Page 26 of The Player + The Pact = I Do

“We have a month until the awards ceremony.”

A month? It’s all I can do to keep seated and not race out of the office, pack up my shit, and start searching LinkedIn for other jobs. There’s no way I can live with him for a month.

Can I?

For the job I’ve always wanted? To make my mom proud? To show her girls like her and me can do anything we set our minds to, just like she always told me?

I remember the last time my dad left. I was old enough to understand that we didn’t have much money and it was going to be difficult financially for us. Looking back, she must have been terrified that she wasn’t going to be able to make ends meet. But she did what she always did—she made it work. And that’s what I have to do now.

“A month,” I say. “And we break up right after the awards ceremony?”

“Maybe you go back to your place because you need some space. But the engagement’s still on for a couple of weeks.”

“But wouldn’t I have sublet my apartment?” I’m trying to find flaws in the plan, because I want to know what I’m getting myself into from the get-go.

Leo looks puzzled. “I don’t know how to tell you this,but I’m rich as fuck. Why would you need to sublet your apartment?”

“Okay,” I say. “I’ll move in over the weekend. You have a separate bedroom, right?”

“I have four guest bedrooms. You’re welcome to any of them. Or all of them.”

“Because, like, there’s not going to be a reason to share a bed, is there?”

“I can’t think of one,” he says.

He’s not getting it. I’m not talking about sharing a bed. I’m trying to say to him that sex isn’t part of the deal. He hasn’t given me any reason to think thathethinks it is, but I need to be sure before I move my stuff into his place.

“Because this is a strictly professional relationship. There’s no… like the engagement isn’t, you know… you don’t have any physical expectations.”

His eyes grow saucer-wide and his mouth drops open. “No,” he says hurriedly. “I’m not expecting anything physical from you.”

It’s not that I’m disappointed—I’m definitely not. Leo Hart is exactly the kind of guy I don’t want to date, or get engaged to, but he was a little too effusive in his reply.

Maybe he sees my conflicted feelings, because he adds, “Not because you’re not attractive, it’s just?—”

I cut him off with a groan. “No, don’t say anything more. It will only get more awkward. Let’s leave it at we’re going to pretend to be engaged until just after the awards ceremony, but we’re not going to have sex.”

“Ever,” he says, relief spilling out of him. “Guaranteed.”

“Perfect,” I say, my tone a little tighter than normal.

ELEVEN

Jules

I know this is all for show and it’s not like I expected anything else, but moving myself into my fiancé’s apartment without my fiancé feels a little weird. Since I stepped through the front door, I’ve felt like I’m somewhere I shouldn’t be. All of a sudden, the fact that we met before I interviewed to be his assistant feels like a big deal. Maybe it’s because being in his apartment feels like he’s showing me his secrets while I’m keeping secrets of my own.

I’m already firm friends with the receptionists at Leo’s building. I’ve explained I’m moving in and that I’m his girlfriend. Thankfully, they didn’t roll their eyes and comment, “Not another one.” I don’t know if Leo has lived with someone before. Maybe he’s lived with a harem of women.

The truth is, I don’t need to know. I shouldn’t care. I just need to focus on me and the next month. The Mayfair isn’t going to know what hit it.

I tip the moving guys I hired on Leo’s dime to haul the dozen boxes I filled, then shut the door. I haven’t been in theapartment with Leo yet. He just handed me his keys, I arranged copies, and now here I am. Not exactly how moving in with a new guy would normally go, I imagine, but there’s nothing normal about our situation.

Everything of mine from New Jersey is piled in the entranceway. It’s difficult to get through to the living space, but I need to choose a bedroom before I start moving any boxes.

The first thing that comes into view is Leo’s huge TV screen. I eye-roll hard. No doubt he likes his sports and his porn big. Giant television aside, the apartment is a little more low-key than I expected. It’s big and it’s in a great location, so it must be worth a fortune, but it’s not fancy. There’s no expensive art on the walls and there’s almost not enough furniture to fill the place. What’s here doesn’t preciselyfit. Some of it looks a little small, like it wasn’t purchased for this space specifically.

Which, come to think of it, is a little surprising. Leo knows every interior designer in New York City, and I’ve heard him on the phone to people talking about design concepts for his build-outs—most recently New River. He’s got very clear ideas about what he wants for the interiors of the place.

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