Page 28 of Maybe You

He just shrugs easily like it’s no big deal, even though I suspect that tux probably cost so much money I don’t even really want to think about it.

“Plenty more where they came from,” he says.

I’m not going to argue. If he wants to ruin his obscenely expensive clothes by scrubbing the toilets, by all means, more power to him.

“So what was the charity?” I ask once we’ve both gotten to work again.

“Huh?” Sutton calls out from the bathroom.

“The charity,” I say in a louder voice. “What was it for?”

There’s a beat of silence, which makes me snort in disbelief.

“You don’t know?”

This is good. This is exactly the kind of unbelievable arrogance and a level of obnoxious privilege that will overshadow any thoughts of nice forearms.

“I do. Just give me a moment.” Another beat of silence follows that he presumably spends trying to figure out what kind of event he was attending. “I want to say heart disease prevention?” he finally says.

“Seriously?”

“In my defense, after a while, they all start to blend into one.”

I’m still frowning at the doorway of the bathroom when he comes out and peels off the rubber gloves.

He eyes me for a moment before he raises his brows at me. “Go on,” he says. “Lay it on me.”

“I don’t think I really like you right now,” I say slowly.

He tilts his head to the side, his expression completely unreadable as he quirks his brow at me.

“Was there a point when you did?”

“I’m not sure. I guess… you have your moments,” I mumble.

His lips twitch and twist into a small smile.

“A compliment if I’ve ever heard one.”

I don’t know what to say to that, and he’s silent for a long time afterward.

“You shouldn’t,” he finally says.

“Shouldn’t what?”

“Like me. Take my word for it. I’ll only screw you over in the long run.” He delivers those words with uncharacteristic gravitas.

It would probably do me some good to follow his advice. To be fair, nothing he said is new information. In a way, he’s just confirming what I already suspected. He’s a privileged asshole. The only difference from other privileged assholes is that he’s honest about it.

That’s the key difference and the main reason why there’s this idea that’s been slowly simmering on the backburner of my mind for several days now.

Because a brutally honest asshole might be exactly what I need.

SEVEN

Here’s a question: How do you ask a person to sleep with you?

It doesn’t sound like rocket science, but oh boy does it feel like it.

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