Eric and I were the only two people in the bar. Franky looked at me as he handed Eric a bottle of beer. “Nothing for you?”

“No.”

“This has got to be a first.”

“My stomach is killing me. I think last night’s catching up with me. That, and Kelli coming in and bitching at me at 8:00.”

The corner of his mouth was curled into a smirk. “I can’t believe you approached her with that idea.”

“I couldn’t believe it when she agreed,” I said. “It’ll make for good drama, though. I think the viewers will believe it, and it’ll drive them crazy. They’ll feel sorry for me, and they’ll hate him.”

“I always wondered just how much of these shows are reality, and how much is bullshit,” he said. “Now I know.”

Eric glanced at me. “They’ll hate me?”

They would hate him, but I shouldn’t have said anything. Having him second guess our plan would wreak havoc on its believability.

“I was kidding. They’ll be sad that we didn’t hook up, but just because they’re attached to me already. By the time the segments that include you are over?” I raised my eyebrows. “You’ll get so many likes on your Instagram and Twitter that--”

“I don’t have either of those.”

“Your phone will be blowing up.”

He took a leisurely drink of beer. “How are they going to get my number?”

I did the mental eye roll thing, and hoped it wasn’t obvious. I couldn’t help but wonder how he’d ever got laid without the assistance of others.

“I’m sure this won’t be the only time Kelli’s had to deal with fans going wild over someone,” I said. “We’ll figure out a way to get it to them.”

“Who’s them?” Franky asked.

I shot Franky the stink eye. “His fans.”

He scratched the sides of his head with his fingertips and gave me a wild-eyed look. “Oh. Yeah. There’ll be plenty of those.”

I let my glare soak in for a minute, and then looked at Eric. “So, you think you’re ready?”

“I’m always ready.” He raised his bottle of beer. “This is going to be pretty cool.”

I was beginning to think the opposite. If it got me closer to the end of the show, and in turn, closer to being with Franky, that was all that mattered. Although I enjoyed my time with Les, I could clearly see that spending two weeks with Eric was going to be nothing short of a disaster.

“It’ll be awesome,” I lied.

“So, how are we going to do this?” Franky asked.

“I’m open for suggestions,” I said. “I thought maybe you could help us find girls who were interested.”

He leaned against the edge of the bar. “Didn’t sound like the thing with Karen went too well. I don’t know if--”

“I thought it went pretty good,” Eric said. “Did she say something to you?”

Franky looked at me. I raised my hand to the side of my face, hoping to shield it from Eric’s view.

I shot Franky a glare.

Franky’s eyes darted to Eric. “No,” he said, all but choking on the word. “Lou said she wasn’t there long. Hell, with that cock of yours stretching her out, she was probably done after a few minutes though, huh?”

“She said she had a bunch of orgasms,” Eric said. “I think it wore her out.”

Franky chuckled a fake laugh. “I bet it did.”

“She had a nice--” Eric wagged his eyebrows.

Franky widened his eyes. “Pussy? Karen? She had a nice pussy?”

Eric grinned. “Uh huh.”

I almost barfed.

“I guess that’s a plus,” Franky said.

Franky’s eyes shot to me. He held my gaze for a minute, and then let out a long sigh. “Well, it’s Saturday. In another hour we’ll be busy, and we’ll stay that way until late. All we can do is see who comes in, and go from there.”

“Don’t forget to use the show as a lure,” I said. “And they have to think that I don’t know about it. If they think I do, it’ll never work.”

“Are you leaving now, or are you going to wait a while?” Franky asked.

I wrinkled my brow and stared. “Huh?”

He stepped away from the bar and crossed his arms. “How in the hell am I going to convince someone to go with him to the house – with you sitting here – and make them believe that you don’t know what’s going on?”

I hadn’t given it much thought. He was right. I was going to need to leave.

“Fine.” I looked at Eric. “I’ll be at the house.”

“Sounds good,” he said.

“Don’t forget. Once you get back there, be nice to them. Talk sweet and stuff. Tell them all kinds of heartwarming shit before you fuck them. And, you should get under the covers when you have sex, so Kelli can air it on the show.”

He grinned. “Okay.”

I wanted a more convincing response, but wasn’t surprised that I didn’t receive one. Convinced Eric was an idiot and there was no way our plan was going to work, I slid off the edge of the barstool and shook my head.

“I guess I’m leaving now.”

“We’ll get it all worked out,” Franky said. “Just give us a little time.”

“I’ll find something to do for the rest of the day,” I said. “I’ll see you guys later.”

One thing I didn’t want to do was drink. My stomach was in knots and the thought of a margarita made matters worse. For the first time in as long as I could recall, drinking wasn’t something I wanted to think about.

I took one last look at Franky and turned toward the door.

It seemed strange leaving Eric in the bar with Franky. If nothing else I could relax at the pool and get some sun.

I wondered if a nap might be a better idea, especially if I was going to be up late with the Nerd and Afro watching Eric fuck another barfly.

As I pulled the door closed behind me, I decided a nap beside the pool would solve all my problems.

At least until Eric got home.