“Hey, lady!” she exclaims.
“Hey,” I mumble back.
“You didn’t return my call,” she says. “And I came by this morning. You weren’t in.”
I can feel myself flush with more guilt. “Right, I wasn’t at home today. I… I have a job…”
“You got a job?” she asks. “Well, say more!”
“It’s a long story. Tell you about it later?”
Her eyes go wide. “Oh my God!” She drops her voice to a whisper and says, “You accepted his contract, didn’t you?”
How the fuck did she guess so quickly? Am I that transparent? “Well—”
She looks shocked for a moment, but she composes herself quickly. “Are you sure about this?”
I nod. “The first day wasn’t so bad, at least.”
She leans in close and sniffs. “What are you doing?”
Her eyes narrow and a small smile plays across her lips. “You smell like a man.”
“Excuse me?”
“Did you fuck him?” she gasps.
I hate that she says it like that. Fuck him. Like what we did was cheap and salacious. But I don’t want to correct her in case she gets the wrong idea.
Though, looking at her expression now, it’s clear she’s already locked onto the wrong idea.
“I… that’s not quite—”
“You fucked him!” she squeals. “I knew there was something funny going on between the two of you. Did he initiate it or did you?”
“Freya… listen—”
“Oh my God, is he good in bed?” she asks. “What was it like? Tell me everything.”
“Listen, Chris is on his way over and I’m going to have to explain a few things to him. Can we talk about this another time?”
She frowns. “Urgh, his timing couldn’t be worse.”
“I’m the one who called him over.”
“Then your timing couldn’t be worse. I can’t believe he’s gonna get the details before I do.”
“First of all, he’s not getting details of anything. I’m just trying to explain to him why I decided to accept Anton’s ‘contract.’ After I tell him there’s a contract in the first place.”
She winces. “Oh boy, he’s not going to like this one bit.”
“I’ll just have to explain it to him calmly.”
“Great. And when you’re done, you can come explain it to me.”
I hesitate. “You think I’m crazy, too?”
“Completely,” she says with a smile. “But I’ve seen the man, so I can’t exactly blame you. I wonder what’s in it for him, though?”