Ryan
My mind was spinning with the information Alicia had just laid on me. She sat on my couch looking miserable, but I couldn’t sit still. I was wearing a path in my very expensive oriental rug, trying to think of how we would handle—how I would handle—the rumors that I was paying Alicia to be my girlfriend. I had no idea how Tammy found out; I had been so careful. No emails, everything in cash, no trail whatsoever.
I looked at Alicia, but I knew there was no reason to suspect her. Tammy hated her; under no circumstances would Alicia give Tammy more ammunition to use against her. A part of me wondered if Tammy had just thrown a shot in the dark and guessed the truth. I shook my head. None of it made any sense.
“Okay, so here’s the deal.” I sat down next to Alicia but the adrenaline surging through my body made it impossible to sit still. I stood back up again. I tended to think better when I was moving, anyway. “Tammy clearly has it out for you. I have no idea why. I know she doesn’t look it or act it, but under the really tough exterior she gives off, she’s not that strong. She’s actually insecure.”
I wondered how much I should tell Alicia. Buying some time to think, I walked over to the bar and poured myself a glass of whiskey, straight, and asked Alicia if she wanted something.
“Could you make me a margarita?” she asked. “It’ll help take the edge off.”
I made her a margarita and stirred it, then dropped in a little extra tequila. Alicia was upset, just as upset as I was, but for entirely different reasons. I didn’t know which of us would look worse: me for paying for sex, or her for getting paid for it. I took a long swallow of my whiskey and continued.
“Tammy is really overprotective. It might sound weird, but our group of friends is all she has. I think that getting included in our group was the first real taste of a family she’d known in a long time.” I paused, thinking of how similar my situation was to Tammy’s. With my parents divorced, and my sister living abroad for the past five years, the Diamond Club was sort of like my family, too. I shook away the thought—I needed to focus on Tammy, now. “So she’s been here since the beginning, since the group formed during our senior year of college. That makes Tammy a kind of alpha female, if you will, and very territorial and protective. But she’s also very easily threatened. It’s a bad combination. She gave both Reena and Lori a hard time, too, when they joined the group, but they had the advantage of wealth that you don’t have. What I think happened is with you, Tammy smelled blood and she went for it—like a shark.”
“So what do we do about it? What can we do about it?” Alicia asked.
I could see that she was processing the information about Tammy but it was a lot for her to put in perspective. I knew, though, that the more information Alicia had about Tammy, the better equipped she would be to deal with anything Tammy threw at her.
“We have to do whatever we can to keep this secret from getting out,” I stressed. “The timing couldn’t be worse on this. I have a gala coming up in just a few weeks and I need to have my full attention on that. I can’t have any bad press or any ridiculousness from the club touch the gala or it’ll ruin my business.”
I couldn’t believe it; the more I thought about the potential fallout from this, the worse it seemed to get. My company, Solas Enterprises, was hosting an event designed to bring like-minded companies together in the hopes of making greater business connections. But it was more than just a networking party; I was hoping to gather some investments and possibly a new partner.
“We have to convince everyone it’s a rumor,” Alicia said slowly, formulating a plan. “The only two people who know for certain that it’s fact are you and me. If neither of us admits to it, then the rumor dies a natural death.”
I watched her as she thought, loving the way she gently bit her lower lip and gazed at me. Her shirt fell open as she leaned forward to take a sip of her margarita, and my body began to feel the seeds of arousal.
“The best way for us to convince them it’s a lie,” she concluded, “is to convince them all that we’re truly in love.”
I looked at her. I wondered if she could tell by my expression how I felt about her. I tried to read hers, but she was too focused on the plan, on her thoughts, to betray any emotion about me either way. It wouldn’t be hard for me to pretend I had real feelings for her—not that I could ever actually admit that to her. I couldn’t risk finding out that she didn’t like me the same way and that she was just in it for the money. It would be like my humiliation with Isabella all over again. Besides, if I told her that I had feelings for her, she might end the deal, and then I’d be completely fucked.
“All of this reminds me,” I said, grabbing my wallet from my back pocket, “I have some money for you.”
I handed a narrow envelope to her and thought I saw her hesitate before taking it. She looked up at me, her eyes unreadable, and I pushed it toward her. She accepted it without looking at the bills inside, and put it in her pocket.
“Thanks,” she mumbled. “Okay, let’s figure out our plan.”
The way she was looking at me, I could almost imagine that she liked me. But, of course, she was only looking out for her best interests. No girl wanted to be called out in public as a prostitute.
“You need to find out from the girls where Tammy got her information,” I said. “Can you confront Tammy on it? I mean, don’t make a big deal out of it; I don’t want you to get further up on her shit list, but we really do need to find out, and I don’t think she’ll tell me anything.”
“Sure. She already hates me; I doubt I could do anything more to piss her off.” Alicia looked glum.
“Listen, you didn’t fail here; you never had a chance with Tammy, and I should have known that. I just didn’t want to believe it because I really wanted—want—this to work.” I continued to pace. “Let’s get on with the plan. So, you’ll talk to Tammy.”
“I’ll try to appeal to her sense of territory,” Alicia said. “I’ll just ask her to stop. I’ll tell her that it’s hurting you; she doesn’t care about me, but she does care about you. I’ll tell her that it’s simply not true.” Her eyes were full of indignation, and I could tell that she was far more upset on the inside than she was revealing.
“That’s a good idea,” I agreed. “She might listen. If she comes to me after you talk to her, I’ll confirm, without mentioning this conversation, that the rumor is false—no matter where she heard it or who she heard it from. I’ll tell her I’m in love with you.” The words seemed to resonate in my body, and I thought I saw a shift in her eyes, but it was gone before I could even try to interpret it.
“Shake on it?” Alicia stood and held out her hand. “We’re officially partners in crime.”
I shook her hand and as I did the warm softness of her skin pushed through me. I wanted nothing more than to kiss her, to take her to bed, to make love to her. But she wasn’t on the clock.
“Well, I guess I should go,” she said.
Did I read hesitation on her face, in the way she stood up so slowly?
No, it was just the whiskey, messing with me. “Yeah,” I said, feeling like I was choking. “Goodnight.”
I walked her to the door. “You okay to drive?” I asked.
She was fine, of course. We’d been talking for a while, and she’d barely had two sips of her drink. “Sure,” she said, smiling. “Thanks.”
She stepped out the door. I couldn’t stand it. “Text me when you get home, okay?”
“Okay, Mom,” she said, laughing.
I tried to watch some TV and take my mind off of everything happening. It was Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, and I thought that the Diamond Club’s next adventure should maybe be deep-sea diving, something involving a shark cage. But thoughts about Alicia kept flooding through my mind.
A half hour later, my phone buzzed, signaling a text. Home safe and sound, Mom. I smiled, but immediately felt a hollow place inside. Alicia could never love me. The only girls who have ever dated me had been more interested in my things than in me—Isabella was the perfect example. Alicia was a hardworking, ambitious girl who was only doing this for the money. Any sensible person would. Why should she be any different?