“You can at least…” Her voice trailed off as she saw the look on my face. “Fine, don’t contact him.”

“There’s just no point,” I said.

“Yeah.” She nodded and grabbed the bottle of wine and filled up the glasses. “Here you go,” she said as she handed me a glass. “You should call Bob, see what job he has for you. It might help to get out of the house.”

“Instead of sitting here and bothering you, you mean?” I laughed.

“You’re not bothering me!” she exclaimed. “This is your house, Eliza.”

“Girl, you know this is your home as well and you’re right, I might as well see what job Bob has for me. Maybe it will pay for a nice spa trip.”

“Spa trip?” Lacey raised an eyebrow.

“A day trip at least.” I giggled. “I really want a mud bath and a massage.”

‘Yeah, that would be cool,” she said and stretched. “A deep tissue massage from some guy called Brody with big muscles and strong hands.” She moaned and closed her eyes. “And he’ll knead all my stress away. Oh, I can feel it now. And I’ll be naked and he’ll massage every part of my body. In an appropriate way, of course. And then he’ll scrub me down with Dead Sea salt and exfoliate my skin and then he’ll turn me over and—”

“Um, Lacey, is this a scene for your book or for your real sex life?” I asked her, grinning.

“What?” she said as she opened her eyes, her face slightly flushed.

“Lacey, you’re not going to a day spa to have an orgasm. You need to find a boyfriend.”

“I know,” she groaned. “Writing this book is getting me all hot and bothered and what do I have? Nothing!”

“You have Magnus.”

“Magnus?” She frowned. “Who the fuck is Magnus?”

“That dildo I gave you in college?”

“That ten-inch dildo you gave me?” She burst out laughing. “You did not seriously think that I was going to be using that thing. Magnus is in my closet at home.”

“Sad, poor Magnus.”

“Poor me, you mean.” She laughed and I joined her. “We need to go out and try to meet some guys.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I guess so.”

“When you’re ready, anyway,” she said.

“I can still be your wingwoman,” I said and grinned. “Hold on, let me go and call Bob and I’ll be right back. Maybe we can go out this weekend.”

“Yeah, that would be cool.” She grinned up at me eagerly. “We can go dancing…or maybe not dancing,” she said sheepishly, and I rolled my eyes as I walked out of the room. Lacey was going to want to go dancing, no matter what she said. That was one of our go-to girls nights out. We both loved to shake our asses to Top 40 pop and hip-hop, and there was nothing like getting drunk and flirting with random guys. It was probably long overdue that we should go out and party and have some fun.

I called Bob’s number and waited for him to pick up the phone. Our last conversation hadn’t been pleasant. I’d shouted at him and he’d told me that I was unprofessional and that I was fired. Of course, he hadn’t meant it. He’d been calling me every day for the last month begging me to come back to work for him. He needed me more than I needed him. I was the only one that was willing to put up with his bullshit pay and shady jobs.

“Elizabeth,” he said, his voice exuberant as he answered the phone. “So good to hear from you,” he said, sounding like a happy uncle hearing from his favorite niece.

“Hi Bob,” I said, already losing patience with him. “I’m just returning your call. What’s up?”

“I had a request for you.”

“A request for me?” I said, my heart beating fast as I grew hopeful.

“Well, not you in particular.” His tone changed. “Just a pretty young woman.”

“And I’m the only one that fit the bill, huh?”

“It pays a grand a week.”

“A grand a week?” I said, my eyes widening. “And what do I have to do for the grand? Fuck him every night?”

“Elizabeth!” he said, sounding shocked. “You know I would never ask you to do a job like that.”

“Uh huh,” I said and rolled my eyes. “What’s the job?”

“There’s this guy. He wants to hire you to pretend to be his girlfriend.”

“Uh huh,” I said and started laughing. “Bob, you just told me you wouldn’t hire me to do a job like this.”

“It’s not what you think. He wants to make a girl jealous. That’s his purpose. He’s in love with someone else. He wants her to think she has some competition.”

“Excuse my language, but what the fuck?” I was annoyed. “That’s ridiculous. He likes someone, yet he’s hiring a fake girlfriend.”

“I guess he wants to make sure that this girl is the one,” Bob said. “Look, I don’t bloody know what’s going on, but I met the guy and he seems legit. And he seems to really love this girl.”

“He loves this girl and instead of telling her, he’s hiring a fake girlfriend?”

“I can’t tell you why people do what they do,” Bob said. “But this guy is a lawyer and I think he’s legit.”

“Uh huh.” I frowned. “Anything else you wanted to ask me, Bob? Because I’m about to hang up on you, and I’m telling you that I’m not taking this job.”