort of woman I choose to spend my time with.”

“And let me guess, those women don’t typically walk around with bitchy, sour expressions on their faces?”

“No, they don’t.”

“Fine, whatever. I’ll do my best. But you can’t expect me to act like a Barbie princess all of the time, okay? It’s just not my style. I’ll make a real effort to put on that kind of a show when we’re out around other people, but you’ve got to give me a break when it’s just the two of us. It’s not like it’s exactly easy to be ‘on’ literally all of the time.”

“Tell me about it,” Caleb muttered, his eyes moving back to his computer screen as if their conversation had ended without her knowing it. Although she was exasperated by how quickly and easily this man could write her out of the picture, she was little taken aback by this last comment. She was taken aback enough that she actually stayed quiet for a minute. It hadn’t ever crossed her mind that Caleb might feel like he was living a constant show, but what if that was exactly how he felt? What if the well-mannered man she’d seen in the lobby was the real deal, and the whole high-powered bad boy thing was an act? What if it was the other way around? Come to think of it, Caleb Grant was beginning to strike her as a more complicated man than she’d initially given him credit for, unless that was the part that was an act. Thinking about it made her head hurt, and it also made her start to feel a little sorry for him again, which was the last thing she wanted. She didn’t want to see him as a real live person. She just wanted to do the job and be on her way, which was going to be really freaking hard to do if he wouldn’t tell her what they were actually supposed to be accomplishing. She cleared her throat, then cleared it again and louder when he didn’t bother to look up from whatever he was doing the first time.

“Yes? What is it?”

“Oh, nothing. Nothing much. I was just wondering if you are planning on telling me what you want me to do. You know, maybe sometime this year. That would be nice.”   

“We’ll get there, okay? Today has been a shit-show, and there’s a lot to go over, but first thing’s first. Is that the only thing you have to wear?”

“Um, excuse me?” she asked curtly, both taken aback and embarrassed all at the same time. “Is it all I have to wear? I don’t know, what do you think?”

“I don’t mean all you have to wear in your closet,” he answered impatiently, waving his hand dismissively in her direction as if she was being the stupidest girl in the world. “I mean, is it all you have with you? All you have here?”

“Of course, it’s all I have with me. Why would I bring another thing to wear? Was there some kind of costume change required of me that somebody forgot to tell me about?”

“No, at least not one somebody forgot to tell you about. But we’re going out tonight, and that’s just not going to work.”

“Come again?”

“It’s a nice dress, but it won’t work for the club we’re going to. Don’t worry about it, I had some things delivered to my office. I thought it would make things seem more believable to have some of your things here. Also, from a practical standpoint, it helps in situations just like this one.”

“Um, awesome, but I wasn’t offended on behalf of my dress. I’d like to revisit the part where you said we were going out tonight. That’s the part I’ve got a problem with.”

“What’s there to have a problem with? I need you to come with me.”

“But why? From what I’ve read, you’ve got no trouble going out on the town by yourself.”

“True,” he answered with the deliberate patience of an adult speaking to a child who simply wasn’t understanding what she was being taught, “but that was before I had a girlfriend.”

“But I’m not actually your girlfriend, Caleb.”

“I know that! Look, are you up to this or not? Because like I said yesterday, if you don’t think you can handle this, you need to tell me now. It’ll hurt things that I’ve already introduced you as my girlfriend, but I could come up with a story and phase you out. Hell, I could probably just get another blonde and pass her as the same girl. I doubt anyone would even notice.”

“Charming.”

“This is the way I have to think about things, okay? Especially if you aren’t getting the way things are going to have to go with us during this arrangement.”

“So…tell me, why don’t you? Enlighten me, since you seem to already have all of the answers.”

And so tell her was exactly what he did. He told her exactly how things were going to be between the two of them, and by the time he was done, Elsie had the eerie feeling that she’d somehow sold her soul to the devil and not even realized it until it was already too late. What she really felt like, if she was being honest with herself and letting her internal drama flag fly, was some kind of a modern-day geisha. The way Caleb explained what he needed from her, it was hard to believe he intended her to feel any way else. Essentially, the things he described to her meant that he intended to pretty much own her. The part where she would get to do her “hacking thing” (that was exactly what he called it, saying it in a diminutive way that made her want to puke) would come, and it would come quickly, but the most important thing on that particular day was to make her role as his girlfriend believable. When she tried to argue that playing that role didn’t mean she had to turn into a party girl, he countered right back, telling her that any woman he would be in a relationship with would have to be a bit of a partier, at least in the beginning. The could talk about phasing that part of things out down the line, but they weren’t down that line yet. They were still at the very beginning of things, which meant the honeymoon phase, which meant the two of them were going to head out to the swankiest clubs New York City had to offer.

