“You look so fucking handsome,” Maya says, resting her head on my shoulder.

I force myself to grin at her. She’s attractive, sure, but there’s an almost unbearable simplicity to her. Behind her nose piercing, dyed hair, and contrived wardrobe, she’s completely lacking confidence. I can feel her trying to attach herself to me, hoping that my success and initiative will come to define her.

My hand is on her thigh, and I run it up and slide my fingers across her wetness. My cum is still inside her. I slide a finger inside her, and she moans, which shuts her the fuck up. I can’t stand pillow talk. Pillow talk is for women and losers.

I finger her until she cums, and then I make her cum again until I think she’s tired enough to not talk again.

Once she’s done, I go into the bathroom and wash my hands.

I have to stay with her until Eric and Ruth break up, or until the contest winners are announced—whichever comes first.

Eric is so fucking honorable that he projects that sense of honor onto everyone else, me included. He thinks I will honor the terms of the bet like some kind of “gentleman” from a bygone era.

If he thought things through, he’d see the danger coming right for him. What do I get if I win the bet? I get to see Eric and Ruth publicly humiliated and disgraced. Yet if that is my goal, then I don’t need to wait until the contest to achieve that. I can humiliate them publicly right now. I only had to wait for them to gain enough of a public profile, and the recent brawl in Central Park has put them very much on the radar.

Maya is my pawn, and I’m ready to sacrifice her. There’s a big party tonight at the Fixed Gear, which will give me the opportunity to put my plan into motion. It would be ideal if Ruth were at the party, but based on what Maya has said, she almost never shows up for these things.

“Get dressed,” I snap to Maya.

She stretches and whines. “Why don’t we just stay in tonight and fuck?”

Simple girl.

“Get dressed,” I say, my voice even more commanding.

I’ve already established with her that I hate repeating myself, and I see the fear hit her.

She jumps out of bed. “Relax, I just need to slip a dress on. I won’t even wear panties or a bra.”

She smiles wide at me, as if that should somehow please me.

“Don’t be late,” I say.

I go into the living room and look out the window, surveying the skyline and the park. I can see Eric’s penthouse from here. I wonder if Ruth is there with him now. He’s trying way too hard to make me think he doesn’t care about her. I know better.

I still can’t believe he fell for the girl I picked out. He thinks I picked her because she was hopeless, but I saw the way he looked at her and knew. I knew I could ruin him, and I took the chance. I’m rarely wrong about these kinds of things, and my plans rarely fail. Eric will go down.

We work in the same office, ostensibly for the same “cooperative,” but it’s relatively common to make moves like this. Destroy someone within the cooperative, and you can acquire a large share of their assets. Publically shaming Eric won’t completely destroy him, but it’s likely he’ll lose a good chunk of clients, and I’ll be there to swoop in and eat them up.

“I’m ready,” Maya says, stretching and yawning behind me.

Her nipples are poking out through her dress, and her hair is barely combed.

“Everyone is going to be so jealous of me,” she says, looking me up and down.

I’m wearing a white shirt and blazer with no tie. My brown shoes are polished to a sheen, and I look so much better than Maya that it’s almost an injustice that I’ll have to have her dangling off my arm like some kind of embarrassing and crass fashion accessory.

I get my driver to take us downtown, and we arrive late enough that the shop is already packed with people. I see a huge crowd gathered around that idiot Fat Mike and his fat friend whose name I can’t even remember. They’re telling the story of what happened with Eric in the park, and everyone is laughing.

I scan the room discreetly, and I see that neither Eric or Ruth has showed, as expected. Still, I don’t need them here to put my plan into motion.

“Want a beer?” Maya asks.

“I want shots,” I say, forcing a smile.

I get us tequila shots, complete with limes and salt. Wilson is acting as bartender. The dirty counter where they put bike parts has been converted to a bar for the party.

I get three or four shots into Maya, but she decides she wants to stop drinking for a while. I push her against the wall, grab her ass, and jam my tongue down her throat. She drinks when she’s horny, and after I go into the bathroom to wash my hands clean of her, I come back out to see her taking another shot with Wilson. Good.

I look toward the door and see two women hanging up their coats. One is rather plain, but the other is striking. I find myself staring, and then it hits me: It’s Ruth.

She’s had some kind of major makeover done. If not for those glasses, I probably wouldn’t have recognized her from this far away. I see Maya with another shot, but I snatch it away from her and drink it myself.

I never would’ve imagined Ruth could clean up so well. She looks like a woman who is above this filthy bike shop party. She looks like someone who belongs with a billionaire.

“Is that Ruth?” Maya whispers into my ear.

I nod.

“God,” Maya says, “She looks good—amazing, actually. I’m actually like, totally happy for her.”

“You are?” I ask, “Why?”

My voice comes out much more angry than I intended. I’m losing my cool.

Maya shrugs. “People deserve to be happy. I think Eric really likes her too.”

“Do you?” I ask. “Shows what you know.”

Her mouth drops open. “What do you mean?”

This was my plan all along. To tell Maya and hope she gets loose-lipped. Eric will know it came from me, but what Eric knows doesn’t matter. The important thing is that the rumor will spread like wildfire, and no one else will know that I was the one who started it. If my timing is right, it won’t come to a head until the party at Viktor Copeland’s. Ruth and Eric having it out right there in front of all the movers and shakers in New York... I get hard just thinking about it.

“Didn’t I already tell you?” I ask.

“Tell me what?” She says.

“Ha,” he says. “It must have been another woman I told. Eric and I made a bet.”

“A bet?” She asks. “What did you bet on?”

“Eric told me he could make any woman into someone worthy of New York’s Best Couple. I told him I didn’t believe, him, so he told me—and I quote—‘Pick the worst woman you can find, and I’ll win even with her.’”

Maya’s eyes widen. “You mean... you think Ruth was the worst? And Eric did too…”

“He just wants to win the bet,” I say, waving a hand. “He doesn’t really care about her. Obviously you can’t tell Ruth this.”

The way her eyes move away from me and toward Ruth tell me that she will tell Ruth. She considers Ruth a friend, and Maya is a generally guilty person. She is jealous of Ruth, and it’s coming partly to her as a relief that Eric made a mean-spirited bet, and that Maya is the only one who is really with a handsome billionaire.

“Let’s get some more shots,” Maya says, turning absently back toward me.

“Good call,” I say.

I notice that Ruth arrived alone. I need to make sure Eric isn’t coming. If he is, I want to get Maya out. I don’t want it all to explode tonight. No one important is here, and it would spoil all of my plans.

“Ruth,” I say, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You look incredible.”

She smiles nervously. “Thanks, Dmitri.”

“Where’s Eric?” I ask.

“He had to work late,” she says. “He couldn’t make it. This is Tracy.”

The nobody who is with her smiles, and I fake a smile and shake her hand. “Dmitri.”

“He’s dating Maya,” Ruth says.

“Oh,” Tracy says, visibly deflating.

“Well, uh, nice seeing you Dmitri,” Ruth says, “You going to the thing tomorrow?”

“Of course,” I say.

“That bathroom is the size of a closet,” a man says, walking toward us.

Dmitri elbows him. “This is my associate, Aiden.”