“Well, you’ll have to tell them now because I’m not coming.”
“How much do you have left to save for college? Give me the ballpark. I want to hire you as an actress. Two dates. One to come for the meal with H and Amelia, and then a further date at my club at the three month mark so I win the bet. Name your price.”
“So I go on two dates with you and then I don’t need to come to Abandon anymore and can quit my movie career?”
“That’s correct. Add in the living expenses for while you go to college. You’re a brilliant actress and worth every penny.”
“I want two hundred thousand dollars.” I goaded him, waiting for his jaw to slacken.
“Done.” He held out his hand. “I’ll get Ashley to deposit the money in your account in an hour.”
“What if I disappear with it?” I said.
“You won’t. I trust you, and if you did, well you win some you lose some.”
“Well, I guess two hundred grand is a drop in the ocean to a billionaire.” I said, trying to stop my face forming a grimace.
He smiled. “Maybe a small sailboat dropped in the ocean?”
I shook his hand. “Deal. Let me know where I need to be and when.”
Aidan looked at me with regret. “I really hope we can be friends again.” He said.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Aidan, I don’t know if that’s possible anymore.” I replied honestly.
He nodded and began to walk away. “Well, take care. I’ll text you with the date and time of the meal. In the meantime, I hope everything keeps going well with you and your new girlfriend.”
“Yeah, me too.” I told him. But, I didn’t wish him luck with Ember because I was bitter and twisted and hoped it went to shit. Instead I went inside, waited for the money to hit my bank account and then I quit both my jobs. I spent the following couple days in a heap of despair having my own pity party for one. I should have been feeling joy that I would finally be able to attend college and get the career I’d dreamed about. But I’d not earned it the way I’d wanted to, on my own terms. Also, I kept finding myself thinking about Aidan fucking Hall. He’d just paid for my services and ruined our friendship in one fell swoop, yet my mind wouldn’t quit picturing us in bed together.
And it wasn’t going to get any better seeing as I had two fake dates booked with him.
Chapter 9
Aidan
I was a fucking mess. If it wasn’t for Abandon needing me right now as the club settled into its new identity, I would have gone on vacation and left all this shit behind me. My body had decided it was in love with Lori. Either that or I had a major crush that was way out of control. It didn’t help that my cock had been buried deep inside her.
But she couldn’t ever be mine.
Is that why I wanted her so damn much?
I’d kept dates with Ember at a purely platonic level, something she was becoming impatient with. I knew that soon I was going to get an ultimatum. What would I do? I liked Ember a lot, but she wasn’t Lori. But I couldn’t have Lori, so did I keep trying with Ember?
Such a fucking mess.
And now I’d fucked up even more by pushing Lori away as a friend and then trying to apologize and instead offering to pay her for her services. With the sex and the acting I’d basically hired my own porn actress. I’d mixed my personal and professional life together which was my biggest resolution for me NOT to do and lost my friendship. Lori’s now dulled eyes clearly displayed that anything she’d admired in me as a friend was long gone. I’d used her, and friends didn’t do that.
There were two chances left. Two dates in which to get her back as a friend. Having her as a friend was better than not having her in my life at all. Eventually my brain would realize that it couldn’t be in love with her and I’d move on. I realized at that point that I was going to have to end things with Ember. If I liked her enough, surely Lori would have faded to the back of my mind? I’d take her for dinner again in the next few days and break it to her face to face. She deserved that much.
The day of the double date at H and Amelia’s came around and I went to pick up Lori from her home. She came out wearing a tight pair of black skinny jeans and a white off the shoulder sweater. Her hair was in a side ponytail. She looked stunning, and I wanted to drop to my knees and beg God to change the world and make her mine.
“Hey. You look great.” I told her.
“Thanks. Do I look the part of a girlfriend, okay?” She replied curtly.
She might as well have sliced me with a knife. It cut deep.
The journey to H’s passed in relative silence, something I was unaccustomed to with Lori. Yet the minute the door opened, she was all smiles, like the car journey had never happened. Tactile, leaning over to keep giving me little kisses. She was determined to earn her acting money. It looked completely legitimate to me. And that made me feel even worse. Now I was lying to my friends too. The only reason I didn’t call quits on the whole thing was because Eli needed to fucking well ask that woman out and if I had to cheat to get it to happen, I would because the guy was amazing and deserved his own happiness. Plus there was no way I was taking out that bitch of a daughter of his. I’d never be rid of the money-hungry leech (her own father’s name for her).