I leaned back in my chair with confidence.
“Are they to you?” She looked genuinely surprised.
“You’re really flattering me here with your allegations to my character.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to do that. But you do have quite the reputation.”
“Huh.” I raised my eyebrows. “Tell me about this reputation that I have.”
“Well, the three tellers that were let go last month, all of them had this thing in common, you see,” she winked. The girl actually had the nerve to wink at me. “Well they had two things in common actually. An apparently mind-blowing night with you, and the ability to tell tales about it.”
“This is different, Aria.”
“I’m sure they all thought so too,” she snapped.
“I never made the proposition that I am going to make to you. Never had to, really. Trust me when I say that this really, truly is different.”
“Yeah, cause you’re like in love with me because of the conversations I have with our customers regarding my future as your wife.” She was laughing hysterically now.
She used the word love. That was a trigger.
“Look, Aria, I don’t want to mislead you. I don’t do relationships or romance or any of that bullshit. This is honestly 100 percent about me wanting to take your clothes off and have my fucking way with you.”
Her face erupted into flames and I could swear I saw her shiver as she started to speak. “I-”
“No, let me finish,” I stopped her. “There is no question that I want your body and hope that you will willingly give that to me at some point. But I am not offering to buy your body. Even I am not that much of a scumbag, despite this reputation I seem to have accumulated around here. I don’t need to buy your body when there is plenty of ass that
I could get with the snap of my fingers.”
“Then what are you offering?” She looked utterly confused.
“I am offering to buy your time.”
“What?” She looked like I had just said that I was flying out to Mars tomorrow.
I moved the rose to the side and handed her a copy of the document I had drafted.
“This is my offer: I will pay off your mother’s hospital bills in six installments, one for every month you spend dating me.”
Her mouth was open. “What do you mean dating you?”
“What the hell do you think it means? A guy and a girl dress up and go places together. Dinners, movies, parties, whatever they like. At the end of the night there is usually some kissing and usually something more.”
She rolled her eyes. Damn. She was ballsy with her own boss. “Thanks for the pop-culture lesson, but I am aware of how dating works. I may have even experienced it in practice here and there.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at her acting feisty.
“Then does that sound like something you’re interested in?” Things were starting to look positive on that front.
“Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?”
What? Fuck no. Why would there be a legal document in your hand if that was what I was asking? I thought she was smarter than that.
“Not exactly,” I said with caution. My next words would make or break the deal. “I am asking you to go on dates with me whenever I ask and spend time with me on my schedule for the next six months. You know what I wish to accomplish in that time, but that is not a requirement in this deal. If at no point in those six months you feel like you want to sleep with me, then hey, I tried, and we part ways. If you do, then I get what I wanted. In either case you get what you need, which is money to pay for your mother’s surgery. It’s a win-win for you any way you look at it, but quite the risk for me because there is no guarantee that I will get what I want. A risk I am willing to take.”
I also needed a date for upcoming events I had to attend to keep the businessman’s wives occupied while I tried to secure important deals. She didn’t need to know that. She looked at me and the document back and forth a few times, her mouth agape. She finally burst out laughing.
“You’re joking. Is it April first?” She looked behind her as though expecting to find an answer there. “Are there cameras around here? I’m being pranked.”