Page 25 of Cakewalk
“So, as long as you can drive here, then it’s a yes?”
“A yes to the trial. But how do I get there? We don’t exactly have Uber here, and I can’t afford—”
“I’ll have a rental car dropped off for you. How about you begin Monday?” It was Friday now, so that’d give her the weekend to think it over, which I figured was fair.
Another long pause. “Just remember, this will be very temporary unless you can somehow convince me that all those articles about you are wrong. I don’t care if you pay me a gazillion dollars. If you can’t convince me, then I can’t convince the town, I can’t convince my family, and I’ll end up excommunicated. No money’s worth that to me.”
“The second you get a bad feeling, you can stop, and you can tell everybody that you weren’treallyworking for me. You simply used your wiles on me to get direct access to damning evidence that can bring me down. Tell them that had been your plan all along. But I promise you, you’ll see that this entire operation is clean.”
“All right. Just know something. If it all turns out squeaky clean…”
“What?”
“I won’t be caught screwing my boss.”
I shrugged, as if she could see me. “Okay. I promise you won’t getcaught.”
“I won’t do it at all!”
“Was it that bad?” I asked, knowing she damn well liked it.
“I mean, it was good. Like,reallygood, but I can’t ever do that again. I think we both got caught up in our… our shared dry spell, but now it’s all out of our system. Right?”
Hardly. “Sure, Jade.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“You don’t either.”
Yet another sigh. “Okay, I’ll see you Monday. You know the terms we’ve agreed to, and Iamholding you to them.”
“Of course. I look forward to it.”To the sweet torture of you beside me.
With that, I gave her directions to my makeshift office, and we hung up.
* * *
By that Monday,I had everything printed up that I thought Jade might want to look over. The bookkeeping, the business plan and mission statement, the contracts, some signed, some still in the works. I wasn’t sure how much more transparent I could be.
She arrived at six in the brand new BMW rental I had ordered for her over the weekend. She stepped out of it, wearing heels and a skirt and top that made her look like pure sex. I clenched my fists, trying to fight back the growing pulse against my pants.
Jade somehow looked gorgeous and awkward at the same time as she walked carefully down the dirt path to the temporary trailer.
“Not used to heels?” I commented, trying to act casual even though she was killing me.
“Yeah. And I swear the turn signal in that car is broken. I got honked at two times. Two! Nobody honks around here.”
I scratched my chin. “Maybe I should have ordered you something more humble.”
“You think?” She pulled out the key fob and locked it from afar. “I liked the seats, though. I didn’t know seats could have built-in cooling.”
“Well, don’t get too used to luxury. This trailer only has one real office chair, and the other seating accommodation is a cooler.”
She peeked over my shoulder. “You don’t even have a fridge in there?”
I shook my head and opened up the flimsy screen door. “I didn’t see the point in fancier accommodations, considering what I got used to. You know, in prison. But I’ll upgrade things once everything is locked in. And locking it in is what you’re going to be helping me with.”
Jade looked up at me with her big hazel eyes. “Don’t count on it yet. Open up the books.”