“So…what you’re telling me is that I have no choice. I’m one of the best hackers in the country, one of the best in the world probably, and you’re telling me that I have no choice but to go clubbing with you?”

“Of course, that’s not what I’m telling you. It’s not like I think you’re my slave or anything so stupid as that. I’m simply telling you what I require. You make the decision about whether or not it’s something you can do. If you decide it’s not, you may go and I’ll call Travis and let him know we’re going our separate ways.”

Jesus, it felt like he was holding a gun to her head! On the one hand, there was the fact that she was not, in fact, an escort. She had come here to do a job that Caleb didn’t seem to have any intention on explaining well enough so that she could do it. On the other hand, there was her pride as a computer genius and the knowledge that if she did this thing well, if she did it right, she could create a whole new world for Cubed and everyone who worked there. Either way she looked at it, there was something that was going to make her unhappy. The first thing she had to do was get the idea that she could make it out of this job successfully—while still doing it in the exact way she wanted to—out of her head. In the end, what it came down to was her sense of loyalty and her sense of pride. She didn’t want to do anything that would hurt Travis or her mishmash of a self-made family; she was sure about that point. She didn’t want to hurt him and her pride told her that this was not a job she could walk away from. She still made a show of thinking over her options, hoping that Caleb was buying it, but not really believing that he did. Plus, a part of her knew from the very beginning what she was going to do.

“Fine.” She said only that one word and waited to say it for as many minutes as she could stand, wanting to make Caleb sweat. When he didn’t even glance up at her, just kept clacking away at his computer like she wasn’t even there, Elsie rolled her eyes and sighed. That was when he looked up, and the faint sparkle in his eyes told her that his withholding of the reaction she was looking for was intentional. Working for Caleb was going to be like playing a massive, ongoing game of chess, and as things stood, she had no idea who was winning.

“Fine, what?”

“Fine, I’ll play by your rules. At least for now, I’ll play by your rules.”

“Good, I’m very glad to hear it. Now, if you’ll step into my bathroom, you’ll find a little black dress hanging on the closet door. I’d like you to put it on.”

“Christ, you were serious about that? You actually expect me to change clothes just to go out with you?”

“Of course, I was serious. You don’t need to worry; it’s a nice dress. And if it makes you feel any better, it’s yours. All of the cloths in there will be yours.”

“I don’t need you to buy me clothes, Mr. Grant.”

“Don’t. Don’t do that.”

His voice was sharp, much sharper than it had been in any of the other things he’s said to her, and she couldn’t help but question why his tone was so sharp as she looked at his face. She couldn’t help it. It was sort of shocking to see how quickly he could change his entire demeanor, and despite her complete certainty that she did not now and never would like him, she couldn’t squash every bit of her curiosity.

“Don’t do what? It’s your name! It is, right? Did I get it wrong or something?”

“No, you didn’t. But you can’t go around calling me Mr. Grant. Things won’t be believable if you do that, and I need things to be believable. I need everyone to really believe that you’re hanging around because we’re together and for no other reason than that. It has to be one hundred percent believable, alright? It’s important. Do you understand me?”

She nodded, focusing on her breathing and trying very hard not to cry. She wasn’t sure why she wanted to cry; it was definitely not at all in her nature, but for a minute she was sure it was what she was going to do. Later on, once she’d gotten to know him a little better and begun to understand how very different he was from the man he was made out to be, she would think that maybe that urge to break down had come from some deep-seeded knowledge that the two of them had more in common than first met the eye. There was something in his voice that was sad, desperate even, something in his tone that was haunted in a way that felt familiar. In that moment, however, all she could do was nod and hurry into the bathroom Caleb had indicated and shut the door tightly. Once inside, she’d allowed herself to slide to the floor, back against the door and face cupped in her hands in a makeshift paper bag. She felt very close to hyperventilating and that was something she simply couldn’t allow. It would make her look beyond weak, and that was something she wouldn’t do in front of that man sitting out there at his desk and waiting for her to parade herself in something even more slinky than what she already had on. Instead, she would breathe into her cupped hands, and she would get it the fuck together, and when she walked back out there to do her obligatory little spin, he would never know how close she’d come to losing it. As far as she knew, he would never have a clue.