The Arrangement

She was a firecracker, I’d give her that. As ballsy as she was blonde and beautiful.

Either that, or she was full of shit. All talk no action.

I was determined to find out.

“So what can you offer me?” Kayleen asked, halfway through her second glass of wine. It was fun, watching her evolve. Seeing her grow bolder and more comfortable as the evening progressed. Part of it was the wine. The other part, well… I wasn’t so sure what it was.

“In so far as?”

She traced her finger lightly around the rim of her glass. It was a very feminine movement. Intentionally sensual.

“Well if I’m your girlfriend,” she said, putting a provocative emphasis on the last word, “exactly what should I expect?”

“All the things in the ad,” said Chase. “Fun, excitement, romance…”

“Sex,” I interjected bluntly, studying her reaction.

If she was thrown by the boldness of my statement, it sure didn’t show. I watched as Kayleen broke off a tiny square of cheese and slipped it into her mouth. Even that little act seemed overtly erotic.

“And I’d live here?”

Nathan nodded. “Full time. The bedroom at the end of the hall would be all yours.”

“All mine, huh?”

“Well, sure,” I said. “To share with whomever you wanted. Whenever you wanted.”

Beneath her thick black lashes, I saw her blue eyes glimmer. She looked so different now. So unlike the friendly, bubbly chef that prepared our food every Monday.

No, now she looked like a woman. She looked like one before of course, but now she had sex appeal. Her body, her curves… those cascading ringlets of lush blonde hair. The way she shifted from one hip to another. Even the way she tapped her long, painted fingernail on the side of her glass…

“Let me see the terms, then.”

We looked at each other, Chase and I. We were both surprised.

“You guys drew up some kind of agreement, right?”

I snickered. “How’d you know?”

“Oh, it’s not all that hard to figure out,” said Kayleen. “A couple of wordsmiths like you? You’d do something like that for sure.” She smirked and jerked her head at Chase. “Especially him. He’s the organizer. The note-taker. The—”

“Alright, alright,” Chase grinned. He pulled out his phone and punched something up on his screen, then passed it over to Kayleen.

I cracked another beer while she read, and even slid one Nathan’s way at his request. In the meantime, Kayleen’s eyes were locked on the glowing screen. Her face remained calm and impassive, like none of this was any big deal. Like she was reading a recipe, instead of scanning the terms of a very unorthodox, four-way relationship agr

eement.

“This isn’t bad,” she said at last. “It’s a start, anyway.”

“A start?”

“Well yeah. Some of this needs to be changed. The ‘stipend’ part, for one.” She shook her head firmly. “There’s no way I’m taking money from anyone for being their girlfriend.”

Nathan glanced at me and raised an eyebrow. I had to admit I was impressed.

“It’s not like that,” Chase said quickly. “It’s just that since you’ll be here a lot, and you’ll be entertained by us so often, there might not be any room for work or income.”

“Bullshit,” said Kayleen. “There’s always room for work and income.”